Leica m240 with Voightlander 25mm f4 street

The Voigtlander 25/4P works wonderfully on film cameras, but has issues with full frame Leica digital, giving a fairly strong red edge on the left side of the frame. Every time I try to convince myself that I can live with it, I give it a go and the red edge is just too much for me to process out in post. Unless the M240 has a different response compared with the M9, I don't think the 25/4P is worth it unless you only shoot black and white with it. For a 25mm lens, you're much better off with the Zeiss 25mm f2.8 Biogon.

lou Capeloto wrote:

Hi

Looking for a good low cost lens for street photography

Anyone use the 25mm f4 voightlander on their digital leica for street

I have a summarit as my walk around but when I need to zone focus wanted something with a wide range and wanted to see others experiences

Thanks very much

Lou

I understand that Voigtlaender have just released digital-friendly re-designs of the 21mmF4 jeffharris was referring to, and the 35mmF2.5 pancake.  They're now half a stop faster (F/3.5 and F/2), and perhaps bigger, but the performance will be significantly better on the typ 240.

If that doesn't bother you, though, then the other logical consideration is the ZM25mmF2.8, which is compromised on digital, yet broke records on film.  Or an old 24mm Leitz.

Sjak wrote:

Do you know if this red edge also affects the total luminosity in the affected area? Or does it only shift the colour balance in that area?

(I ask, because I have a CCD Monochrom, on which the colour cast itself would obviously not be visible )

From what I see, it does result in a slight vignetting effect, only on one side.

Sjak wrote:

Thank you for checking! Probably I'll pass on this lens... even if it's not expensive, I'm not sure if it's a "character" i'd like (normal corner vignetting is no issue for me)

Just to let you know: I did some more tests, and found three things.

1. the red edge colour shift on the left can be mostly removed with the Gradient tool in Lightroom. You lay a gradient over that part of the image and desaturate red/magenta until it is gone. This is not a perfect solution, especially if there is red/magenta in that part of the image, but it does work for most situations.

2. There is not as much of a darkening vignette effect as I thought, and this occurs more at higher ISOs. There are times when the red edge is minimal or not visible at all. I haven't been able to figure out what the difference is yet, but it's not as bad as I thought.

3. Setting the M9 to the 24mm f2.8 lens correction takes out a lot of the red edge.

It seems that the earlier shooting I did with this lens were at high ISO's like 1600. ISO 400 hardly shows any red edge at all, and what is there can be removed with Lightroom's gradient tool. So it could work for street in good light, and in slightly lower light if you shoot in black and white and/or don't shoot with a red or magenta background. I like this lens a lot for film, so we'll see what happens if I take these new things into consideration.

Sjak wrote:

Thank you! Maybe I'll give it a try... It's by far the most affordable wider than 28 lens available. I'm not totally sure if it works for me, to have a lens that is wider than the viewfinder FOV, so don't want to put a large initial investment into it.

If you're okay with secondhand goods and the resale thereof, you could quite easily get a nice condition copy secondhand, and sell it for pretty much the same money if you don't like it.