Comparing Voigtländer Apo-Lanthar lenses and Tamron 180/2.5

Abbazz · Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 1098 Location: Jakarta

Here are a few shots that I took today to compare the two Voigtländer Apo-Lanthar lenses with the Tamron SP 180/2.5. Of course, these are straight from the camera, only resized with no sharpening or local contrast enhancement. The Tamron has internal focusing, so the focal length varies when focusing. At close range, the focal length of the lens diminues sensibly, as you can see on the following pictures (pictures for the three lenses were taken from the same point):

Voigtländer 125/2.5 at f/2.5

Tamron SP 180/2.5 at f/2.5

Voigtländer 125/2.5 at f/5.6

Tamron SP 180/2.5 at f/5.6

Voigtländer 180/4 at f/5.6

Voigtländer 125/2.5 at f/5.6

Tamron SP 180/2.5 at f/5.6

Voigtländer 180/4 at f/5.6

All three lenses have a very similar rendering with good contrast, nice bokeh and very high resolution over the whole frame, even wide open.

Then, I shot a white mosquito net to try to force the lenses to exhibit some chromatic aberrations. The Tamron lens is the worse in this regard (quite a lot of yellow/blue fringing at f/2.5), the Voigländer 125/2.5 is better (at f/2.5) and the 180/4 is perfect with no trace of aberrations (at f/4.0). Here's the upper left corner of the frame for the three lenses:

Voigtländer 125/2.5 at f/2.5

Tamron SP 180/2.5 at f/2.5

Voigtländer 180/4 at f/4.0

And now, let's go for the chromatic aberration torture test. A crumpled ball of aluminum foil brightly lit is the best mean to force a lens to produce some purple fringing when used on a digital camera. This time again, the Voigtländer 180/4 is totally free from purple fringing, the 125/2.5 coming next and the Tamron last. Here are the pictures:

Voigtländer 125/2.5 at f/2.5

Tamron SP 180/2.5 at f/2.5

Voigtländer 180/4 at f/4.0

Cheers,

Abbazz

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I think there is really not much possibility of arguing there: the Voigtlaender lens performance is clearly superior especially for the absence of optical defekts.
Of course as always with lenses there is the individual factor so one person may still prefer the Tamron which seems to me to give a more "film-like" output.
I have to say that I am impressed by the resolving power of the Voigtlaender lens. I think that the Tamron shows higher contrast, while the Voigtlaender resolves much more detail - and for this characteristic, it is better suited for today's digital cameras.

Frankly, I am in awe in front of these Voigtlaenders.

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