Cosina announces $990 Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 50mm F2 Aspherical lens for Z-mount cameras

Beautiful photo's that is, stunning night sky images, you keep your ISO quite low, that's made possible with the tracker?

Jerrry thanks. Yeah usually under 1600 most of the time iso 400 on the d850

@John Gellings every picture looking the same? where is the creativity in everybody using the same focal length?

If you think the lens is more important than light, composition and content, then ok…

If your photos look the same as other 50mm shots, the lens isn't the problem.

As Lccy indicated, when comparing the Voigtlander 50mm APO-Lanthar to the Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8, it's clear that one lens is exceptionally sharp throughout the frame while the other is autofocus.

https://www.lenstip.com/613.4-Lens_review-Voigtlander_Apo_Lanthar_50_mm_f_2_Aspherical_Image_resolution.html

https://www.lenstip.com/577.4-Lens_review-Nikon_Nikkor_Z_50_mm_f_1.8_S_Image_resolution.html

I intend to buy the Voigt 50 when it becomes available. Not because it's universally better than the other 50mm lenses I own. Because it matches some tasks better than others, and vice versa.

@bpatient notes: "It's clear that one lens is exceptionally sharp throughout the frame while the other is autofocus", but this is incomplete: Lenstip, like other chart sites, tests in a closer distance. Such can not be taken as the ultimate truth of performance at distance since for many lenses there are different goals with regards to resolution and distance. It's not uniquely Nikon: ex Pentax Jun Hirakawa, as well as Nikon designers, often talk about rendering in a 3D space as being more important than maximizing MTF in a 2D space. If you were to take mtfMapper and run the Nikon 50's at 6, 12 and 20 feet, you'd find different resolution. I've done the 50/1.2S - by 18 feet, it's nearly diffraction limited by just north of F/2.8, across the majority of the frame. But not at 6 feet. By design.

Don’t worry about Francis, he thinks everyone shoots video...

Where did I say that?

Oh right: I didn't. Now find another excuse.

Okie dokies Francis, I’ll play along... Tell me about all the manual lenses intended for stills photography that are geared for a follow focus rig?

There aren’t any, because not everyone shoots video...

@Francis. Why is gearing for follow-focus important when not shooting video?

One needs to try first, before failing. The Voigtlander is a true apochromatic design and a lens with an examplary image quality. All you need is 2 mins of googling ...

Probably impossible rather than tough, given the respective flange distances for K and Z.

These APO Lanthar lenses are for dedicated MF users who appreciate the best optics. I once owned the E-Mount 65/2 APO Lanthar, and really loved it that I used it on the Z7 until eventually replacing it with the 50/1.8S because I prefer AF especially when covering indoor events.

This is a great lens for those who are into MF.

These APO's by Voigt are on par with Zeiss Milvus lenses at 1/2 the cost. If it collects dust its probably because one doesn't take the time to really learn how to use them. After you tire of looking at them on the shelf please give me a call and I'll take it off your hands (at a deep discount!).

High quality manual focus lenses are a niche nowadays, and so are rangefinders, but i have to say, i truly love it.

Not that i do own uber expensive lenses, but i love prime lenses (mostly 35mm focal lenght, or 40mm) to shoot on my Film SLRs, but also here & there being adapted on mirrorless gear. I still enjoy shooting 40+ year old Zeiss lenses, and various other brands, and for years, decades to come.

There's a market and demand for that kind of lenses, but lenses over a certain price point are often (old) (D)SLR lenses, or M Mount. It's nice to see, that people do have choices, and Cosina is also making some decent lenses under the Voigtländer brand, not only for M, but also for Nikon Z-Mount.

Manual focus lenses are usually just being made out of metal and glass, and sometimes the rubber focus ring, so nothing could break usually over time, with a bit TLC and CLA, these lenses easily could outlast their owner, and passed to the next generation, which is a good thing.

Voitlander APOs really are superb and if you don't mind the absence of the impressive backstory Leica has, you're getting the same level of image quality for a reasonable price. Whether these lenses will last for generations is an odd rationalization for buying one, but probably true since there isn't much to go wrong and like everything, they're built like a tank. Well, Russian tanks don't appear to be built like a tank, but I mean all expensive cameras and lenses.

@photography-lover
Not disputing your assertion but I'm talking about 44 years ago and about 20 years before they acquired rights to Voigtländer.

No debate then. :-)

@Rodelcam
Yes, zooms were woeful back then. I had a 50mm f2 Cosina. That was a fast lens for its day but so soft. It also had poor contract no doubt to it being single coated. That actually made it quite sexy because you would see these green and red reflections in the lens. Pentax spoiled everything when they came out with multicoated lenses that had boring brown reflections :)

To be fair, if Cosina made a DSLR 44 years ago, they were far ahead of its time, so it'd be reasonable to forgive a few faults.

Sorry for the typo. Of course is I should have written SLR.

The funny thing is Cosina actually, in 1979, made the camerabody for what would (in 2004) end up being the world's first digital MILC (mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera). That is 43 years ago.

In 1979 Cosina launched the little, no thrill CT-1. A simple SLR that was used as by many other companies (over 70 models from over 30 companies) to make cheap knockoffs. Among them, Canon, Chinon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Petri, Ricoh, Topcon, Vivitar, Yashica and Voigtlander.

In 1999 when Cosina bought the name Voigtlander, they used the CT-1 camera-concept as a basemodel to make the Voigtlander Bassa R. A rangefinder camera, by chopping op the pentaprism and installing a couplet rangefinder.

This Bassa R camera is what 4 years later became the world's first MILC in the form of the Epson R-D1 (Leica M-mount).
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/1924025521/epsonrd1

Our own Chris from the TheCameraStoreTV made a wonderful review of it in 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIOk6kmYOWc

Nikon DSLR's are very good.

Nikon mirrorless is also very good.

I imagine that if you took a F-system shooter with a D850 they'd be able to do 99% of what a Z9 shooter could do.

I bought my Z6/Z7 the day of availability and sold my D850 a few weeks later. Never regretted it.

I kept my D5 for fast action, then replaced it by a D6. Now gone since last Dec when the Z9 arrived.

So some DSLR users certainly criticized the Z cameras but I wasn’t one of them.

I completely disagree about the D850 being able to do 99% of what the Z9 does. That overlooks one essential aspect of photography which is keeper rate. Yes it’s possible to take great photos with the D850 but photographers never speak about the great photos they couldn’t take or keep because of missing timing or missed focus.

It boils down to standards and to the level of acceptance of good enough. In terms of focus, in terms of timing.

I guess the statement wasn't fully related to Nikon's own Z-System per se, but rather mirrorless in general. A few years ago, a lot of DSLR users considered mirrorless cameras more or less as toys and not tools. At least that was a common theme here on DPR in both comments and forums.

Preposterous

The 50mm f2 APO-Lanthar is SPECIAL. MF is a niche but for those Nikon Z shooters who want that, this lens is the perhaps the very best manual focus lens on any platform.

PR I agree with you
Slower, MF, twice as expensive

I’ll stay with the Z50/1.8

Btw I shot with the apo Lan that 65/2 and really loved it.

Cosina is most probably the best lens manufacturing facility in the world.

The Z 50mm f1.8 S is probably the best AF f1.8 lens ever designed but I would expect the Cosina ito be even better optically.

Besides, if Cosina is to be believed in terns of the optimization done for the Z mount, it may give us the opportunity by comparing it to the Sony version to get a unique insight as to how the wider and shallower Z mount helps achieve higher image quality.

I still won’t be buying one as that cash will be devoted to the 85mm f1.2 as far as I am concerned, but this is a great addition to the Z mount.

@photography_lover

There’s nothing to suggest at all that the larger mounts produce better image quality. Its the sensor and the lenses that determine that.

Sure, whatever you decide to convince yourself of.

@photography_lover Well there isn’t, the fact that Sony can make lenses smaller, lighter and optically as good as Nikon/Canon with a smaller mount suggests mount size isn’t an issue at all.

You understand that these lenses, the 50mm f1.2 comes to mind, are not comparable because the Nikons are optimized for both stills are video (focus breathing), right?

The Nikon is as good optically and trades some size in favour of focus breathing control.

Photography lover

You really talk nonsense, the Sony 50/1.2 has really proven that to be the case, Sony can make the sharpest, fastest focusing and smallest and most lightweight design, yeah they trade in focus breathing but they do this because they offer and will offer more video centric lenses for that. Not every lens needs to be geared towards video you know, also less focus breathing doesn’t make a lens great for video, the best video lens will at the end of the day be cine lenses and although Nikon has less focus breathing it’s still there and why it will never be truly great for video, if your truly serious with video you need lenses that are specifically designed for it and not glorified photography lenses.

Here's a comparison of the Nikon 50/1.8 with the Sony E-mount version of the excellent 50mm APO-Lanthar. The Nikon is autofocus. The Voigtlander has much better across-the-frame sharpness.

https://www.lenstip.com/577.4-Lens_review-Nikon_Nikkor_Z_50_mm_f_1.8_S_Image_resolution.html

https://www.lenstip.com/613.4-Lens_review-Voigtlander_Apo_Lanthar_50_mm_f_2_Aspherical_Image_resolution.html

I am more than willing to pay that price for one instead of getting the 50 F2 S for half the price, because I have one on my Sony platform so I know how good the lens is, but I am in no hurry to get one since I am using that with the adapter on my Z9 now,

Definitely not uncommon to have focal length/aperture duplication amongst many mounts/brands. Obviously the comparison doesn't end at focal length and f/stop in terms of perceived value by the customer. Does that help you understand a bit better Mike?

*edit: Short answer, customers wanted it. That's important.

3Percent ..... I don't have this particular manual focus lens but I do have the Carl Zeiss Macro-Planar 100 F2 ZF (obviously a different lens) and after comparing this lens to the Z 105 Macro, I can understand that the reason is that the customers just want it. The Zeiss is a beautiful lens.

If you never used an APO Lanthar before, it might not make sense, if you did, it would make perfect sense. I prefer the 65 and 110 combo tho.

@F and Z User and MFT
I will report back in as few week, i just ordered the Fringer EF to Z adapter last night so it will be here next week sometime, then I can go out to play with all my TSE lenses on the Z9,
By the way that Nikon PC 19 is a gorgeous lens, yeah the front element does look intimidating, LOL.

anyone that has used it on 61MP.
sharp across the frame at every aperture.
to give you an impression:
https://phillipreeve.net/blog/review-voigtlander-50mm-f2-apo-lanthar/

Faster/bigger lenses are not optimized for resolution like this CV 50f2APO, so if you think a 50f1.2 is better youre wrong.

Never judge the quality of a lens based off it's f/stop numbers...

What kind of fool judges a lens on anything but the images it produces?

Well there's plenty judging by the comments section.

The wide base is necessary for Z mount lenses because of it's huge mount if you don't want a boxy looking prime like the ones Nikon makes.
When they're mounted it doesn't stand out nearly as much.