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Cosina-Voigtländer Apo-Lanthar Lenses
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:27 am    Post subject: Cosina-Voigtländer Apo-Lanthar Lenses Reply with quote
In this thread, there was a discussion about old optical houses licensing their brand names to Asian lensmakers. Some of you seemed to condemn this practice, while I think it could be a good thing under certain circumstances. Voigtländer was one of the best German lensmakers. It was bought by Zeiss Ikon, who killed the brand a first time by dissolving its identity into the vast Zeiss conglomerate. Then, Zeiss went the way of the dodo and it was the second death of Voigtländer. The Voigländer name was then licensed to some companies to market cheap cameras and lenses, further damaging the brand's image.

Then a Japanese company (Cosina) bought the rights to use the Voigländer name and began to use it to sell high quality rangefinder cameras and lenses. This was the rebirth of Voigtländer name. Today, one can buy nice manual focus Voigländer lenses, nicely built with a metal barrel and a precision helicoid, delivering top notch results. That's a great thing to see this legendary name on brand new quality lenses available at your favorite dealer.

Here are some pictures taken with the Apo Lanthar series, which are among the finest lenses currently available for SLRs (no sharpening or local contrast enhancing):


Apo Lanthar 180/4, F/8.0 1/100sec.


Apo Lanthar 180/4, F/4.0 1/320sec.


Apo Lanthar 180/4, F/4.0 1/125sec.


Apo Lanthar 125/2.5, F/5.6 1/100sec.


Apo Lanthar 125/2.5, F/2.5 1/320sec.


100% crop from preceding shot (not bad for a picture taken wide open!)


Apo Lanthar 125/2.5, F/8.0 1/100sec.


100% crop from preceding shot


Apo Lanthar 125/2.5, F/9.0 1/180sec. 1:1 macro (the 125/2.5 focuses directly to 0.38m, offering the 1:1 ratio)

Cheers,

Abbazz

Last edited by Abbazz on Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:46 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
You know, all the Voigtlaender APO-Lanthar pictures that I have seen so far, are to die for, for both sharpness and bokeh.

I am a big fan of them, although I own none.

-


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have to admit that when these images came up, they were so brilliant and sharp that they knocked me back in my office chair, clear back to the treadmill that I never use, and onto my back. Now THAT'S what I call impressive.

Fine work, and a great representation of the lenses. Wow!


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Some of these pics look like he shot with a 4x5 camera, awesome
detail!


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
One of my favourite lenses is the 90/3.5, and it gives lovely results despite my worst efforts Smile . It is really great that they are restarting the line with nikon mounts and chips installed (for matrix metering). I would love to have either or both of Abbazz' lenses to go with it - and the Topcor 50/1.4 which was also made by them. Expensive, but worth it


patrickh


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks guys for the comments.

patrickh wrote:
One of my favourite lenses is the 90/3.5, and it gives lovely results despite my worst efforts Smile .


I don't have this lens and I guess I'd better hurry if I want to get one before they're all sold out.

patrickh wrote:
It is really great that they are restarting the line with nikon mounts and chips installed (for matrix metering). I would love to have either or both of Abbazz' lenses to go with it - and the Topcor 50/1.4 which was also made by them. Expensive, but worth it


The "Topcor" (now officially called Nokton 58/1.4) is part of the newly announced SL Series II. It looks like a sweet lens too and the 58mm focal length would translate into an useful 88mm on my Pentax K10d. As for the price, $379 for a new manual focus lens superbly built with top image quality, is not so much money. Of course it is more expensive than a Helios 44, but try to compare it with a new Zeiss or Leica 50/1.4 lens... And the new Voigtländer lenses will even come with a built-in chip allowing them to be fully compatible with Nikon and Pentax DSLRs (except for the autofocus Razz ).

Cheers,

Abbazz


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Salut Sebastien
Nice to see sample from those 2 great lenses. First class result and perfect bokeh.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ants are superb!Others remind me to Tamron SP 150 lens.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Attila wrote:
Ants are superb!Others remind me to Tamron SP 150 lens.


Thanks Attila. I guess you mean the Tamron SP 180/2.5. It's a superb lens as well. I should do some comparison between the Tamron and the Voigtländer.

Cheers,

Abbazz


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Abbazz wrote:
TAnd the new Voigtländer lenses will even come with a built-in chip allowing them to be fully compatible with Nikon and Pentax DSLRs (except for the autofocus Razz ).
Abbazz


Could you please let me know where you found this information?
I was planning to have someone give to me one of these lenses for Christmas, but if new chipped versions are coming, I should perhaps wait for those.
-


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I've read this too Orio on the Robert White website.

About the new Nokton for one:

http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/product.asp?P_ID=1819&PT_ID=435


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks Bob but I think Nokton was not part of the latest series of lenses which included the APO-Lanthars 75, 90, 105 and 200.
What I am interested is in learning about remakes of the APO-Lanthar series.
-


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
Could you please let me know where you found this information?
I was planning to have someone give to me one of these lenses for Christmas, but if new chipped versions are coming, I should perhaps wait for those.


You can also find the info about these new lenses on the Cameraquest website. Only two lenses have been announced int he new "chipped" series: the Nokton 58/1.4 and the Ultron 40/2. It is not clear whether the whole range of SL lenses will follow.

Cheers,

Abbazz


PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Abbazz wrote:

You can also find the info about these new lenses on the Cameraquest website. Only two lenses have been announced int he new "chipped" series: the Nokton 58/1.4 and the Ultron 40/2. It is not clear whether the whole range of SL lenses will follow.
Abbazz


That is what I understood, too.

-


PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow. These photos are some of the very best I have ever seen in terms of resolution, contrast, bokeh and 3-D effect. I particularly like the perforated leaf photo.

Continuing on the same theme, here are some Voigtländer ens test data:
http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/zuiko/bessa-lens.htm
http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/zuiko/bessa-L-lens.htm


PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
stingOM wrote:
Wow. These photos are some of the very best I have ever seen in terms of resolution, contrast, bokeh and 3-D effect. I particularly like the perforated leaf photo.


Thanks for the kind words. The Apo-Lanthar lenses have an unmistakable look and are quickly becoming legendary lenses. Let's hope Cosina/Voigtländer will carry them over to the new SL2 Series.

Cheers,

Abbazz


PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Abbazz wrote:

Thanks for the kind words. The Apo-Lanthar lenses have an unmistakable look


I actually would tend to agree, and the doubt is only because I don't know any of those lenses so I can not "learn the look" as I do with my own lenses.
But if I take for instance your first picture in this series, I seem to recognize a quality in the bokeh or background blur as some still call it, that I would define as really pictorial - now I don't know if you operated on the saturation of these images, but really the bokeh of this lens is the closest thing I have seen so far to a "paint melting" effect.


PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio

You will find a similar effect with the 90/3.5 which is in an album in the gallery. These lenses are very special and are actually superior in most ways to their nikkor counterparts. (IMHO).


patrickh


PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
patrickh wrote:
Orio
You will find a similar effect with the 90/3.5 which is in an album in the gallery. These lenses are very special and are actually superior in most ways to their nikkor counterparts. (IMHO).
patrickh


I know well the photos of your APO-LANTHAR 90. It is since I saw them that I am lusting after the lens...


PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
No wonder that the Apo-Lanthar lenses have been tested as "excellent" by a German photo magazine!

Wow! Fantastic lenses! (And great shots, Abbazz!)


PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
I seem to recognize a quality in the bokeh or background blur as some still call it, that I would define as really pictorial - now I don't know if you operated on the saturation of these images, but really the bokeh of this lens is the closest thing I have seen so far to a "paint melting" effect.


After using the 4/180 for a while, I'd say the bokeh is about as good as a modern lens can have. However, even though there is no doubling of edges in the OOF area, rather definite edges are quite often still present, which will occasionally cause an at least slightly restless bokeh, like e.g. in this photo:



In photos taken with the 4.5/105 Radionar, these edges usually are very indistinct, dissolving into the background, but of course the general optical IQ of a Radionar is in no way comparable to that of an APO-Lanthar. In my arsenal, these two lenses complement each other very nicely.

veijo
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