Two out of three now (Voigtländer Apo Lanthars)

[Swappo]

So, finally I got this lens, the SL 180/4 Apo Lanhtar.
Last weekend I sold my Canon EF 80-200/2.8L, been thinking about changing that one for a prime for quite a long time.
Been thinking about buying the 180/4 for a while now, and since I joined this forum and saw even more samples from it and heard what people had to say, I couldn't resist anymore.
So I started to look around for it, but they where harder to find than I expected. Didn't find any on ebay...



But well, ofcourse I found one, it's not impossible...
Photovillage.com had 2 in Nikon mount and one in M42 mount... I wanted M42 mount so it was just perfect and I placed an order this Monday... And this morning, Friday, a postman knocked on my door with a package.
Thats pretty fast delivery I must say.



There was one little problem thou... The auto aperture pin wouldn't let me step down with the adapter I have. So I had to modify the lens.
Doesn't feel quite good to start screwing around with a brand new lens for a couple of houndred dollars.
But it went alright, it was very easy to remove the spring that controlled the step down mechanism and now it steps down when turning the aperture ring.

You can see the small hole where the pin that controlled the auto aperture was. It would be very easy to put it back if I would like to.




And ofcourse, here are som samples from today.
Every pic is taken in my garden, this very day.





Well, flower pictures...
At least I'm quite happy with the bee pic.

Bokeh is of course extraordinary and lens is very sharp.
And it's so small and light. I don't regret that I changed the heavy and big 2.8 zoom that I almost never brought with me for this rather slow lens. I didn't use the zoom that much anyways, mostly when trying to shoot birds, but 200mm is often to short for that.

Well, one more Apo Lanthar to chase down now when I can afford it.

[Attila]

Fine selection I am green from envy Congrats!!

[Swappo]

[patrickh]

I am still sick that I did not buy the 125 and 180 when I could have done. Still I have the 90 for $120 before it became so well known. Lovely series of lenses, and I am sure you are going to enjoy that one


patrickh

[Attila]

Pretty sad Patrick! That was a big mistake, but you have fine selection of lenses and cameras so never mind.

[djmike]

a great lens and photos.

[Swappo]

Thanks!
I will post more photos when I get some. Seems to be a lovley day today.
Perfect for som photography. And hopefully something better than just garden flowers.


These are quite expensive lenses, but I think they are worth every penny.
And still, this lens was $200 cheaper brand new than I got from my 80-200/2.8L from 1991.

[poilu]

congrats Swappo! look a fine lens, great samples

[Esox lucius]

Congratulations, that lens is marvellous. One of the true cream machines.

[Swappo]

Here are some more shots from the Voigtländer Apo Lanthar 180/4.

This will be my main transport this summer, Yamaha Chappy -82.
May still need a bit fixing, but runs fine.


A friend of mine, he tries to fix his old Piaggio ciao from like -87 or something.


Mopeds are fun, and great when weather is beutiful.

[Mal1905]

A very lovely lens and some very lovely samples - congratulations and looking forward to seeing even more results

[LucisPictor]

Congratulations! I also swapped two lenses, I gave my EF 75-300 and got a Leica 4/180 for it.

[Swappo]

The following shots are from last sunday.
The lens is great close up, but I wanted to try to get even closer, so I tried to hook it up with a bellows... The result:



Well, I didn't use it fully extended all the time... Mostly it was enough to use it only a couple of centimeters extended.
Maybe not the most flexible thing to use, but it worked well.
Lens cap is not original, just some crappy screw mount, better than nothing a sunny day.


The following pictures where taken using the bellows:

Bee and flowers, I start to like those flying things:


No idea what this flower is called in english, latin name is viola tricolor:


Pretty spider on a dandelion(?), (Taraxacum):


100% crop


A bee on a poppy (Papaver):


100% crop


100% crop of a bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)


I am extremly happy about this lens. It's getting better and better.
I've ordered some macro rings, and I want to get it at least 1:1 when shooting macro. Working distance are quite comfortable when shooting insects with 180mm. I don't mind the loss of light when using rings or bellow as I shoot insects mostly at sunny days anyway... Although it got a liiiiiiitle dark when using the bellows fully extended.

[Swappo]

[Mal1905]

That spider shot?

WOW!!!

Am lost for words

[Swappo]

[Swappo]

Got the last one not long ago.
Grabbed it on ebay in OM mount for $428 not long after the new version was announced. Ofcourse I wanted to have the original version witch looked like the other ones.

Now I have all three of the Apo Lanthars.

[Abbazz]

[Swappo]

Thank you Abazz!

I first came over the 125/2.5 and absolutley loved it from first moment.
I still love it and I rate it among the highest of all my lenses.
I paid about half the price of what i goes for now at the bay.

I agree it isn't the smallest and most light weight lens of all, but I had it in my camera bag when I was on Zanzibar earlier this year and I don't regret it. I came to use several times... The lens i used the most was the Ultron 40/2.

Anyway, here are some pics from the 90/3.5:









Pics may look a bit strange, don't know.. I don't have my computer with regular software on. I used AcDSee 3.1 to resize pictures.
The last one is a crop, not 100% but can't tell how much really.

[Abbazz]

[Swappo]

Crop


The bokeh really came as a surprise for me.... Uh, not really!
It was just as smooth as expected.

[Orio]

For me the bee on dandelion one! The whirling wings,

[james]

The shots in previous posts highlight the CV 180's superior performance at near and medium distances. Some reviewers claim that its performance is not optimal near its close focus, peaks at medium distances and degrades at infinity focus; attached is a distant shot at infinity focus and a tight crop just below. As is immediately apparent, there are fine details on the rooftop just to the left of the microwave array nearly invisible on the full frame view. When time permits I intend to do a comparison @ infinity on the CV 180/4 APO, Nikkor 180/2.8 ED, Leica 180/3.4 APO Telyt and Nikkor 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 AF (@180mm).

D700, ISO 200, CV 180 @ f/5.6:

[Esox lucius]

There's nothing in the CV 180/4 APO-Lanthar's infinity performance that should refrain from using it for infinity landscapes. Most of the detail is eaten away by the distance and atmospheric conditions.

All the SL series APO-Lanthars have a focusing that is geared for close-up use. This allows critically precise near focusing, but at the same time focus near or at infinity is very very touchy and likely to cause focusing errors unless the user is aware of this characteristic of the lenses.

Nikon D3, Voigtländer SL 180/4 @ f/5.6


same photo but 100% crop

[james]

I have to second Vilhelm's comment about the 'touchy' focus at near-infinity on the 180 Lanthar. By the way, that's a fascinating photo of the multi-colored houses. Where is this?