Voigtlander 12/5.6 & 15/4.5

[cosinaphile]

at what f stop??????? its a 15mm lens to cover the 35 mm image circle............. give it just a little slack ,


edge sharpness isnt everything with an insanely wide lens [ which frankly is what this is] .............try changing your focus point........ vary your f stop ,............ cause all is not as dismal as you think


i shoot with this lens and i like its performance........... it no leica........... but look for it strengths,

and learn to love it for what it is ,far from perfect ,, but .............. sharper than you give it credit for......really

 

[Sexymaru]

at what f stop??????? its a 15mm lens to cover the 35 mm image circle............. give it just a little slack ,


edge sharpness isnt everything with an insanely wide lens [ which frankly is what this is] .............try changing your focus point........ vary your f stop ,............ cause all is not as dismal as you think


i shoot with this lens and i like its performance........... it no leica........... but look for it strengths,

and learn to love it for what it is ,far from perfect ,, but .............. sharper than you give it credit for......really

Whoa! Calm down...

I never said either of them is bad lens. I gave my experience of a bad copy 15mm (or general issue with M4/3) and wanted more input from other members who also have them.

very simple.

 

[grebeman]

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Panasonic GF1 with Voigtlander 15mm, f/4.5 shot at f/11

In my previous post I mentioned the evidence of some banding in one corner of the frame, however when looked at on a second computer it appeared to be of a different nature and an A4 print of the photograph above showed no evidence of the banding which was apparent in the bottom right hand corner where there is a piece of broken stoneware jar. In the print the text on the jar is easily read and the print is more than acceptably sharp corner to corner. The lens is a screw mount version. My conclusion would be that this lens is more than fit for purpose and I for one will certainly be putting it to use. Based on other posts I had some doubts about the potential quality, my albeit so far brief experience with this lens has dispelled those doubts.

Barrie

 

[soundimageplus]

Voigtlander 15mm problems

I had a Voigtlander 15mm for some time and used it on both Leicas and m4/3.
There are "smearing" and "maze artefact" problems with this lens with certain cameras and with certain software programmes.(Photoshop and Lightroom in particular) The G1 and GH1 are now clear of these due to an update from Adobe. There were these same problems still with the GF1, E-P1 and E-P2. If they aren't fixed yet they probably will be soon. Silkypix doesn't exhibit these problems.

There are also problems with the lens and full-frame Leica - the M9. Theres a rather nasty magenta cast down one side of the image. Leica have issued a firware update which addresses that.

I enjoyed using the lens as it was very small, light & had lots of depth of field. Setting it to the f4.5 mark on the scale meant that everything from 2 foot to infinity was in focus even wide open.

However in terms of quality of image once I got the 7-14 zoom I stopped using it on m4/3. It didn't see much point in continuing to use it as the results I got from the zoom were sharper. It was also a faster lens, with AF and still not heavy. I also stopped using it on my Leica M9. It worked well on my previous M8, with the 1.3X crop and was a handy 20mm equivalent. On the M9 however I did get fed up however with having to spend a lot of time removing the unpleasant cast.

I've since sold it. I enjoyed using it but couldn't really say that I would recommend it to anyone over the existing Panasonic and Olympus zooms. I've seen people state that they think its better than the Panasonic 14-45 kit zoom for example. I can't really say that I agree with that. The kit zoom is faster, has AF and software "correction" and to my eyes produced sharper results. Sometimes using legacy or alternative lenses is an advantage. Fast telephoto options is an obvious example. I really didn't find any such advantage from the 15mm on m4/3.

 

[Sexymaru]

I had a Voigtlander 15mm for some time and used it on both Leicas and m4/3.
There are "smearing" and "maze artefact" problems with this lens with certain cameras and with certain software programmes.(Photoshop and Lightroom in particular) The G1 and GH1 are now clear of these due to an update from Adobe. There were these same problems still with the GF1, E-P1 and E-P2. If they aren't fixed yet they probably will be soon. Silkypix doesn't exhibit these problems.

That's really interesting, perhaps I should use a different program and see if it exhibits the same issue. Thanks!

 

[walshy]

They look softer on the left :/

I would do a brick wall test and mount it on a tripod?

 

[aleksanderpolo]

Thank you for this info, soundimageplus.