grantgoodes wrote:
The 180/4 APO-Lanthar is worth seeking out, though with only about 700 F-mount copies ever made, it's a unicorn lens (with unicorn prices, alas). It is a semi-macro (focuses down to 1:4), and super-compact (barely bigger than the 105/2.5). The only complaints are that the focusing is a bit twitchy close to infinity (probably because of the 350 degree focus throw to reach 1:4), and flares pretty easily (I adopted the large HN-30 hood from the Micro-Nikkor 200/4D, rather than the stubby little matching hood, which helps).
BLLX wrote:
I was just reading about it - very cool lens 👍
I don't think I've ever seen one for sale
They mostly show up on eBay ( there are 10 F-mount copies on sale right now),usually from Japanese sellers, and prices are almost always North of $US1000. I got mine in a fluke: A Canadian camera vendor had bought a NIB w. hood example from a European live auction, and just flipped it for what they paid for it (which was much less than the going price). This was after years of looking. Prices for the 180 APO-Lanthar seem to be going up while the 125/2.5 APO-Lanthar seem to be going down (probably because the later lens has a newer almost-equivalent replacement). I bought the 125/2.5 many years ago, and it quickly became my standard macro telephoto (easily out-performing my Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8). All these Voigtländer/Cosina APO-Lanthars are wonderous lenses, but mechanically delicate and often suffer from fungus, so you have to be careful when buying one, but I'm happy with my two examples.
grantgoodes wrote:
The 180/4 APO-Lanthar is worth seeking out, though with only about 700 F-mount copies ever made, it's a unicorn lens (with unicorn prices, alas). It is a semi-macro (focuses down to 1:4), and super-compact (barely bigger than the 105/2.5). The only complaints are that the focusing is a bit twitchy close to infinity (probably because of the 350 degree focus throw to reach 1:4), and flares pretty easily (I adopted the large HN-30 hood from the Micro-Nikkor 200/4D, rather than the stubby little matching hood, which helps).
BLLX wrote:
I was just reading about it - very cool lens 👍
I don't think I've ever seen one for sale
They mostly show up on eBay, usually from Japanese sellers, and prices are almost always North of $US1000. I got mine in a fluke: A Canadian camera vendor had bought a NIB w. hood example from a European auction, and just flipped it for what they paid for it (which was much less than the going price). This was after years of looking. Prices for the 180 APO-Lanthar seem to be going up while the 125/2.5 APO-Lanthar seem to be going down (probably because the later lens has a newer almost-equivalent replacement). I bought the 125/2.5 many years ago, and it quickly became my standard macro telephoto (easily out-performing my Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8). All these Voigtländer/Cosina APO-Lanthars are wonderous lenses, but mechanically delicate and often suffer from fungus, so you have to be careful when buying one, but I'm happy with my two examples.
grantgoodes wrote:
The 180/4 APO-Lanthar is worth seeking out, though with only about 700 F-mount copies ever made, it's a unicorn lens (with unicorn prices, alas). It is a semi-macro (focuses down to 1:4), and super-compact (barely bigger than the 105/2.5). The only complaints are that the focusing is a bit twitchy close to infinity (probably because of the 350 degree focus throw to reach 1:4), and flares pretty easily (I adopted the large HN-30 hood from the Micro-Nikkor 200/4D, rather than the stubby little matching hood, which helps).
BLLX wrote:
I was just reading about it - very cool lens 👍
I don't think I've ever seen one for sale
They mostly show up on eBay, usually from Japanese sellers, and prices are almost always North of $US1000. I got mine in a fluke: A Canadian camera vendor had bought a NIB w. hood example from a European auction, and just flipped it for what they paid for it (which was much less than the going price). This was after years of looking. Prices for the 180 APO-Lanthar seem to be going up while the 125/2.5 APO-Lanthar seem to be going down (probably because the later lens has a newer almost-equivalent replacement). I bought the 125/2.5 many years ago, and it quickly became my standard macro telephoto (easily out-performing my Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8). All these Voigtländer/Cosina APO-Lanthars are wonderous lenses, but mechanically delicate and often suffer from fungus, so you have to be careful when buying one, but I'm happy with my two examples.
