Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton II

[Jan Anne]

I've been using fast 35mm primes as my main lens for a few years now and the Voigtlander 35/1.2 always intrigued me as it is the fastest 35mm that I knew of, so a soon as the a7R was introduced I knew it was time own one.
 
The a7R didn't last long however, as a low light shooter it just wasn't the right camera for me plus I didn't like how it demoted my legacy lenses to pieces of junk. Luckily Sony didn't wait long to provide me with the perfect escape route out of an otherwise bad investment in the form of the amazing a7S, a long awaited mirrorless successor of my beloved D3s (what a beast that was).
 
The Voigtlander 35/1.2 is an awesome and unique lens, the way it renders the out of focus background wide-open is just stunning as is the smooth transition from sharp to the out of focus zone. Wide open there is a nice glow which gives this lens some character which aids in the smooth boke, that said I would like my main lens to be a bit sharper and contrasty wide-open for some extra pop so I'm secretly eyeballing the 35/1.4 FE.
 
Mugshots with the iPhone 5 and the Hipstamatic app (my other camera):




Here's a couple of images I took in Montenegro last year on a one week photo trip with my Nikongear buddies, they gracefully allowed to me to tag along with my first Sony All images where shot wide open at f/1.2 on the a7R.







And one with the a7S from a local museum in Amsterdam, haven't used this combo much but vignetting is a lot better than on the R:

[John Geerts]

Impressive results. Is this lens part of the Voigtlander SL series were the APO's and 58mm 1.4 belong too?

[Frank Fremerey]

And you say the A7R plus Voigtlander do not harmonize?

[Erik Lund]

Impressive results. Is this lens part of the Voigtlander SL series were the APO's and 58mm 1.4 belong too?

No, this is a Leica M mount lens, much smaller flange to film plane distance, suitable for most Leica M compatible cameras, mirror less.


Re the performance on A7R, these images are converted to B&W so much more forgiving...
Great images JA!

[Erik Lund]

BTW I spot a Bear a local rascal and a giant in that cave...

[John Geerts]

No, this is a Leica M mount lens, much smaller flange to film plane distance, suitable for most Leica M compatible cameras, mirror less.


Re the performance on A7R, these images are converted to B&W so much more forgiving...
Great images JA!

Ah, I understand. Thanks for the reply, Erik.

[Gary]

These are all very nice. But I think these exceptional images are due more to the skill of the operator than the expensive equipment.

[Erik Lund]

yes indeed! That is correct

[Jan Anne]

And you say the A7R plus Voigtlander do not harmonize?

Thats correct, wide-open the Voigtlander has a lot of mechanical vignetting which I like but on the a7R this is exaggerated to undesirable levels. This is probably due to the small "sensor buckets" of the high res R model combined with the steep angle the light rays have to make to reach the corners of the sensor on a camera with a very small flange distance. On the a7S where the sensor buckets are a lot bigger the light rays can reach the corner pixels a lot easier so vignetting is a lot less, same goes for colour shifts which the a7R has problems with the wider Leica M lenses (not an issue with the 35/.2 btw). 

[Jan Anne]

These are all very nice. But I think these exceptional images are due more to the skill of the operator than the expensive equipment.

Thanks Gary, you make me blush

I agree that the majority of skilled photographers can squeeze good images out of whatever camera they have at hand but think that specialised gear offers more room to play with enhancing the photographers capabilities, if the basic skill set isn't there however there's nothing to enhance so the expense of specialised gear goes to waste...

[Jakov Minić]

Jan Anne, your trinitron images are spectacular!
Regardless of the camera used your images would still be spectacular!

[Jakov Minić]

BTW I spot a Bear a local rascal and a giant in that cave...

local rascal