Voigtländer SL 180mm f/4 APO Lanthar

[Fons Baerken]

D700 cv180mm f/4
High alps

[Mike G]

Fons that is a belter!

[Fons Baerken]

Thanks Mike

[jhinkey]

Reviving this thread a bit.
I've not had the greatest luck with my 180/4 Voigt SL, especially with my D800 where getting sharp focus was almost impossible.
On my A7R/RII it was better, but I never felt that this lens got respectably sharp at far, near, or at MFD.  I have the 90/3.5 SL-II which was easily sharper relatively speaking.

So, I have a mint copy that I'm not entirely happy with and have just found a reasonably-priced SL copy that's cosmetically scratched up, but appears to be in excellent optical condition.  This lens is so compact and, despite sharpness issues, has excellent contrast - I'd hate to give up on it if I just happen to have a not-so-stellar copy. (mine has been CLA'd and infinity adjusted, but no change in sharpness).
Do I grab another copy and give it a go?  Do you guys think a good copy of the 180/4 will stand up to the D800 &/or A7RII sensor regarding sharpness?

I'm spending 3 weeks in Europe in June and would love to take this with me instead of the 180/3.4 APO Telyt, which although super sharp, is not all that compact nor light weight as the 180/4 APO is.

Thanks - John

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The problem with the 180/4 is mainly the very short focus throw that makes it problematic to reach perfect focus *and* keep it there for the exposure.

The lens itself certainly can exploit the capacity of a 36  MPix sensor. It has less "APO" capability than the legendary 125/2.5 brother, but shares other characteristics in form of a very smooth transitional drawing from plane of focus to the less sharp parts of the frame.

[jhinkey]

Thanks Bjorn - I will try to show some images of what I'm talking about in the next couple of days.

I'd love to have a Voigtlander repair facility put the lens on the optical bench to see if it is in fact as sharp as it's supposed to be - hopefully it's just my poor technique that is at fault - but I've never found such a place.

I did have an issue with one of the rear elements having a deposit on them that clearly showed up as less sharp regions in the final image and I had that taken care of at Steve's Camera in LA and it showed a marked improvement, but still was not as sharp as I thought it should be.

I do realize that one of the problems with a small/compact and relatively light weight tele lens is camera movement, even at higher speeds, due to the lower mass/inertia.  I will try to get it out with the A7RII this week during our predicted spate of great weather here in the PNW.

[bjornthun]

John, it may be easier to try the Voigt 180/4 CV with the 10x  focus magnifier of the Sony A7x first, and see what kind of results you get.

[jhinkey]

John, it may be easier to try the Voigt 180/4 CV with the 10x  focus magnifier of the Sony A7x first, and see what kind of results you get.

Very true.  With my D800 and it's live view line skipping I've found it sometimes difficult to get optimal focus with finicky lenses (i.e., short throw at far focusing distances) and my A7R days it was difficult to get hand-held teles in focus due to the jumpy 100% view w/o IBIS.
Definitely the A7RII is way way better in this regard.

I really want to include this lens in an upcoming 3-week France/Italy/Switzerland trip for a light weight kit:
16/3.5 AI Fish - maybe
10/5.6 Voigt (if it comes out in time)
15/4.5-III Voigt (excellent lens)
40/1.4 MC Voigt (it's OK)
75/2.5 Summarit-M OR 75/2.5 Voigt (need to compare these)
135/3.4 Telyt (awesome!)
180/4 APO Voigt (compact/light) or 180/3.4 Telyt (larger/heavy!)

- John

[jhinkey]

Well, I lugged the 180/4 APO CV & A7RII with me today and managed to take a few hand-held images that I tried to be really careful for critical focusing.  IBIS was on and I shot ARW files.
I processed them in ACR with my default processing (sharpening and typical curves adjustments).   I then inspected them at 100% in PS6 after conversion.

Full Image @ f/4:


Left Edge 100% Crop @f/4:


Right Edge 100% Crop @f/4:


This is wide open and it gets a tad better at f/5.6, but what do you guys think?  I have barely shot this with the A7RII, so perhaps my focus was just always off with the D800 and A7R (which didn't steady the image when hand-held, which is most of the shots I made with it).

It looks fairly sharp to me, especially considering the atmospherics of the morning.  If anything it lacks some snap to it or biting sharpness per se, but it seems like it's doing the 42MP of the A7RII pretty good justice as we say.

It could also be that the A7RII sensor design works better with this lens than the D800 or A7R due to the BSI design.  Or, more likely, I can accurately focus this lens with the A7RII while I could not with the D800 (certainly not using the OVF and LiveView on the D800 is pretty bad due to line-skipping).

I may still grab the cosmetically-challenged version that I found and keep the better copy - if they are in fact optically different in their performance.

I will also get out the 180/3.4 and do a direct comparison between them at distance and up close.

[pluton]

What I'm seeing is outstanding for a tele lens wide open.  Seems good side-to-side as well.

[Erik Lund]

Looks as good as it gets, nothing wrong with that lens except the design of the focus throw. D800 was not the greatest camera for manual or LV focusing.
I would by far prefer to use a Nikkor 180mm 2.8 AF-D for nailing focus accurately.

[richardHaw]

that lens has such a following in the used market

out of topic: pitbulls are awesome, i would not want to have any other breed again

[PeterN]

Thank you for sharing your views and photos. I really like the rendering (besides the fact that you have a good eye, for a scene, composition and focus).

I did not know that we had so many owners here!

[jhinkey]

Well, this morning I took some time to compare the 180CV to my 180/3.4 Telyt, hand held with the A7RII focused at f/4 using the 100% view

Here's the whole scene:


here's the center 100% crop from the 180CV at f/4 on the left and 180 Telyt at f/4 on the right:



as you can see, at least for this scene at f/4 the CV gives nothing up to the Telyt in the center of the frame and it's pretty much the same story at the edges.

I did not shoot at f/5.6, but will next time.

Also, this 180 Telyt is one of the highest serial numbers I've seen so it has the latest coatings.  I have a much older beat up Telyt that is also super sharp - in fact it might be even sharper the the newer serial number Telyt.  I will try the CV against my older Telyt next.

I am very surprised by the performance of the CV - I guess my issues have been focusing accuracy related for these past few years.

- John

[tommiejeep]

John, many thanks for the write up and examples.  I've been watching for the CV 180 and a 135 3.4 Telyt.  I took the CV 15 4.5III and 75 2.5 to Rajasthan.  The longest lens I took was the 105 f2D.   Should have taken the 180 2.8D or at least the Kenko TC1.4 for the 105  .   I really enjoyed shooting the 15mm in the close quarters to the Forts in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.  Heck , manual focus with that dof is a breeze.   I almost bought the Summarit 2.5 (2.4) 75MM a couple of times while my wife was in the UK.  Would be very interested in your comparison between the Voigtlander and the Leica 75's.

Edit: the trip was a good learning experience with the Sony a7II but I am very happy that I took the Df as well.   Shooting from the moving vehicles is not the strong point of the Sony.   Bjørn , the detail across the frame on that collapsed roof is really something and great colours.
Cheers,
Tom