Voigtlander Lanthar 50mm f2.8 from Vitoret D

Scored 3 broken rangefinder cameras from the antique market on Sunday.  One of them is the Voigtlander Vitoret D with a Lanthar 50mm f2.8 lens, which I have been using for the last few days and I really enjoy it.

It's commonly believed that the original Lanthar lenses were made with glass containing lanthanum, a rare earth element that gives the glass high refractive index.  Later ones made by Cosina, like the Lanthar 90mm f3.5 and the 125mm f2.5, do not contain lanthanum, I believe.  Of course, lenses containing lanthanum does not automatically mean great lens by default.  The Color-Lanthar 42mm f2.8 that I tried was OK, but not great.  This 50mm f2.8 Lanthar, I like it quite a bit more.

The Lanthar 50mm f2.8 contains 4 aperture blades, as oppose to most of the old Voigtlander rangefinder lenses with 5.  This creates interesting bokeh, like the enlarging lenses I tried, here, here, and here.  But when shot wide open, the bokeh looks normal, of course, and it's quite nice in fact.

I also have no complains about the optical performance of the lens, given that it's not top of the line lens.  Wide open the center of the frame is acceptably sharp, but the outer edges are mushy, but improves as the lens is stopped down, but the edges are still not critically sharp until f16.  It's interesting how much difference between f11 and f16.  But of course the overall sharpness starts to suffer a bit at f16 due to diffraction limit, though still excellent.

To me, it's acceptable for a lens to have at least one aperture that provides uniform sharpness when needed.  My shooting style does not require uniform sharpness most of the time and when I do need it, I can stop it down to get it.

Overall, I think it's a very good lens for the money.  The Vitoret D I got was $20, and it was very easy to remove the lens.

All pictures below were taken with the Voigtlander Lanthar 50mm f2.8 and Sony A7.

Voigtlander Color-Skopar X 50mm f2.8

I am a big fan of the original Voigtlander lenses.  I would buy them whenever the price is reasonable.  There are many, many Voigtlander lenses out there, from large format, folder, to 35mm format.  They made a series of lenses in the DKL mount.  This Color-Skopar X 50mm f2.8 is one of them, which was used in some Voigtlander and Kodak reflex cameras.  The lens itself has a modified Tessar design and is very well corrected for chromatic aberration (colour fringing).  Quite amazing for a lens designed in the late 1940s when you compare it to today's modern lenses and many of them show heavy chromatic aberration.

The lens is very small, but made beautifully, like most lenses in DKL mount.  Sharpness at the centre of the frame is excellent even at f2.8.  Stopping down to f11 and the edges are also very good at the slight loss of sharpness.  The bokeh produced by this lens is exquisite and pleasing.  Colours tend to be more saturated than many other lenses from the same era.

The only negative, is the rather slow maximum aperture for a standard 50mm lens.  However, it should be considered an amazing feat to produce such a small lens with an f2.8 aperture more than 60 years ago.

Overall, a very enjoyable lens that produces nice results.

All pictures below were taken with the Voigtlander Color-Skopar X 50mm f2.8 & Sony A7

Voigtlander Color-Skoperax 35mm f2.8 QBM

The Color-Skoparex 35mm f2.8 in Rollei QBM mount was one of the lenses I bought from the camera show last Sunday.  I took it out today and shot a few frames.  Side by side, the Skoparex and the Zeiss Distagon look almost identical, except the name ring and the coating. The Skoparex has a newer, multi-coating on the elements and you can see from the picture below, that it has much less reflection than the Zeiss. Physically, the two lenses share the same design.

Looking at the pictures from the Skoparex, there is no surprise here.  It performs nearly identical the the Distagon 35mm f2.8. In other words, it's not a bad lens, but on the NEX-6, the edges are not quite as sharp as the center although at f8, it's quite good. I would imagine the edges would not be as good on the A7 full frame, but then I could be wrong. It all depends on how the sensor reacts to the lens.  Some lenses, namely, Leica M lenses, perform so well on film, but don't fare too well on the A7/A7r.

On the NEX-6, the center of the lens is excellent, even at f2.8, but as stated above, the edge is less than optimal. It's unfortunate that none of my QBM to EOS adapters can focus the lens to infinity, or else I would have tried the lens on the 5D II and see how the true edges are.

All the pictures below were taken with Sony NEX-6 & Voigtlander Color-Skoparex 35mm f2.8.