I used to have an Xpro 3 with the voigtlander 1.2. I found that lens WAY more to my liking than the Fujinon lenses. The colors look great on the Fujinon lenses, but each and every one of them I used just always had a flat look to the photos. Subject, foreground background, etc just looked like flat layers. The voigtlander gave the subject a certain 3d pop and some life to the photos. Still doesn’t come close to my Leica glass but pretty close!
Voightlander lenses make for nice portraits or dreamy urban night shots in the case of the 40mm f1.4 Nokton. However I realised earlier this year the hit rate on manual focus for shots of my 6 month baby girl was pretty low. I picked up the both the Viltrox 23 & 56mm f1.4 and was particularly impressed with the 23mm, great value. However I will say nothing beats the focus fall off you get on the Voigty beautiful lenses
Totally understand your critique! Especially the part with children. I mean, I could shoot with zone focus, which is super convenient but works best outside in good light. Set the lens to f/11 and set the focus, done. But sometimes I value reliable AF with kids and of course I could train to get better with focusing like distance estimations and so on. I got their 35mm Nokton and it is a lovely lens, but I also own Fujis 35mm f/1.4.
I sold mine a year ago, build was great, F1.2 was nice to have, images and rendering was a bit underwhelming, bokeh was nice but there was no pop and it was quite unsharp until F2.8
Not all Voightlander’s have edge fringing or L/CA on white objects - the Voightlander APO Lanthars ( 35 /50 ) I have are the cleanest lenses I have ever used chromatically. In fact they are so free of color fringing that they have become my go to lenses when using an anamorphic adapter for filmmaking. Anamorphic adapters like the Aivascope have a tendency to bring out whatever flaws exist in a taking lens and the lanthars are incredible
I was really on the fence about this lens...my 35mm (a Voigtlander apo ultron f2, which I simply love, including the manual focus experience) was feeling a bit too narrow sometimes, but I got the Fujinon 23mm f1.4 wr two days ago instead. Currently wondering if I made the right choice as the Fuji turns my small camera into a rather hefty normal one...the image quality is awesome, the manual focus is quite accurate, the af very fast and reliable, but it doesn't feel the same at all...somehow I don't think getting into that price and size range is the right path for an apsc camera...
So many of the cheap Chinese 23mm manual focus lenses for Fuji are excellent. This is my preferred focal length and while the new Fuji 23mm F1.4 WR is my primary choice, I've shot with Viltrox, TTartisan, 7artisans, Meike, etc. and they all make images with character that look great.
Mmm I doubt you have shot with many voigtlander lenses, what makes them special is their color rendering. BTW their apo-lanthar series for the e-mount are extraordinary so not all of them suffer from CA!
I had this lens and returned it...just too soft for me. I bought the Voigtlander Ultron 35mm F2.0, Vintage VM Type II. I use it with a Fuji-Leica adapter. This lens is super sharp and has a nice focusing tab, a lot like Leica lenses. It took a lot of research to figure out that the Type II lenses are much sharper than the earlier versions, so if searching for one, make sure you get the correct one. Voigtlander doesn't make this distinction obvious when you look at their lineup. I ended up going to a Leica forum to figure out which one to get and glad I did. This is an amazing lens...small, easy to focus, super sharp and a great travel lens.
The biggest issue with this lens is actually its field curvature, making its stopped down shots pretty abysmal quality. But if shooting wide open (or close to) and looking for characterful rendering, something where when the light and all the goodness comes together (especially in mono)... then this lens should deliver really well. I'm still on the lookout for one at an affordable price, if it could be used to good effect as a general purpose lens then I think I would be all over it, but in my eyes its a specialty lens that only delivers at the wide apertures.
Leica Q2 - Wide angle, shallow DOF - Beautiful rendering - Metal lens, with very good (not quite M level) MF experience and focus tab. Oh and macro capability. - Decent autofocus when needed/desired - Weather sealed - Fairly compact compared to most cameras, especially when lens is factored in - Cropping to get a nice 35mm equivalent beyond the standard 28mm - Pricing down to reasonable levels now that Q3 is out. Pair it with your D70 and a 50mm or 85mm lens and you’re set. As long as you’re not birding lol
I've said it so many times. My 80usd used 7artisans 35mm1.2 mark2 felt better, had better bokeh, nicer rendering and was sharper than the 7 times more expensive voigtländer. I don't get why people spend so much money on Voigtländer when the alternative are much better for the price. Voigtländer is now Cosina but the old Leica voigtländer lenses are amazing.
@@stayuntilforever not agree. no matter how similar the lens design, 23mm and 35mm are 2 quite different focal length. you can‘t replace a 23mm lens by a 35mm lens, can you?
7artisan glass has such unbelievable boring rendition; probably the most boring rendition out of all the chinese glass.. even more so than this Voigtländer
I agree with your thinking on several levels the most important being aesthetics, which in itself is a very very important factor. When you buy something that you truly love you regret it if you someday sell it even if you are on the fence right now. THE ONLY reason to sell something you truly love is if you are upgrading to something much much better and more unique (and generally more expensive).
I used to have an Xpro 3 with the voigtlander 1.2. I found that lens WAY more to my liking than the Fujinon lenses. The colors look great on the Fujinon lenses, but each and every one of them I used just always had a flat look to the photos. Subject, foreground background, etc just looked like flat layers. The voigtlander gave the subject a certain 3d pop and some life to the photos. Still doesn’t come close to my Leica glass but pretty close!
Voightlander lenses make for nice portraits or dreamy urban night shots in the case of the 40mm f1.4 Nokton. However I realised earlier this year the hit rate on manual focus for shots of my 6 month baby girl was pretty low. I picked up the both the Viltrox 23 & 56mm f1.4 and was particularly impressed with the 23mm, great value. However I will say nothing beats the focus fall off you get on the Voigty beautiful lenses
Yeah, Noktons have that special organic look, more character than XF35mm f/1.4
Great real world review Eric! Thank you!
Totally understand your critique! Especially the part with children. I mean, I could shoot with zone focus, which is super convenient but works best outside in good light. Set the lens to f/11 and set the focus, done. But sometimes I value reliable AF with kids and of course I could train to get better with focusing like distance estimations and so on. I got their 35mm Nokton and it is a lovely lens, but I also own Fujis 35mm f/1.4.
I got the new 23mm f1.4 wr because this is my preferred focal length and it’s worth every penny
I sold mine a year ago, build was great, F1.2 was nice to have, images and rendering was a bit underwhelming, bokeh was nice but there was no pop and it was quite unsharp until F2.8
you should definitely give Viltrox a go..not much bigger than a fuji cron but 1.4. Its a decent lens at a good price
The video AF on the x-t4 is looking good!
Yeah especially given I’m using the old 14/2.8 lens
Not all Voightlander’s have edge fringing or L/CA on white objects - the Voightlander APO Lanthars ( 35 /50 ) I have are the cleanest lenses I have ever used chromatically. In fact they are so free of color fringing that they have become my go to lenses when using an anamorphic adapter for filmmaking. Anamorphic adapters like the Aivascope have a tendency to bring out whatever flaws exist in a taking lens and the lanthars are incredible
The fuji 23mm f2 is on my X-T5 90% of the time. I feel like that would check most of the boxes for you.
I was really on the fence about this lens...my 35mm (a Voigtlander apo ultron f2, which I simply love, including the manual focus experience) was feeling a bit too narrow sometimes, but I got the Fujinon 23mm f1.4 wr two days ago instead. Currently wondering if I made the right choice as the Fuji turns my small camera into a rather hefty normal one...the image quality is awesome, the manual focus is quite accurate, the af very fast and reliable, but it doesn't feel the same at all...somehow I don't think getting into that price and size range is the right path for an apsc camera...
You might want to consider the Voigtlander Ultron 27mm f/2.0 too, it's super slim and light
@@KingFiercer_zip It's at the top of my list, I like its image quality, it will be perfect for keeping my x-s10 in my winter jacket all the time 👍
Keep in mind that the EXIF data is not for all Fujifilm cameras. It won't work on my XT20 🙂
I bought a 7artisen 24mm f1.4 for under 100 from B&H that does all what you pointed out.
I need to investigate this lens
‘Tubesteak lookin’ lens’ 😆
So many of the cheap Chinese 23mm manual focus lenses for Fuji are excellent. This is my preferred focal length and while the new Fuji 23mm F1.4 WR is my primary choice, I've shot with Viltrox, TTartisan, 7artisans, Meike, etc. and they all make images with character that look great.
most chinese glass except Viltrox has extremely boring rendition for me
Mmm I doubt you have shot with many voigtlander lenses, what makes them special is their color rendering. BTW their apo-lanthar series for the e-mount are extraordinary so not all of them suffer from CA!
Famous words, stick with me moving forward. Lol.
I had this lens and returned it...just too soft for me. I bought the Voigtlander Ultron 35mm F2.0, Vintage VM Type II. I use it with a Fuji-Leica adapter. This lens is super sharp and has a nice focusing tab, a lot like Leica lenses. It took a lot of research to figure out that the Type II lenses are much sharper than the earlier versions, so if searching for one, make sure you get the correct one. Voigtlander doesn't make this distinction obvious when you look at their lineup. I ended up going to a Leica forum to figure out which one to get and glad I did. This is an amazing lens...small, easy to focus, super sharp and a great travel lens.
The biggest issue with this lens is actually its field curvature, making its stopped down shots pretty abysmal quality. But if shooting wide open (or close to) and looking for characterful rendering, something where when the light and all the goodness comes together (especially in mono)... then this lens should deliver really well.
I'm still on the lookout for one at an affordable price, if it could be used to good effect as a general purpose lens then I think I would be all over it, but in my eyes its a specialty lens that only delivers at the wide apertures.
Get a Brightin Star. You wont regret it.
Leica Q2
- Wide angle, shallow DOF
- Beautiful rendering
- Metal lens, with very good (not quite M level) MF experience and focus tab. Oh and macro capability.
- Decent autofocus when needed/desired
- Weather sealed
- Fairly compact compared to most cameras, especially when lens is factored in
- Cropping to get a nice 35mm equivalent beyond the standard 28mm
- Pricing down to reasonable levels now that Q3 is out.
Pair it with your D70 and a 50mm or 85mm lens and you’re set. As long as you’re not birding lol
In what world is a Q2 reasonably priced
@@kietay a world where the Fuji X100VI has been selling for north of $2K in the past several months.
I've said it so many times. My 80usd used 7artisans 35mm1.2 mark2 felt better, had better bokeh, nicer rendering and was sharper than the 7 times more expensive voigtländer. I don't get why people spend so much money on Voigtländer when the alternative are much better for the price. Voigtländer is now Cosina but the old Leica voigtländer lenses are amazing.
Sir, we are talking about 23mm (APSC) lens. No matter how good the other 35mm lens, it is still apple to orange.
@@markkrell7845 yes, but the 23mm has similar design, bokeh and rendering and price as the 35mm voigtländer
@@stayuntilforever not agree. no matter how similar the lens design, 23mm and 35mm are 2 quite different focal length. you can‘t replace a 23mm lens by a 35mm lens, can you?
@@markkrell7845 I replaced my XF23mmF2 with the XF35mm1.4. Best thing I've done😁
7artisan glass has such unbelievable boring rendition; probably the most boring rendition out of all the chinese glass.. even more so than this Voigtländer
I agree with your thinking on several levels the most important being aesthetics, which in itself is a very very important factor. When you buy something that you truly love you regret it if you someday sell it even if you are on the fence right now. THE ONLY reason to sell something you truly love is if you are upgrading to something much much better and more unique (and generally more expensive).
Simple, if you dropped it would you shit your pants whilst it's on it's way to the floor, there's your answer.
Sell that Fuji garbage and get a Nikon Zf with 28 and 40.
No aperture rings and they're all plastic. Nikon needs to get a line of their own "fujicrons"
@@CianMcsweeney Eric never uses the dials or aperture rings in his Fujis. He won't miss them.
@KeyAperture fake news
Big no no.