Four new wide angles from Voigtlander & Zeiss for the Sony a7 series

[Jan Anne]

It has been a good week for the few Sony fans amongst us, both Voigtlander and Zeiss announced their wide angle lenses for the a7 platform.

The totally new Voigtlander 10/5.6 which will also be available in VM mount for the Leica M fans or those with other mirrorless systems
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/exclusive-on-sar-new-voigtlander-10mm-f4-5-full-size-images-specs-and-optical-lens-design/

The Voigtlander 12/5.6 & 15/4.5, the former will also be updated in the VM mount and the latter is already updated in VM mount
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/official-voigtlander-launches-three-new-wide-angle-native-full-frame-e-mount-lenses/

The Zeiss Loxia 21/2.8, exclusive for the Sony E mount
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-leaked-full-new-loxia-21mm-f2-8-fe-lens-specs/

Exciting times 

[Frank Fremerey]

The Loxia and the Milvus are both MF 2.8/21mm for Sony?

How to they differ?

Is there an AF option too?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Selfies with this 10 mm lens would be something ....

130 degrees field of coverage. I wonder what the vignetting will be into the corners - 5 stops?

Anyway, the appearance of these wide angle lenses surely will add to the Sony E appeal for many potential buyers.

[PeterN]

Good news for Sony fans and too bad I am not one of them. But the Zeiss Milvuses for Nikon are coming! If they are as good as the Zeiss 135mm Apo zf.2 lens, that is very promising.

[Jan Anne]

The Loxia and the Milvus are both MF 2.8/21mm for Sony?

How to they differ?

Is there an AF option too?

Completely different lenses, the Milvus lineup is for Nikon and Canon DLSR cameras and the Loxia lineup is dedicated for the Sony E mount with most lenses based on their Leica M variants so the designs are mirrorless from the start. The Loxia is a lot smaller and weighs roughly half the weight of the Milvus counterpart.

This the first 21mm for the a7 series and manual focus only, its fully modernised however so EXIF, focus distance, aperture, etc are communicated to the camera.

[Jan Anne]

A few months back I tried Eriks 12/5.6 on the a7S which worked pretty good so a modernised version is very appealing.

Never shot a full frame 10mm so I have no idea what to expect besides making sure that my feet are not in each frame

I'm a big fan of ultra wide lenses so I can't wait to get my hands on these lenses.


Sony a7S & Voigtlander 12/5.6 LTM, OOC JPG, Slovenia 2015

[PeterN]

Jan Anne,
That one looks great! Could you post more A7 shots? I've always liked the size of the camera but two things were holding me back: lack of AF lenses and the output. Most photos I saw looked "digital" (sorry but can't find a better word) but yours looks very natural. So is it just a matter of overprocessing of others?

[Jan Anne]

Peter, sometimes overcooking the images is plain fun

Here's one from last Saturday with the original Voigtlander 15/4.5 in Leica Threaded Mount

Sony a7S & Voigtlander 15/4.5 LTM, half hour exposure

Please check my Flickr account for more a7S and a7R pics:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=70943837%40N00&view_all=1&text=sony

[PeterN]

cool!

[Jan Anne]

Review of the Loxia 21/2.8:
http://passportsandlenses.com/zeiss-loxia-212-8-review/

[Erik Lund]

It is a little confusing but
12mm f/5.6 is a new optical formula Mark III - the Mark II was already in Leica M mount

the 15mm is already a Mark III in Leica M

 

[Ian R]

I thought that rangefinder lenses did not agree with the digital sensor due to the acute angle of the light. Has this been reduced?

[Jan Anne]

The original a7R was notoriously bad with wide angle Leica M lenses, especially those from the film era, my a7S is a lot more forgiving though.

For instance this is the 15/4.5 LTM on the a7R, lots vignetting and color shifts (sorry no color image online at the moment):


These newly introduced lenses are completely redesigned for digital, for instance 15/4.5 MKIII has grown significantly to cope with the corners.

Here's my uber tiny LTM version, at 109 grams its so cute 


Now compare that to the MKIII which is more than twice the weight and size:
http://voigtlaender.com/15-mm--f-4%2c5-super-wide-heliar-iii.html

[Akira]

It is a little confusing but
12mm f/5.6 is a new optical formula Mark III - the Mark II was already in Leica M mount

the 15mm is already a Mark III in Leica M

 

As for 12/5.6, neither Sonyalpharumours or dpreview news states clearly that it is "re-dedigned".  Sonyalpharumours says that the lens design is "based on" the current M-mount version and is "optimized" for the digital camera on the E-version.  I don't know how to differentiate "redesign" from "optimize".

[Jan Anne]

Voigtlander has this to say:

VM-Mount
Voigtländer continues its VM-Mount digital optimization with the new 12 mm F 5,6 Ultra-Wide-Heliar III. Additionally Voigtländer will also release the new 10 mm F 5,6 Hyper-Wide-Heliar with VM-Mount.
 

http://voigtlaender.com/news.html