Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!
SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Voigtlander lenses
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Manual Focus Lenses
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
In order to give you a better idea about the different angles of view I took some test pictures during my daily dog walk. Klick on pictures for larger views.

1. Voigtlaender ULTRA-WIDE HELIAR 12mm/F5.6:


2. Voigtlaender SUPER-WIDE HELIAR 15mm/F4.5:


3. Voigtlaender COLOR-SKOPAR 21mm/F4:


4. Voigtlaender SNAPSHOT-SKOPAR 25mm/F4:


Shot during a cigarette break sitting under a tree with my Ricoh GXR-M. Settings for all lenses identical at F8 and focus to infinity. No PP except resizing. JPGs straight from the camera. I've tried to keep the little blue sign right in the middle of the picture. However, without tripod this is rather difficult. Although I had also the 35mm lens with me, unfortunately the battery was finished after the 25mm shot. Therefore the 5th picture is missing. My 28mm would have been too big for my jeans pockets anyway. I've forgotten the spare battery at home.
There is no relationship between me and the motive, except that I am living near to this scenery.
The trees below the sky in the background are already on the other side of lake Neusiedel in Hungary. Actually I could swim from Austria to Hungary. Wink


PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Those are sharp images. I love it!!



quote="tb_a"]In order to give you a better idea about the different angles of view I took some test pictures during my daily dog walk. Klick on pictures for larger views.

1. Voigtlaender ULTRA-WIDE HELIAR 12mm/F5.6:


2. Voigtlaender SUPER-WIDE HELIAR 15mm/F4.5:


3. Voigtlaender COLOR-SKOPAR 21mm/F4:


4. Voigtlaender SNAPSHOT-SKOPAR 25mm/F4:


Shot during a cigarette break sitting under a tree with my Ricoh GXR-M. Settings for all lenses identical at F8 and focus to infinity. No PP except resizing. JPGs straight from the camera. I've tried to keep the little blue sign right in the middle of the picture. However, without tripod this is rather difficult. Although I had also the 35mm lens with me, unfortunately the battery was finished after the 25mm shot. Therefore the 5th picture is missing. My 28mm would have been too big for my jeans pockets anyway. I've forgotten the spare battery at home.
There is no relationship between me and the motive, except that I am living near to this scenery.
The trees below the sky in the background are already on the other side of lake Neusiedel in Hungary. Actually I could swim from Austria to Hungary. Wink[/quote]


PostPosted: Sun May 03, 2015 1:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
scsambrook wrote:
Apart from being slow for night work, I'm not sure how well the 21mm Skopar will work on the NEX. It's not a retrofocus design and does quite poorly on my M43 body .


on the nex I shot it alot. Very very sharp centers and fuzzy edges, especially at infinity.


DSC00781 by unoh7, on Flickr


PostPosted: Sun May 03, 2015 5:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
uhoh7 wrote:
scsambrook wrote:
Apart from being slow for night work, I'm not sure how well the 21mm Skopar will work on the NEX. It's not a retrofocus design and does quite poorly on my M43 body .


on the nex I shot it alot. Very very sharp centers and fuzzy edges, especially at infinity.


That's quite interesting and I will check if there is a different behaviour on the MFT-System, where I didn't use it so far because I have my quite nice Lumix 20mm/F1.7 lens. The fuzzy edges on the NEX are also new for me. I will make some comparisation pictures and find it out.
However, one thing is obviously true: There is no better camera for those lenses than the Ricoh GXR-M. On this body nearly every M39/LTM lens works best. Finally was that the reason for me to buy it. It may have something to do with the optimized microlens design of the sensor used in the GXR especially for wide angle lenses. Even the most problematic Voigtlaender 12mm/F5.6 lens works almost perfect on this carmera as you can easily see on my sample pictures posted earlier in this thread.
I will follow up this matter with the 21mm Color Skopar and let you know. Luckily I have cameras of all three different systems and all the necessary lenses and adapters.


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 5:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
uhoh7 wrote:

on the nex I shot it alot. Very very sharp centers and fuzzy edges, especially at infinity.


tb_a wrote:
.. There is no better camera for those lenses than the Ricoh GXR-M. On this body nearly every M39/LTM lens works best.


so I just did ( fast and dirty ) test shots, Color Skopar 4/21 at infinity and middle distance on NEX5n and Ricoh GXR M

full frame of infinity, taken on NEX5n



100% crops @f4, f5.6, f8 and f11:







full frame focus at about 10 to 15m, NEX5n:



100% crops @ f4, f5.6, f8 and f11:






compared those taken with the Ricoh GXR M ( frame not 100% exactly the same, tripod changed to a slighter higher view )
infinity @f4, f5.6, f8 and f11:







and the middle distance 100% crops:







PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 5:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
tb_a wrote:


The trees below the sky in the background are already on the other side of lake Neusiedel in Hungary. Actually I could swim from Austria to Hungary. Wink


Swimming in the Neusiedler See ? Walking is easier than swimming !!! Very Happy


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kuuan wrote:

so I just did ( fast and dirty ) test shots, Color Skopar 4/21 at infinity and middle distance on NEX5n and Ricoh GXR M


Thank you, Andi. The weather here was too bad yesterday to do it. Maybe it's clearing up today. I could then try to test it in comparisation with my Panasonic Lumix MFT or even additionally with my NEX-C3. At the moment it doesn't look promising....

However, obviously there is no big difference on the cameras. The lens itself is not the sharpest in the corners at infinity. However, at middle distance the crops look sharper on the GXR-M. That is quite interesting. Does it focus past infinity?
I've rechecked my example (f8 at infinity) at 100% and it looks definitely sharper than your crops on either camera.
What is your conclusion so far?


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
memetph wrote:
tb_a wrote:


The trees below the sky in the background are already on the other side of lake Neusiedel in Hungary. Actually I could swim from Austria to Hungary. Wink


Swimming in the Neusiedler See ? Walking is easier than swimming !!! Very Happy


I wrote I COULD. I will never do that, not even walking. There is a ferry from Rust to Fertoerakos, that's far more convenient.
But you're right the lake is not very deep. Although people are drowned every year in this lake. You should not underestimate the waves.
Sometimes I take the bicycle to go to Hungary. It's an e-bike by the way. Smile


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 8:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
tb_a wrote:
..What is your conclusion so far?


Hi Thoams,
well, I'd say that corner sharpness at infinity isn't very good and that there hardly is difference between the cameras.
and that corner sharpness at closer distance is quite good and that there is a difference in favor of the Ricoh.

ok, this is for pixel peeping. For practical use however, granted that others might be more critical, I'd say that the lens is plenty sharp until the corners on both cameras. For once because one would hardly ever, if at all, use the lens at it's weakest, that is at infinity with it's faster apertures, secondly because if one printed at 20x30 or even 30x45 and viewed at normal viewing distance I am quite certain that the corners would not stand out as being blurred, in the contrary, they would look plenty sharp.

and importantly here, that most of the APS-C Sony E mount cameras do much better with these CV wide angles than all the talk about the weak corner performance of RF wide angle lenses may make some believe. It was, if I am not mistaken, the very first NEX3 and NEX5 and the NEX7 that did worse, but the rest is fine.


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
tb_a wrote:
memetph wrote:
tb_a wrote:


The trees below the sky in the background are already on the other side of lake Neusiedel in Hungary. Actually I could swim from Austria to Hungary. Wink


Swimming in the Neusiedler See ? Walking is easier than swimming !!! Very Happy


I wrote I COULD. I will never do that, not even walking. There is a ferry from Rust to Fertoerakos, that's far more convenient.
But you're right the lake is not very deep. Although people are drowned every year in this lake. You should not underestimate the waves.
Sometimes I take the bicycle to go to Hungary. It's an e-bike by the way. Smile


I miss Wien, Niederôtserreich ( Weinviertel) and Burgerland. For my job, I go regularly to Budapest and I smell the "air"....nostalgy.


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 8:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hi Andi,
I see it likewise. However, I am still under the impression that my 21mm lens is doing a little better at infinity. Will test that further.
You are right, the problems with the NEXs were primarily concerning the performance of the 12mm and 15mm Voigtlaenders. Even Leica did not manage so far to handle them rightly. However, they have also little interest to do so.
For those mentioned super wides the GXR definitely works best as you can easily see on my samples. There is no visible vignetting or color shift like on the first NEXs.
However, on MFT due to the smaller senser I have never noticed any problems with the 12mm lens that I bought especially for this camera as at that time no real alternative was available. Assuming that also the corners will be sharper on MFT as only the centers of the lenses are used.
Whatever turns out: I will never sell my Voigtlaenders. That's for sure. There is no better alternative in terms of portability and quality, especially for that price.


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thomas, I love these CV lenses too, very small and light they finally had given my the wide angle performance I had been missing earlier. I use them mostly with the Ricoh, no color cast also with the 4/15 which sometimes does show on the NEX. Wished I had the 12mm
oh, I had forgotten to answer your question about infinity focus: On the Ricoh it focuses right until infinity, on the NEX, used with adapter, it focuses beyond infinity. ( for the samples I did not just put the lens at infinity, but tried to focus accurately )


PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 9:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
memetph,
I totally understand you. I grow up in Vienna and lived the last decades south of Vienna on the country side. Now, after early retirement I moved to Rust which is the smallest city of Austria and quite lovely. Many people come here to spend their holidays. I have holidays all year long. Watch this: http://www.rust.at/tl_files/rust_tpl/stadtrundgang/rust2de_gelb/tour_RUSTgelbde.html
Budapest is also quite nice. I am going there from time to time. It's not that far away by car. However, Pecs, which is the home town of my wife, is also a very nice and old city in Hungary. You should visit it once if you have the chance. The funny thing is that Vienna is called Becs in Hungarian. So I am from Becs and my wife is from Pecs. Smile
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Manual Focus Lenses
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2