Hi: How about the performance of the Voigtlander 25/4.0 Skopar? Does anyone had and used the lens ? Thank you very much!

-- Chih-Chien Lin (chihchienlintw@yahoo.com.tw), December 31, 2001

Answers

Lens is great.

-- Josh Root (rootj@att.net), December 31, 2001.

Sharp, contrasty, and no distortion as far as I can see. A great lens at a great price with 25mm finder included. Scale focusing no problem. If you have the Hexar RF just tape over the bright lines and use the whole viewfinder, set the lens at f/5.6 and 6 feet and have yourself a neat little P&S!

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), December 31, 2001.

As Ray said, the lens is sharp, contrasty, and shows no linear distortion. That's what I like about it. What I don't like about it is that its colour rendition seems flatter (or more neutral, I should say) than that of the Leica Elmarit-M 21mm ASPH and the Voigtlander Color-Skopar 21mm f/4. Mind you, this colour rendition comment is based solely on my untrained eyes, and not on scientific tests. Besides, having more neutral colour rendition may not be an issue to others--I just like lenses that produce higher colour saturation. Another (minor) issue is the framing of the external viewfinder, which isn't very accurate as it tends to include more space on the upper part of the photos, but this can be remedied by taping over about 3mm of the top part of the outside-facing lens of the viewfinder (this has been dealt with before in other threads in this forum.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), December 31, 2001.

Its a very good lens for the money--very compact, sharp, low distortion and corner falloff. I'd say its as good as my 24mm Nikkor, but of course is an f4.0 and not a f2.8. The finder shows more at the top of the image field than you get on film, and I put a thin piece of black tape on the top to eliminate this problem.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), December 31, 2001.

I often use this lens without the external veiwfinder as the .72 M6 is pretty close. I commonly use this lens wide open with fast black & white film and love that I can frame and shoot very quickly.

-- Michael Rivers (mrivers@mac.com), December 31, 2001.

I have thought about getting one myself, but seem to remember when it first came out some slides shot with it showed some light fall- off, even at f/5.6. Has anybody else noticed this? To use it without an external finder would be nice. How is image quality compared to the 21?

-- Ronald Blachly (theblach@swbell.net), December 31, 2001.

Haven't notice any edge fall off, but I'm mostly a color neg shooter. This lens is a great match for the Minolta CLE and its wide finder-also size wise its compact and doesn't cut much into the finder. I usually use mine without its finder and just look to the edges of the CLE's. The main limitation is as a low light lens, where the f4.0 can be a limitation (but no more so than the Tri-Elmar). I have had little trouble scale focusing the lens accurately, but you do need to be careful at the closer part of the focus range at f4.0 and 5.6. For someone like me who seldom uses a lens wider than 35mm, its a great little inexpensive gem to have in my bag when I need it.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), December 31, 2001.

I shot comparisons with the VC 25 Snap-Skopar and the pre-ASPH Leica 21 f/2.8. At f/4 the 25 was a little behind the 21 at f/2.8 and f/4 for sharpness. By f8 the lenses were mostly indistinguishable, with the 25 possibly pulling ahead especially at the corners.

Can't comment on color comparison - didn't shoot head-to-head on color film. The VC lenses TEND to look like contrasty versions of Nikkors - with a faint magenta/blue color bias and some loss of saturation due to UV contamination.

Personally I'll probably spring for the VC 21 instead, with its RF coupling and bright-line finder as a smaller alternative to the Leitz.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 01, 2002.

Even though I am happy to scale focus it, I'm surprised Voigtlander didn't couple the 25mm. How much more could it have cost to manufacturer it with a coupling cam-$10.00 a lens? $25.00 at tops? In my opinion, A 21 is harder to work with than a 24/25. It also eliminates the possibilty of using the built in finder for framing.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 01, 2002.

Andrew - remember that the 25 and 15 were introduced with a body (Bessa-L) that had no RF or viewfinder, as Colander's first toe in the market waters The Cosina board probably told the president (whose baby it was) "whatever you want, so long as it doesn't actually lose money". So he kept the first designs as simple and as cheap as possible.

And scale focusing was part of the "aura" - not unlike the Leica "O".

The Nikon/Contax version of the Colander 25 DOES couple to the RF - it wouldn't surprise me if the 25 LTM gets reissued with focusing cam - and brightline in the viewfinder to improve accuracy - once the original run gets sold out.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 02, 2002.

Andy, that would be great, as I'd also rather use 25 than the wider 21mm - could get by w/o viewfinder, and perspective would be better for including people close in. It would complement my 35, 50 and 90 about right, I think.

-- Ronald Blachly (theblach@swbell.net), January 02, 2002.