CV Super Wide Heliar f4.5 15mm on Ricoh GXR M

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

some fairly recent pics

around Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

at Pashupatinath temple during Teej, Kathmandu

Teej by andreas, on Flickr

in Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok by andreas, on Flickr

south Thailand, near Lang Suan

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

in the 'Mostviertel', Austria

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

a personal note:
right now discussions about how well the new Sony A7 and A7r FF cameras will work with RF wide angle lenses are starting.
Of course I am very interested in these cameras. I have been longing for a FF to have better wide angle performance with my manual lenses and to be able to see lenses made for 35mm film in their 'full glory'. I prefer my camera to be small and light, first used Pentax dSLR and when APS-C mirrorless cams came to the market first got NEX5N and later Ricoh GXR M. Turned out that I prefer their EVF and aids for manual focusing and soon found that on these cameras RF lenses make much a better fit than SLR lenses which I hardly have been using since.
The 15mm Heliar on GXR M gives me the wide angle performance I had been lacking. This combination ( and to a minor extent the cheap but good AF Sigma f2.8/19mm on my NEX and the CV Skopar f4/25mm ) made big part of my wish for a FF obsolete. At least it will give me patience to not be an early adaptor Wink

cheers,
andreas

note: edited April 2016 to repost the photos, original photos had disappeared

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

WOW Andreas, very nice shots!
#1 is amazing!!

sichko · Joined: 20 Jun 2008 Posts: 2475 Location: South West UK

Great pictures.

Alex H · Joined: 25 Dec 2011 Posts: 344

I totally agree with Klaus about #1!

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7554 Location: Hong Kong

#1 is one of the very good example to show how to use a wide angle.

About the performance of the VM15 on NEX FF, you can take a look at this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronscheffler/tags/voigtlandersuperwideheliar15mmf45asphericalm/

The VM12 seems works better than the VM15...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronscheffler/tags/voigtlanderultrawideheliar12mmf56asphericalltm/

Rick1779 · Expire: 2014-06-06

One of my favorite lens Wink

great series

Rick1779 · Expire: 2014-06-06

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you very much guys for looking and commenting, you make me feel good indeed Wink

I am pretty new to using wide lenses, slowly I am getting some experience with it ( No 6 currently at No. 171 at flickr explore )

Calvin thank you for the links. I remember having read that on various NEX the CV12mm had less issues than the CV15mm too. These first test shots taken with the A7 don't look good, hopefully the A7r will do better.

There was not any processing of corners on any of the pics shown.
Oh, and once again here is my full flickr set of photos taken with this lens: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuuan/sets/72157632037409165/ ( first third seen taken with the Ricoh, later pics taken with NEX5N )

cheers, andreas

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Excellent series, rich of contrasting subjects, very expressive!

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Beautiful series! Hat off! Bangkok looks tough, Nepal is so beautiful.

hoanpham · Expire: 2015-01-18

Very nice series. I just post some photos to share with you...

http://forum.mflenses.com/voigtlaender-super-wide-heliar-f4-5-15mm-on-nex5n-t62250.html

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Excellent results!
#1 is outstanding.
It amazes me to see so good samples. I own also the Heliar and the GXR with the A12M module and the shots with that combo are far away in terms of sharpness and colour. Is yours M mount or L39 as it's mine? I'm beginning to suspect of the adapter...

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you Orio, Attila, Hoan and Jesito.

Orio I am lucky to get good subjects.

Attila Bangkok is great city, I love the place, at least if I stay short enough before being stuck in too much traffic becomes a nuisance Wink

Certainly there is a big contrast to Nepal countryside, only driving with a bike from Kathmandu for an hour or two one arrives at very picturesque and simple places.

Hoan the NEX5N ( and so should NEX6, NEXF3 and NEX3N? ), as your lovely photos show, no doubt does a good job with the 15mm Heliar too!

Jesito mine is the LTM version too. The adapter(s) I use are the cheapest LTM>M adapters I found on ebay costing well below 10 usd, some 6 or 7 usd, if I remember right. I have 3 of them, bought more than one because I want to use some to try lens conversions, actually I had a 4th, but that one by now, after alteration, is unusable. I did not test them against each other, just use any and have been thinking that they all just work fine. Actually I cannot imagine how it could influence IQ. It has an outer rim that makes it sit flush against the M mount introducing the 0.85mm difference between M and LTM mount and the m mount sits tight without any lateral or other play. Well, they might be a tad too thick because also my LTM lenses rather focus beyond infinity, but that's something I accepted with any of my cheap adapters for both NEX and GXR M.

best greetings,
andreas

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

When I saw this thread in the list, I though it was a lens test.
But it's much more, Andreas!!

Amazing shots!! Thanks very much for sharing!

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you Carsten, happy you like the pics,

in a way it is a lens test too, resp. I try to show how well the Ricoh works with RF wide angles. I hope that in the long run i shall have a small FF camera, but I don't expect that a 20mm or 24mm on a FF would outperform this combination all that much.

IAZA · Joined: 16 Apr 2010 Posts: 2587 Location: Indonesia

really nice series Andreas Smile

what a nice lens!
wait a minute.. I have this lens too Very Happy

Digitalriver · Joined: 14 Oct 2012 Posts: 33 Location: River Mersey

Wonderful, so nice , your pictures make me wanna buy Heliar 15mm for my GXR Very Happy

I use my A12 28mm as wideangle ,not as sharp but gives decent results too.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

thank you Suat, and thank you for adding your thread with your samples!

Digitalriver I recommend this lens very much! Jesito is not happy with his but I think that he must have a faulty copy. If you review the samples taken with it on other cameras you can see that it performs very well on other cameras too and possibly best, only Leicas may match / surpass (?), on the Ricoh

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

forgot to show how this camera and lens combo looks like, here it is:

and though my better ones are to be seen in my original post and I had shown some of these in another thread some more samples of this camera and lens combo

from Vietnam:

hydrofoil ride by andreas, on Flickr
on the hydrofoil from Saigon to the beach town of Vung Tau

Vung Tau by andreas, on Flickr
at the beach in Vung Tau

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr
meat shop in China town of Saigon

and a photographer in his shop in Kathmandu, Nepal:

Kathmandu photographer by andreas, on Flickr

edited April 2016 to re-post the photos that had disappeared

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

at the bird market

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

in Saigon:

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

hiii by andreas, on Flickr

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

in Bangkok, at the Chatuchak market:

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

in Malaysia, Bukit Bintang monorail station in Kuala Lumpur:

Bukit Bintang monorail station by andreas, on Flickr

former railway headquarter, Taiping:

former railway headquarter by andreas, on Flickr

a nearby charcoal factory:

charcoal factory by andreas, on Flickr

in Japan, Tokyo:

not Shibuya by andreas, on Flickr

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

Kamakura, the Daibutsu:

Daibutsu by andreas, on Flickr

and a camera shop:

photo shop by andreas, on Flickr

in China town of Yokohama:

school girls by andreas, on Flickr

and from Austria, near from where I grew up:

Margaritenwiese by andreas, on Flickr

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

in the meantime I did buy a used Sony A7 FF camera and I have tried my CV wide angles. The CV 4.5/15 has very marked issues, the 4/21 performs mostly alright, the 4/25 is a bit more problematic again.
Recently the CV 4.5/15 on the Ricoh GXR M again has become my favorite combo for wide angles use:

rice seedlings by andreas, on Flickr

lawang by andreas, on Flickr

Proud Vespa owner and son by andreas, on Flickr

Untitled by andreas, on Flickr

lady police dinner by andreas, on Flickr

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

Following comes to my mind:
Statement by Sean Read of "ReadReviews":
"Added December 3, 2015: Today, more than four years after it was introduced, the Mount A12 still sets the benchmark among APS-C cameras for performance with RF lenses. In fact, its performance with many of these RF lenses is still better than any camera made to date except for the Leica M models themselves."
Nothing more to say.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

Thomas I just did a fast comparison with my CV wide angles, the 4.5/15, 4/21 and 4/25 on Sony A7 in APS-C crop mode and on Ricoh GXR M
http://forum.mflenses.com/cv-wide-angle-lenses-compared-on-sony-a7-and-ricoh-gxr-m-t74673.html
it's a fast and dirty comparison meant for myself but I decided to share it anyways, it confirms my 'feeling' that the GXR M + Heliar 4.5/15 is my best wide angle set up.
I hope that one also can see what I had written earlier, on the A7 the 4.5/15 is problematic, the 4/21 quite good, the 4/25 a bit worse again

tomzcafe · Joined: 01 Jun 2009 Posts: 196

Fantastic series ... you really travel a lot.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26