Voigtlander Lenses

Who the hell uses these? Well, I've had a couple and I think they're excellent.
I'm only reviewing three lenses here but I'll make the comments more comprehensive than for the major brands because there's less web information on the Voigts.

21mm 4.0 screw mount for Leica M or Bessa conversion.

For the money, it's really good. Not quite Leica quality but you can pay for a multi-day shooting trip with the money you'll save. Pretty sharp wide-open, with minimal distortion. It's the color and contrast that are not up there with Leica standards, but I gotta say, it's not THAT far off. If you shoot a ton with the 21 and make big prints, you might want to save up for the Leica, but if it's something you'll only use occasionally, as I did, I'd give it serious consideration. It's also super compact.

40mm 2.0 II SLR

Available for both Canon and Nikon this lens most striking characteristic is its size. It's a touch smaller than than Voigtlander 20mm for slr's and the Nikon 20mm 3.5....small, a pancake lens. Did I say it was small? Like the 58mm, it's a manual focus only and has very solid and smooth ergonomics.

Optically it's excellent. Maybe not quite as sharp as the best Zeiss or Leica lens

58mm 1.4 II SLR

What's up with this lens? 58mm? Is it different from a 50? Actually, yeah, it is. Shooting it against my Zeiss ZF 50mm 2.0 it's noticeably tighter, not by a lot, but just enough to correct a bit of the distortion created by photographing a person full-length. It's a nice focal length and 'spcially at 1.4, it helps to isolate a subject from the background. So then, optically, is it any good? In short, yes it is. It's VERY good. I did some side-by-sides with my Zeiss 50mm 2.0 which is on my "Best of.." list and the Voigt hangs tough. It's maybe not QUITE as sharp closeup, but it's competitive and was actually sharper at infinity than the Zeiss. The color is excellent, perhaps a TOUCH cooler than the Zeiss, but not enough to notice.


At 1.4 it's sharp, don't let anyone tell you it's not. It has a TOUCH of the haziness found in 50mm 1.4's when they're wide open, but this is really only noticeable in the highlights. It feels lighter and less-substantial than the Zeiss lenses, which are real tanks, but it focuses quickly and has a nice rubber ring. If you use Nikon it has the chip which will sych focal length and f-stop data for the camera's matrix metering and meta data. It's a keeper and I'll use it primarly for portraits and shooting wide-open.