Thanks for the review! Beautiful photos! There just seems to be something magical about the 40mm equiv FoV that sort of leads people to take these really elegant compositions (or at least attempt that). I've seen in in the brief time I've had 40mm FoV equivs myself. Personally money is a bit tight these days so I'd have to sell some stuff to be able to afford it, but if I'm really interested in this lens. Seems quite good, and having to focus yourself seem like a great experience!
This lens was my first manual lens and I'm still getting used to getting focus at the more open apertures, but a lightbulb moment for me of the image quality was when I got sunstars on some indoor church lights at f4 - the image looked fantastic and something I couldn't get with my other lenses. Colour grading seems to be really easy with this lens, potentially even easier than the Fuji lenses
Lovely little lens. I have the Fuji Xf27 f2.8 (lovely lens) and the Voigtlander 23mm nokton for Fuji and a Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmerit- and yet I still want this lens. When I travel my default FF equivalent is 28/40 as well. I usually take 2 or 3 cameras and 3 or 4 primes but 90% are shot at 28 or 40.
Def recognized some shots in Maine. Looks like the children’s chapel and marshal point. Thanks for the review I’ve been thinking of adding this to my collection.
I've just purchased this lens but unfortunately due to weather conditions I haven't had that much of an opportunity to use it, i guess the lack of weather sealing is a disadvantage of this lens. But in terms of size and weight it's perfect. I also use it with the XT3 and it pairs very well with it i think. Love the shot of the birds by the way, great photo.
those were some really lovely sample images, how do you find focusing with the automatic focus magnification turned on (it engages when you move the focus ring)?
Coming from a rangefinder system, it often helps to always have the focus ring at infinity so that you know you will always be turning it in one direction to achieve focus, rather than not knowing whether to turn the tab left or right to get the subject in focus.
Just one more data point... I have this lens and love it. I have been using 40mm as my "normal" for some time, so I had no problem getting on with this lens. I have had the Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 for years, and while I've never been limited by the aperture, I was always bumping up against the minimum focus distance which was too long. This Voightlander lens in addition to the one-stop advantage allows for much closer subject distance compared to the Fujifilm lens. On my X-T3, as soon as I touch the focus tab, the camera jumps right to the zoomed-in focus aid and it is quick and sure achieving focus. I actually turned off the red peaking function and have a much cleaner image in the finder. Outdoors and in good light, I use zone focusing which works great. Infinity is true infinity, which it never was on the cheap manual focus lenses that I tried from the usual Chinese brands. Plus, the viewfinder distance and DOF scale exactly matches the scale on the lens barrel, so you can set depth of field zone from the lens or with the camera at your eye. Two outings with this lens and I had total confidence in using it in real world shooting. FWIW... I just saw that Voightlander announced an exact twin of this lens in 18mm (one stop slower) which could be a perfect street lens given how great zone focusing is with the wider lens. Assuming the quality is the same, I can see that lens joining my kit.
Excellent points! Thanks for commenting on the minimum focus difference vs. the Fuji 2.8 lens. Great call in regards to using the manual focus zoom when moving the focus ring, I’ve turned that on since and have found I nail focus far more often. I used the distance scale to zone focus much of the time when doing street photography and it’s really invaluable. I saw that they announced a 18mm and I’m tempted! I love my Fuji 18mm 1.4, so it would be tough to justify it, but we’ll see. If you grab that, let me know what you think!
Oooh I have this lens (which is lovely) and a X-T5 and didn’t know about the feature where it enables the zoomed-in focus view when changing the focus. Turns out I had disabled “Focus check” (which controls that feature). So my settings are now: “MF Assist: OFF, Focus check: ON”. Also discovered that there are different levels of zoom. Now I just need to lose the bad habit of half-pressing the shutter release all the time (since it discards the zoomed-in view), and only half-press it when I want to check or adjust my composition. Gotta build some muscle memory.
@@fvsch one other cool thing that I discovered by accident when manual focusing with this lens, if you use the joystick to move the focus point to your subject when shooting off-center compositions, as soon as you touch the tab to manually focus, the zoom-in happens where the focus point was. This negates the need to focus then recompose.
@@albertsmith9315 Thanks! Found out about this too yesterday when doing more testing. There are quite a few possibilities for using zoom-in focus check indeed.
Hard to believe that this lens is miles better then the Fuji 27mm f/2.8... Yeah, this has f/2, but the rest is better too? Think the tab lets you focus this better/easier?
I have this lens, it's definatly special lens. It's small, fast, and I like pictures that comes out. Maybe biggest weakness is Manual focus, but this what makes it more special, and not like other manual lensas this one has connection with camera. Focus tab also allows to be faster, much more comfortable to look for focus. Had before 7artisans 25mm 1.8 clickless aperture, smooth focus ring, it was just impossible to find whats where without looking :)) but for tenth of a price which is ridiculous and picture quality of 7artisans was good. But for ergonomics and exif data for me voigtländer worth the extra cash (kinda)... :)
Yes it's true. I'm old. 😂. My first camera was a Canon FTB ql [ql= quick load]. I purchased it in 1975. It was bundled with a 50mm. This was true with Pentax and others.
@@Geert890 Probably cos it's tiny. 50mm lenses are among the smallest across various brands. The true standard lens was originally 43mm (the diagonal of a 35mm film) but slowly became a 50mm.
You should sell your Fuji kit and buy a Nikon Df. It's such an awesome camera and I can use my manual MF lenses with it, including non-AI! Its sensor is beautiful, the dynamic range is nuts and the high ISO quality is on par with modern cameras. The only thing missing in mine is a custom focusing screen but I'll take care of it one day :)
Thank you for this review ! The right length, the right balance between information and personal insight.
Thanks for the review! Beautiful photos! There just seems to be something magical about the 40mm equiv FoV that sort of leads people to take these really elegant compositions (or at least attempt that). I've seen in in the brief time I've had 40mm FoV equivs myself.
Personally money is a bit tight these days so I'd have to sell some stuff to be able to afford it, but if I'm really interested in this lens. Seems quite good, and having to focus yourself seem like a great experience!
This lens was my first manual lens and I'm still getting used to getting focus at the more open apertures, but a lightbulb moment for me of the image quality was when I got sunstars on some indoor church lights at f4 - the image looked fantastic and something I couldn't get with my other lenses. Colour grading seems to be really easy with this lens, potentially even easier than the Fuji lenses
Lovely little lens. I have the Fuji Xf27 f2.8 (lovely lens) and the Voigtlander 23mm nokton for Fuji and a Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmerit- and yet I still want this lens. When I travel my default FF equivalent is 28/40 as well. I usually take 2 or 3 cameras and 3 or 4 primes but 90% are shot at 28 or 40.
Def recognized some shots in Maine. Looks like the children’s chapel and marshal point. Thanks for the review I’ve been thinking of adding this to my collection.
Great video and beautiful photos Matthew!
Thank you so much!
I've just purchased this lens but unfortunately due to weather conditions I haven't had that much of an opportunity to use it, i guess the lack of weather sealing is a disadvantage of this lens. But in terms of size and weight it's perfect. I also use it with the XT3 and it pairs very well with it i think. Love the shot of the birds by the way, great photo.
I’ve even felt in rivers with non weather sealed lens and nothing happened. Weather sealing is over rated
Very nice shots. 👍
On the xe4? Amazing!
those were some really lovely sample images, how do you find focusing with the automatic focus magnification turned on (it engages when you move the focus ring)?
Thank you! Yeah, I use the automatic focus assist when I move the ring and it’s extremely helpful!
Coming from a rangefinder system, it often helps to always have the focus ring at infinity so that you know you will always be turning it in one direction to achieve focus, rather than not knowing whether to turn the tab left or right to get the subject in focus.
I am enjoying with this lens. This lens is very small and cute.
Just one more data point...
I have this lens and love it. I have been using 40mm as my "normal" for some time, so I had no problem getting on with this lens. I have had the Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 for years, and while I've never been limited by the aperture, I was always bumping up against the minimum focus distance which was too long. This Voightlander lens in addition to the one-stop advantage allows for much closer subject distance compared to the Fujifilm lens.
On my X-T3, as soon as I touch the focus tab, the camera jumps right to the zoomed-in focus aid and it is quick and sure achieving focus. I actually turned off the red peaking function and have a much cleaner image in the finder. Outdoors and in good light, I use zone focusing which works great. Infinity is true infinity, which it never was on the cheap manual focus lenses that I tried from the usual Chinese brands. Plus, the viewfinder distance and DOF scale exactly matches the scale on the lens barrel, so you can set depth of field zone from the lens or with the camera at your eye. Two outings with this lens and I had total confidence in using it in real world shooting.
FWIW... I just saw that Voightlander announced an exact twin of this lens in 18mm (one stop slower) which could be a perfect street lens given how great zone focusing is with the wider lens. Assuming the quality is the same, I can see that lens joining my kit.
Excellent points! Thanks for commenting on the minimum focus difference vs. the Fuji 2.8 lens. Great call in regards to using the manual focus zoom when moving the focus ring, I’ve turned that on since and have found I nail focus far more often. I used the distance scale to zone focus much of the time when doing street photography and it’s really invaluable. I saw that they announced a 18mm and I’m tempted! I love my Fuji 18mm 1.4, so it would be tough to justify it, but we’ll see. If you grab that, let me know what you think!
Oooh I have this lens (which is lovely) and a X-T5 and didn’t know about the feature where it enables the zoomed-in focus view when changing the focus. Turns out I had disabled “Focus check” (which controls that feature). So my settings are now: “MF Assist: OFF, Focus check: ON”. Also discovered that there are different levels of zoom. Now I just need to lose the bad habit of half-pressing the shutter release all the time (since it discards the zoomed-in view), and only half-press it when I want to check or adjust my composition. Gotta build some muscle memory.
@@fvsch one other cool thing that I discovered by accident when manual focusing with this lens, if you use the joystick to move the focus point to your subject when shooting off-center compositions, as soon as you touch the tab to manually focus, the zoom-in happens where the focus point was. This negates the need to focus then recompose.
@@albertsmith9315 Thanks! Found out about this too yesterday when doing more testing. There are quite a few possibilities for using zoom-in focus check indeed.
Hard to believe that this lens is miles better then the Fuji 27mm f/2.8... Yeah, this has f/2, but the rest is better too? Think the tab lets you focus this better/easier?
Manual focus with the fully manual focus lense is just better. F/2 is also significantly faster and bokeh is nicer.
But there is no WR and no AF.
I have this lens, it's definatly special lens. It's small, fast, and I like pictures that comes out. Maybe biggest weakness is Manual focus, but this what makes it more special, and not like other manual lensas this one has connection with camera. Focus tab also allows to be faster, much more comfortable to look for focus. Had before 7artisans 25mm 1.8 clickless aperture, smooth focus ring, it was just impossible to find whats where without looking :)) but for tenth of a price which is ridiculous and picture quality of 7artisans was good. But for ergonomics and exif data for me voigtländer worth the extra cash (kinda)... :)
J'adore ! 👏
hey by any chance do work with DW News...... i am having a dejavu moment
I don’t! Must be someone who looks like me, haha.
You'd better be careful not to try the Ricoh twins...
I don't think it's true that in the film era cameras were often bundled with 50's. Where did you get this information?
Yes it's true. I'm old. 😂. My first camera was a Canon FTB ql [ql= quick load]. I purchased it in 1975. It was bundled with a 50mm. This was true with Pentax and others.
Yes it is true. Hence the term “nifty fifty” . I grew up with film. All my early Nikon, Minolta and Yashica cameras came with a 50mm basic kit lens.
@@davidbrighten2572 How does that explain the term nifty fifty?
@@tapasyatyaga4041 coooll didnt know that
@@Geert890 Probably cos it's tiny. 50mm lenses are among the smallest across various brands. The true standard lens was originally 43mm (the diagonal of a 35mm film) but slowly became a 50mm.
You should sell your Fuji kit and buy a Nikon Df. It's such an awesome camera and I can use my manual MF lenses with it, including non-AI! Its sensor is beautiful, the dynamic range is nuts and the high ISO quality is on par with modern cameras. The only thing missing in mine is a custom focusing screen but I'll take care of it one day :)