Voigtlander Heliar 12cm f4.5 makes indoor and outdoor

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

I haven't seen here a review of this precise lens, while several very informative posts give an idea of its close relative the one at 10.5cm. Mine is in Compur shutter going up to 1/200. It has a "T" shutter option which constantly opens the aperture and M39 standard thread mount. So, quite easy to adapt to my NEX using macro rings.

Still no time to make a good walk with the lens. And impatient to try it. Departing from this situation, some quick and inexpressive handheld shots. Indoor shots are always made at ISO 800, outdoor ones at ISO 100-400.

I confirm a low contrast and note a spontaneous NEX tendency to the redish the shots with this lens. I corrected colors reducing a bit the red cast. And I pushed the contrasts. Shots are resized up to 1200 px on the large side, no sharpening applied.

#1 The DOF is quite amazing. The lens allows clearly distinguish objects in/out focus while the distance between them is like 1-2m

#2 A mild in/out focus transition is as supposed giving a bit unexpected idea of being a bit seppia even in color shots

#3 Sharpness is great even wide open. A soft glow is present over clearly distinct shapes. CA are visible in couter-light situation while geometry seems to be outstanding.

#4 Natural color and contrast seem noble but rather fade for modern taste in color

#5 When you tweak the same shot made by NEX you may have quite a range of possibilities while the constrast remains always moderate

#6 The sharpness wide open goes well not only at larger distances, it amazes also at relative close ups.

#7 The crop from the previous, unprocessed, only the red cast is slightly cut.

#8 What makes an impression, two objects situated at a distance of 0.3m are clearly distinguished by the lens as for in focus / out-of-focus rendition at the widest f4.5.

#9 The crop from the previous, unprocessed.

#10 After having discovered dr.volkan's glowing pictures experiment I got interested with a question if the special Heliar bokeh is mostly due to the rear lens group. I'd say it seems to be the case.

#11 Crop from thee previous.

#12 The metallic lever on the right down corner which goes OOF gives a clear idea that Heliar's character is preserved even with the fron group unmounted.

#13 The last test, a couple of shots in b&w, difficult to avoid with Heliar. A standard Nex BW effect, at f5.6.

#14 And the so alled "rich BW".

Conclusion: a serious lens to discover and to learn mastering.

The only thing which makes me a bit confused, its tele effect seems to be even more pronounced with its nominal 120mm (180mm on 1.5x crop) than with standard 135mm ones. But that might be only my illusion. I will test it later.

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

Some of you might be shocked with yesterday's unesthetic indoor pictures. Here are some outdoor ones to compensate the first impression. The lens is uncoated but seems to royally ignore stray light, no sign of parasite flare when the sun is in front or on the edge. For the low contrast I presumed Heliar to be more a studio lens than a street one. Not at all. Given its detail resolution and overall sharpness it behaves itself extremely well in many situations. Especially after you push a bit contrast and shift down exposure in a quick post-processing. But in some rare inexpicable cases the lens gives a very dull image, and no tweak helps much.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

The shots are taken at f5.6-6.3. When you look at #3 you can't really say "it's a 3D pop". A Rollei Planar would do that times better. Though some air-and-space is clearly present, in a milder way.

My first impression that the lens gives a longer tele effect than a 135mm was obviously wrong. It is slightly shorter indeed.