In case any of you are interested in the new Voigtlander 28mm f/1.9, I ran across a review today in the book / magazine store. In the 16 June 2001 issue of “Amateur Photography” magazine out of the U.K., there is a review which includes both graphs and actual photographs.

The photographer that reviewed the lens used it on an actual photojournalistic assignment, covering the May Day demonstrations in London. He quotes the technical details for the several photos as f/1.9 @ 1/30th, with all of the photos shot at the last light of the day. To me, the shots looked very good as reproduced, but I would guess that at least one of them had to be shot at a smaller aperture due to the deep depth of field.

The charts with the line pairs per millimeter give the optimum performance at f/8.0, but f/5.6 is almost identical. In high contrast situations, even wide open is not too shabby, giving a central 80 LP/MM. The light fall off is said to be only a third of a stop and the distortion is said to be mostly non-existent on film. Using the formula of optical and mechanical ratings, the magazine gave the lens a 92% out of a hundred.

If you are interested, stop by the store and see if this magazine is there, (the U.S. gets these a bit late due to the shipping time from England). One other point of strictly a cosmetic nature… there is a large photo of the (chrome) lens on a black Bessa R. I have always felt that chrome lenses on black bodies look weird, but that crinkled black hood makes the combination look nice to me. I might see how the set up looks on my classic M6.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), June 22, 2001

Answers

Yes this lens sounds like a winner! Its said to be the match of Leica's own 28 F2 asph and only a quarter the cost! Bet that rocks a few boats in the Leica world.

-- Joel Matherson (joel_2000@hotmail.com), July 28, 2001.