New Voigtlander Lenses & Meter for Leica M

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S.Gandy speaks highly of the Voigtlander lenses and meter at his cameraquest site and I have not seen a recent thread covering this. Has anyone used these?

Thanks for your help!

-- Mark Benton (mbenton@summitvt.com), May 28, 2002

Answers

I have the 12, 21, 25, 75 and 90 CV lenses and they are all excellent value for money. Erwin Puts reviews most of them at

http://www.imx.nl/photosite/japan/indexj.html

The gist of his conclusions is that they are very good, unbeatable value, and reach the standard of the Leica lenses of about 10 years ago. I'm not able to say whether that's fair or not, but the results I get from them satisfy me.

-- Paul Hart (paulhart@blueyonder.co.uk), May 28, 2002.


Mark,
It is in fact a very popular subject in this forum (not that it should keep us from discussing it further). I have no personal experiences to share, but if you want to research the subject further, this Google Search will show quite a few threads about Voigtlander posted in this forum.
Enjoy.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), May 28, 2002.

I have used the 50mm Nocton and the 35mm Voigts on my M6 ttl before I could afford used Leica Summicrons. The results at least in BW are to me, virtually indistinguishable from the 'crons, at least at f4 and up. The construction, however, is light years below Leica quality. They become a bit loose after a while, the (in my case) black fades and the fit to the bodies leaves to be desired. Those failings in no way affect the picture quality, mind you. For me, those lenses were a godsend when money was a bit tight as each cost me about 1/3 of a Leica 'cron in excellent condition (and be advised that you need the appropriate adapter from screw to bayonnet for use on an M; Voigt makes excellent ones). They now reside on my IIIf. You can find them on Ebay for about $250 each and that cannot be beaten.

J-D

-- Jean-David Borges (jdborges@comcast.net), May 28, 2002.


I do not have any of the voigtlander lenses but I use the vc meter, (purchased from steve gandy at less than B&H). it is wonderful, i own three hand held meters and it is the one that gets the most use. it meters the equivalent of a full frame 90 lens. I use it both hand held, pulling it out of my pocket on my m3.

-- greg mason (gmason1661@aol.com), May 28, 2002.

I use a Nokton 50/1.5 in most cases at f1.5 or f2 at low light conditions. It is great and a match to the much more expensive Summilux 50/1.4. Certainly not the build quality of a summilux but the price-quality-ratio is unbeatable. Although its lens mount is not Leica quality, in comparison with modern (even expensive) AF lenses for SLR the voigtlaender buiild quality is superior. What else do you want? :-) My VC meter for a M4-P from Steven Gandy is just great. Much better than the old fashioned cds Leicameter MR4 - even if the VC meter lacks a AE lock

-- Frank (Thoma2811@aol.com), May 28, 2002.


The Voigtlander lenses offer a compact alternative for CL/CLE users like the 90 f3.5 (an excellent lens)A black VC meter is a gem for those CL's with faulty meters and fits perfectly with the style and size of the camera. Many claim the inferior quality construction to Leica lenses, (black paint on them does wears rapidly)to which the 2 latest released lenses the 50 f2.5 and 28 f3.5 have much heavier construction and paint than their earlier offerings. Early reports agree that these new lenses address the construction nigglings (although they are more expensive). Hopefully these improvements will become retrospect for their entire range. Either way thay are incredible value and if your use screw mount there is no better range out their new.

-- Joel Matherson (joel_2000@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002.

I use the VC with my M3 and M4. Compact, light weight and accurate! I normally use it handheld. Value for money!

-- Greg Choong (greg_choong@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

My photography activities are more exciting now,I bought the CV 15,25,28,35,50,75,90 & R & R2 bodies.My CV lenses on M3 too.Fantastic results and good value for money.I have put aside all my Nikon gears and happy playing with the CV lenses. James.

-- James Song (jamesong@starhub.net.sg), May 29, 2002.

Hi, Mark:

The VC is a nice meter but I switched to a Scout II though the bigger it is. The main difference which justifies the change for me is that I couldn't operate the VC with just one hand, which is easy to do with the Scout II. Besides that, the Scout II uses NO batteries. And it "sees" as a 90mm lens, same as the VC.

But still the VC is a nice very pockletable little meter if you don't mind two hands operation and batteries . . .

BTW: I didn't like to mount the VC on the hot shoe of my M3s because metering with it that way was still more difficult (for me, that is) because you have to look at it from the top to see the indicating LEDs, so that there is no way to meter with it while the camera is at eye level, so what to mount it on top of the camera for ?

Regards

-Iván.

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), May 29, 2002.


Hi friends,

VC is good stuff and it is getting better. I love my R2 (Olive). The M mount could be made a little bit snugger for Leica M mount lenses but still quite good. Built quality does vary. I find the smaller lenses beter made. The silver wears better than the black. Optics are very good. The compactness of the little lenses is a blessing. There are lots of VC accessories that only used to be available used.

They also mount on the Barnack Leicas and other LSM cameras.

the 12 and 15 are unique lenses.

Have my lenses are VC and the other half are Leitz.

Best,

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@iij4u.or.jp), May 29, 2002.



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