Voigtlander 125mm f/2.5 APO Lanthar

[Royal Winchester]

I'm pleased to say my 125 arrived today.  Very happy with the condition of the lens, and though I've just begun to get to know it, it's already made me smile several times!

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Enjoy your legendary lens and learn why it got its reputation. Just handle it with due care.

[Royal Winchester]

I will.  Between this and the D500 it is like the rules of what was possible with my photography have been changed.  The focusing, the low light, the sharpness, beautiful out of focus elements, color and especially close up capabilities are so wonderful. 

[jhinkey]

This is a lens that's been on my list for quite a while as I have the excellent 90/3.5 and sometimes temperamental 180/4.
I have the Zeiss 135/2 which is excellent, but it's big and heavy sometimes and doesn't like being pointed into the sun all that much for sunrise/set landscapes.  I have the 135/3.4 APO Telyt that's also great, but sometimes it's too slow.

How does the 125/2.5 stack up against these lenses at MFD for portraits and at infinity focus for landscapes (wide open and at f/4)?
For portraits I don't need across the frame sharpness like I want for landscapes where excellent sharpness off into the corners is sometimes important.  Immunity to flare/ghosting with the sun in the frame is highly prized as well.

I have an opportunity to by an F-mount version that appears to be in excellent shape.

Thanks -

John

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The 125 APO-Lanthar is even better at infinity than it is at its near limit. One of my favourites for landscapes.

[jhinkey]

So the owner has sent me sample jpg images taken with the lens using an EOS 6D (20MP), though there is no aperture information.
The images are hard to tell if the lens is sharp at infinity - so I've asked for the RAW files as well as the aperture the images were taken at.

Has anyone run across a sub-par (for sharpness) copy of this lens?  If so can the optics be adjusted to bring it back into sharpness (and where would this be done)?

Thanks -

John

[Erik Lund]

With a used lens like this it's almost impossible to tell if it has been opened or mistreated -

If the barrel and mount looks OK Stop worrying and shoot away
The optics can be adjusted quite easily by a repair shop.

[jhinkey]

With a used lens like this it's almost impossible to tell if it has been opened or mistreated -

If the barrel and mount looks OK Stop worrying and shoot away
The optics can be adjusted quite easily by a repair shop.

It looks pretty good, but I'd hate to have to send an expensive lens off to a repair shop (where?) for an expensive adjustment right away.

It looks like the 20MP sensor has a heavy AA filter - much like my D700 did, which really doesn't let sharp lenses shine - hopefully that's the case.
Hopefully the RAW files will allow me to see what the lens can do if I can get the owner to give me the RAW files.

Thanks - John

[John Koerner]

Leica and Zeiss appear to beat the Voigtlander in this review. (Although it appears the writer never finished the sequence.)

Although many laud the Voigtlander for its bokeh at fast apertures, I also value the lens for its "3D effect" when stopped down (in this case, f/11).

[Michael Erlewine]

Leica and Zeiss appear to beat the Voigtlander in this review.

This kind of review can be so misleading. The author fails to point out that the Chromatic Aberration on the Zeiss Makro-Planar 100mm makes it  (IMO) unusable for my work. So it is out of the running at the get-go. I sold mine, and it was also too "contrasty" for subtle work, again: IMO.

The Leica is another story. This is, indeed, a superior lens, with an enormous focus throw (something like 720 degrees). Mounting it on F-Mount means for me, having to mannualy open and close the aperture, which is a pain. But, no doubt, a great lens. I am talking about the Leica 100mm APO Elmarit-R lens.

I don't have the Canon, and I have written much about the CV-125, which may not be superior in some ways to the Leica, but as a walk-around, all-around, macro/close-up lens... one with a special draw... I feel it can't be beat. No, I don't use it a lot these days, but when I do I see all over again why it is (all things considered) a wonderful lens.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Chromatic aberrations can indeed be troublesome and the axial colour ('longitudinal' CA) is in particular a headache as it is less efficiently dealt with RAW conversion software. I abandoned the (then new) AFS 105 mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor and switched to the 125 mm f/2.5 APO-Lanthar just for this reason as I found the Nikkor's axial colour issue appalling.

A review ignoring such CA behaviour is not providing very reliable information to assess lens performance, whether or not it is presented with lots of graphs and figures.

For the lateral kind of CA, removal by software can be rapid and efficient, thus this issue is not the deal-breaker it once was in the days of film. For some old lenses, in particular wide angles from the film era, lateral CA is nearly always present when the lens is used on a digital camera and software removal has to be considered a normal step in the processing work flow. The 24 and 15 mm Nikkors represent this behaviour and their performance should be assessed after properly dealing with the  lateral CA. Again, these points should be addressed by the reviewer.

[Erik Lund]

It looks pretty good, but I'd hate to have to send an expensive lens off to a repair shop (where?) for an expensive adjustment right away.

It looks like the 20MP sensor has a heavy AA filter - much like my D700 did, which really doesn't let sharp lenses shine - hopefully that's the case.
Hopefully the RAW files will allow me to see what the lens can do if I can get the owner to give me the RAW files.

Thanks - John

Is it a Canon or Nikon mount lens? Is he using an adapter? Is he using live view and zoomed in to do a infinity test?


What I said about adjusting is the infinity setting, it is done on the front group with the lens assembled. I set it to slightly beyond infinity, to avoid problems with the ED elements and the floating elements.

I don't have much knowledge about Canon except some of them have, besides a strong AA filter, also a rather thick cover glass that can create havoc for some lenses...

[rosko]

Leica and Zeiss appear to beat the Voigtlander

I think the Voigtländler cumulates several assets :

# apochromatic optics;

# colour rendition;

# beautiful bokeh;

# sharpness (even if it's not the sharpest);

# long throw, which ensures perfect focus;

# and 1/1 reproduction ratio.

In addition of that, few ''subjective'' considerations like 3D effect, rarity, beautifully crafted, good looking.

I am not sure any other macro lens offers all these advantages in one single lens...No wonder it is so popular.


Below, a still shot of Field milk thistle. Df=125mm apo lanthar. 1 sec @f/16.

Plus crop.

[jhinkey]

The owner sent me Canon RAW files that I was able to decode and the lens is much sharper with my standard post-capture settings than his apparently default-setting .jpg images that he sent.  Still I have no idea what aperture was used and will inquire again with him.  He appears to be a novice as he purchased the lens in Japan at one of the numerous shops and had not used it much.

I'm interested in landscape-type distances and only one of his images was close to being as such + somewhat critically focused, so it's hard to tell how even the corners are (to evaluate for decentering), etc.

The lens looks to be in pretty good shape and comes with hood and original box, etc.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The lens looks near pristine. Get it before the guy changes his mind