Voigtländer Lanthar 50mm f/2.8

[John Geerts]

The Voigtländer Lanthar 50mm f/2.8   was the lens  of the Voigtländer Vitoret, a very successful Camera in the sixties of last century. When the color film became more popular,  Voigtländer  changed the name of the lens later to the  Voigtländer Color-Lanthar 50mm f/2.8, apparantly only for commercial reasons.

The lens has been removed from the original camera and reconstructed with a M39 mount.  With the appropriate adapter it now fits the Z-camera's.

The results are not bad.  Central sharpness is very good at f/2.8, only the borders are a bit soft. 


As the close focus is only 1 meter, there is a special close focus lens, developed by Voigtländer those days, the Focal. With the number 2  the close focus distance is around 30-50 cm

Posted earlier in Februari 2022

[MEPER]

It is interesting that the 3 lens Lanthar has that center sharpness at 2.8. The 50/2.8 Lanthar was the cheaper lens options. Next was Color-Skopar and then the Ultron.
I think the 50/2.8 Color-Skorpar is softer at 2.8 but very sharp stopped down a bit.

Some years back I made a small test with 50/2.8 Color-Skopar and Nikkor 45/2.8 P lens.
45/2.8 was a lot sharper at 2.8 but Color-Skopar performed better stopped down a bit with no CA.
No doubt that classic/vintage Voigtländer glass is very good.

The 50/3.5 Color-Skopar for the classic Prominent camera is very nice.

[John Geerts]

Thanks for the additional information.

My interest for this lens is also sentimental. My father used this camera when I was a kid.   He used the Voigtlander for many slides with pretty good results. 

[MEPER]

Same here. I used my fathers Vitomatic IIa with 50/2.8 Color-Skopar. I have still have it. Laster I also got it with 50/2 Ultron.
I just tried a 50/2.8 Color-Skopar X which was for the Bessamatic (DKL mount) and it is quite sharp at 2.8.
CA is under good control. Some images shot with the lens here:
http://oldlenses.blogspot.com/2015/04/voigtlander-color-skopar-x-50mm-f28.html
There are many other examples out there. This was the entry-level lens for the Bessamatic.
I always avoided the Lanthar 50/2.8 because it was the entry-level for the Vito's etc. They used "Lanthar glass" to be able to get about same performance with three lens elements insted of four in Color-Skopar.

[John Geerts]

Here the Voigtländer Lanthar on the Nikon Z9

And the petit close-up lens:  Focar 2  (Shot with the Z6 24-70/2.8S)

[Bent Hjarbo]

Here the Voigtländer Lanthar on the Nikon Z9

And the petit close-up lens:  Focar 2  (Shot with the Z6 24-70/2.8S)

John, how did you get the Lanthar free from the old camera?
I was just to day given a Voigtlander Vito with the same lens, but with a Prontor-magic 125
Be Bent

[John Geerts]

John, how did you get the Lanthar free from the old camera?
I was just to day given a Voigtlander Vito with the same lens, but with a Prontor-magic 125
Be Bent

I found an engineer who is specialized in 3d printing of new mounts on the lenses from old (rangefinder) camera's.  He made a Leica/ M39 mount for my Lanthar so with an adapter it will fit the Nikon Z-camera's. (On Nikon F-camera's the Voigtländer Lanthar will not reach infinity)