Cosina announces $825 Voigtlander Classic 50mm F1.5 lens, will be available in September

Judging lenses (and therefore images) by how sharp and how free of aberrations they are belongs in a different section of this zoo.

11 months agopermalink

andrewD2

Their target market is photographers with ultrabright monitors?
Looks a lovely bit of kit, I'd be happy to shoot some better samples!

11 months agopermalink

Silva Lining

Haha, my thoughts exactly!

11 months agopermalink

Clueless comment.

11 months agopermalink

andrewD2

You like the samples? Clue us in.

11 months agopermalink

AndrewD2: I'll give you a clue. The quality of an image is not defined whether you (or I) like it.

11 months agopermalink

andrewD2

I went into a windowless room with my phone and turned it up to full brightness to try and work out what the subject of one of the image was. Still not sure.
I'm just curious how you think images this dark help sell it. If you were marketing the lens, would you be happy with them?

11 months agopermalink

They’re demonstrating a “vintage” film look.

11 months agopermalink

Stujomo

Not sure what vintage film look they are trying to show but these just look like images that are too dark.

11 months agopermalink

DFPanno

Love the comments here. Always thick with narcissism, insecurity, and logical fallacies.

Social media at its best.

11 months agopermalink

Roland Karlsson

One wonders. Do you own a mirror?

11 months agopermalink

BrexitDefCom3

AS you can buy a genuine version vintage AND a Leica screw body for this amount of money, I just cannot see the point at all. Its not as if the Cosina will one day achieve Basquiat values, is it?

11 months agopermalink

pseudobreccia

If you don't want to buy it...don't buy it. Products are NOT made for you to see "...the point of it all". Everybody likes something different.

11 months ago*permalink

King Penguin

Haha, typical comment from BrexitDefCom focussing on value for money……don’t listen to him, this is a man who believed the blatant lies put on a big red bus in 2016!

11 months agopermalink

wil eelsing

So a mere $825 will save me all the trouble of buying a $15 vintage 50mm lens on Ebay and use an adapter? Amazing.

11 months agopermalink

GT2RS

First class vintage design collection lenses, they would easily cost 3000 to 5000 USD

11 months agopermalink

SunsetMagnet

there is nothing on ebay that looks this good ..and new.

11 months agopermalink

Sutlore

So, this is a classical release in term of design and...optics?

I've got CV 50/1.5 ASPH I and 50/2 APO(They both are supreme! should I try this one?)

11 months ago*permalink

goodbokeh

Absolutely you should try this! I have the 50 APO Lanthar also, this lens is a totally different animal.

10 months agopermalink

GT2RS

Thank you Codina! This is exactly what I wanted. Along the 28mm and this 50mm perfecto! Make my day !

11 months agopermalink

Stujomo

Looks interesting. I've had the screw thread Nokton 50mm f1.5 for years. Great lens but it is really much more modern than vintage.

11 months agopermalink

$825 for a single-coated lens.
Another example of paying more to get less ?

11 months agopermalink

LakeSuperior1

I'm a big fan of Voigtlander lenses. I don't think a lot of folks understand why some of us like lenses such as this. For me, these bring me back to when I started out in photography. Manual everything lenses help keep you in control of the image from the beginning. Using an AF in manual isn't the same. As some have pointed out, you can create the "look" this lens will provide with post processing. But for a lot of us photographers re-creating everything in post just isn't the same. I'll admit, the price is a tough one. But having used many Voigtlander lenses I have a feeling it is well justified. Their lenses have a quality that much more expensive name brand lenses just don't reach. The sharpness & color that my Voigtlander lenses provide is like nothing else. This lens is certainly not for everyone. But for those of us who enjoy a solid, precise, manual & optically amazing lenses this is good news.

11 months agopermalink

Mike_YP

I’m a vintage lens aficionado myself, I have 6 Minolta Rokkors, two Canon SSCs and a Leica Elmar. As such I think the sample images provided are inadequate for showing how good these vintage 6-element lens designs can be. I love a bit of flaring, haloing and yes of course the bokeh without annoying concentric onion rings. But the sample images here are simply far from representing the capabilities of this lens. Not even objectively good photos anyway.

11 months agopermalink

Constantin V

Totally with you on this. Though I hadn't previous experience like yours, this kind of lenses won me over the time and I've sold my modern DSLR setup.

11 months agopermalink

SNJops

Have always been very tempted to get a Voigtlander for my Sony bodies.

11 months agopermalink

mattjp1

Warning... it's a slippery road.. you might want a second, then a third...

11 months agopermalink

TH_H

You should start with the APO 50/2. It's the best lens for E-Mount.

11 months agopermalink

SNJops

I already have the 55mm f1.8 and the 50mm f1.2 GM so I was thinking of going for one of their lenses that has more “character” like the 40mm/50mm f1.2 Nokton.

11 months agopermalink

keolisho56

Voigtlander 35mm f2 APO-LANTHAR on my Sony A7R3 in a realm of its own. Manual focusing allows full control by using MF Focus Assist; no Auto Focusing noise for a change. Back to basics for still photography.

11 months agopermalink

SNJops

@trewsbury76 I do hear very good things about the 35mm APO, I have the 35mm GM for my wide portraits. For some reason I find 35mm too wide for my own street work.

11 months agopermalink

SunsetMagnet

You will need all of them, start with the vintage lineup

11 months agopermalink

white shadow

A good marketing proposition. Making a flawed lens appealing and charging a good price for it.

11 months agopermalink

there are far more flawed picture takers than flawed lenses

11 months agopermalink

"there are far more flawed picture takers than flawed lenses"
That's precisely why there is not need to buy a flawed lens...as they already get flawed results...

11 months agopermalink

exactly, this lens is not appropriate for the flawed

11 months ago*permalink

white shadow

Yes, flawed photographers need not buy it. They can't tell the difference.

11 months agopermalink

Johan Borg

There are different types of flaws. My Sigma 45mm F2.8 has a bit of character wide open, but at the same time it's perfectly centered. Hence I can see how the combination of classic formula and modern manufacturing is worth paying for.

11 months agopermalink

Djehuty

The APO Lanthars are supreme but this isn't it and neither is the price.

11 months agopermalink

justinwonnacott

A lot of money for an unremarkable lens.

11 months agopermalink

Sylverphoto

Have you had it in the hands already?

11 months agopermalink

justinwonnacott

no, of course not but its optical design specifies a lot and the advertising copy "celebrating" the lense's ability to express some aberrations says volumes. Of course some people like that kind of stuff ........I do not.

11 months agopermalink

ok, that's one in a row

11 months agopermalink

Sylverphoto

@ Justinwonnacutt (I am just sharing my thoughts based on observation here on this plattform - I am not accuring anyone.)

I can see your concern, however, when a Chinese manufuckturer puts out a bad performing lens then everythingis ok. Because the price is cheap. No one cares that Chinese workers live on company premises instead of in a real home etc of if the need to follow the propagande of the political system. No one care if the workers are exploited or not.

Now Cosina has been a first class copnay with decades od experience. Having served as OEM manufacturer for many (for Zeiss, Fujifilm and many more...)
The price tag is reflection of what is going on today. Short supply of material, expensive shipping costs because people need to earn decent money to live.

From it's optical design? It is not my cup of tea either but I love older lens designs that are only brutally sharp and have very little chrachter.

It will have some buyers. I want to buy a used Leica with 50mm lens.

11 months agopermalink

blse59

Cosina could have shown these in color with the proper exposure. The problem is the masses (sheep?) would perceive what they see as flaws in the lens and judge it as faulty.

11 months agopermalink

JasonTheBirder

I am pretty sure Cosina took those sample images in colour and had to convert them to black and white as the chromatic aberrations were so extreme that they themselves were even embarrassed.

11 months agopermalink

Orangorill

If only they'd make an affordable camera you could stick these lenses on.

11 months agopermalink

HowaboutRAW

Orangeforill:

Huh?

It's am manual focus lens, with an adapter it can be mounted on at least half a dozen M-ILC mounts.

Then, I'm sure it will be shipped to mount on a variety of ILC mounts natively.

11 months agopermalink

photosse

@Orangorill
totaly agree

11 months agopermalink

Orangorill

Sure, you can use an adapter, but then you'd either end up with a chunky full frame faux DSLR, or a crop sensor camera and a different FOV. I'd prefer something that's basically a CV version of a Leica M. RF focusing would be nice, but an MF only camera with an EVF would be interesting too.

11 months agopermalink

HowaboutRAW

Orangorill:

What you seem to want, is a full framed version of the Epson R-D1.

That APSC body was indeed a Bessa (Voightlander) M mount body, but it's a body not a lens.

You're free to mount--obviously not natively--M lenses, like the ones you desire, on Z bodies, Panasonic S bodies, Canon "R" bodies, Sony FE--and of course Leica SL bodies.

You'll see that the list above is limited to full framed bodies--with a tiny caveat around Nikon; there are many more APSC and m4/3 bodies that you can mount this lens to, again not natively. On my list the best bodies for M lenses would be the Leicas and likely the Nikon Z bodies.

11 months ago*permalink

Ranger 9

Well, it's not as if they didn't try -- the Bessa R3M would have been a nice carrier for this lens (and it has a TTL exposure meter so maybe the sample pictures wouldn't have been quite so murky!) but they just couldn't sell enough of them to make it pay.

11 months agopermalink

SantaFeBill

Single coating means flare as well as reflections. You can add both in pp with the right sw. "Aberrations' I'm not so sure about, but if the idea of having them in your images becomes popular, I'm sure some sw company will provide means to add them in pp also.
So hold on to your $800 and wait.

11 months agopermalink

SteveAnderson

Far more enjoyable to take the photo in the camera through the lens.

Adding aberrations later seems far more dumb than a lens which has aberrations.

11 months agopermalink

"Adding aberrations later seems far more dumb than a lens which has aberrations."
Loving aberration is even more dumb, IMHO, whatever the mean to get them.
But this is just me ;-)

11 months agopermalink

Tord S Eriksson

Agree with Karroly, that buying lenses for their aberrations seems weird.

I own a few Voigtlander, but it is not the aberrations I seek, definitely not!

But if you have money to spend, why not spend it on a lens with built-in faults and errors?! Or why not spend it on a broken down Saab?! Just about as sensible!

11 months agopermalink

Is there anyone at Cosina that understands exposure? I enjoy low key as much as the next guy but those are simply underexposed by at least 2+ stops or more.

11 months agopermalink

D7000ShooterUK

It's an artistic choice

11 months agopermalink

mattjp1

Ah the famous "I could give advise to this company"... never fails to be hilarious.

11 months agopermalink

Ranger 9

They tried to allow more exposure, but their fingers kept slipping on the thinly-knurled aperture ring so they gave up.

11 months agopermalink

Greg Ohio

And, why not a $100 vintage Nikkor for the vintage look?

11 months agopermalink

Providing a “Vintage”, “Legacy look” on new lenses explains away flaws and the 800% markup.

11 months agopermalink

Fazal Majid

And Nikons with aberrations that bad will be so ancient they won’t be in any mount that had adapters available.

11 months agopermalink

PhotoRotterdam

When do you know that we are in an economic boom? When lens manufacturers start making vintage lenses. "character", my ass. Money grabbing indeed.

11 months agopermalink

no one is grabbing your money, the lens is not for you

11 months agopermalink

The OP did not say someone is grabbing HIS/HER money...
But grabbing fool's money, sure...

11 months agopermalink

Victory Camera

A lot of negativity here, and I agree that example photos don't give us much to go on, but man, I think that that is a beautiful piece of metal and glass.

Anyway, the M mount arena is pretty crowded now and I think that it makes sense to go for niche products.

I might just order one (and I never buy camera gear new).

11 months agopermalink

blessingx

I gotta believe many of the negative comments come from people who have never shot Voigtlander. They've produced some beautiful lenses, especially recently, to get the benefit of the doubt here.

11 months agopermalink

Tord S Eriksson

blessingx, just because a manufacturer sometimes makes great lenses (I am a Voigtlander user myself) it does not mean that you must buy all their lenses. And buying lenses just because they look great is pretty weird, too!

11 months agopermalink

Victory Camera

I respectfully disagree. For me, photography is aesthetic from the moment I pick up the camera. I dig pretty tools.

That said, looking at more example photos I do wonder if this lens is a lot of sizzle and not much steak. You can get a lot of funky bokeh lenses for much less.

11 months agopermalink

Tord S Eriksson

Indeed!

11 months agopermalink

blessingx

Tord S Eriksson, note my use of "benefit of the doubt". Not sure how you jumped to a binary on buying "all lenses" no lenses, or even any specific lenses. I was just referring to the negative comments based on the above information.

11 months agopermalink

DrCastle

"dares to express various aberrations"
...Then only presents five 1600x1200, black and white, low-key photographs.

11 months agopermalink

itsnotthecamera

another word is ''made in china''

11 months agopermalink

Semper DSLR

Perfect for color-blind, cataracted photogs in a coal mine.

Chiaroscuro used like sawdust in an old transmission.

11 months ago*permalink

Gesture

Heliar, Nokton, Ultron, Color-Skopar ... props to V.

11 months agopermalink

DrCastle

You forgot Apo-Lanthars, the true beasts... Unmatched optical superiority.

11 months agopermalink

Foskito

How many 50mm Voigtlander lenses They have already?

So the trend is the crappiest the IQ, the more money they can ask for it because of “artistic reasons”... I rather pay half for a TT or 7A sample.

11 months agopermalink

Read my comment which I mentioned to @Gesture as response to my original comment below. The price is not so outrageous seeing this is a brand new lens when comparing it to available similar vintage M/LTM lens options on the market.

11 months agopermalink

sprocket-docket

I find it interesting that your reaction to a lens like this is "crappiest IQ." It's a good thing Cosina doesn't listen to such opinions and only produce sterile, boring optics that you could never pick a characteristic from. Down with boring.

11 months agopermalink

AbrasiveReducer

When the test reports come out, it will turn out that this lens is quite sharp when stopped down. If you want crappy and insist on paying more than $100, there's always Lensbaby.

11 months agopermalink

@AbrasiveReducer: the large majority of vintage lenses are quite sharp when stopped down. Performance differences are always more obvious with wide open aperture. A lensbaby is a specialty lens and not equal regarding performance metrics with this kind of lens construction.

11 months agopermalink

Mr Bolton

I'm glad I only paid $60 for my Lensbaby setup on closeout because.. can verify. It's crappy, err I mean "artistic" however it does have its place and can be much fun in its own right.

11 months agopermalink

mattjp1

Another nobody bashing one of the greatest lens manufacturers. Probably saw a review of jared polin on youtube and since then he's convinced he needs 1.2 lenses to take pictures of his car at the supermarket and any lens showing aberrations is "crappiest IQ". Good lord.... ignorance at its finest.

11 months agopermalink

Samicajones

@Foskito have you tried TT and 7artisans? They don't have the beautiful rendering of most Voigtlanders, I find the Chinese brands to be good but often not quite good enough for any professional use, particularly in colour reproduction whereas these remodelled vintage lenses by Voigtlander have quite a mature optical quality, similar to Zeiss and Leica. Leica beats them all of course but at 10X the price.

11 months ago*permalink

Gesture

How do you spell BARGAIN.

11 months agopermalink

I don't think it is spelled C-L-A-S-S-I-C

11 months agopermalink

It’s spelled: Bargain

11 months agopermalink

Discombobulated

VM summilux that is.

11 months agopermalink

Applauding Cosina for continuously upgrading and expanding the VM line for reasonable prices. Their lens quality has continued to improve in the past > 5 years and reached now an excellent performance mark competing equally with Leica glass in optical and built performance (for example the APO lenses). Also good that they release remakes of vintage lenses since used vintage lens prices have been dramatically increasing with lower supply available. This CV 50/1.5 seems similar in image performance to the Canon 50/1.4 LTM (Japanese Summilux) lens which I love.
One thing for Cosina to improve on: ADD THE OPTIONAL LENS HOOD TO YOUR VM LENSES!

11 months ago*permalink

Gesture

Hey, a thousand bucks only goes so far. What a ridiculous industry.

11 months agopermalink

Nokiron

@Gesture Economy of scale is not favorable in the world of niche lenses.

11 months ago*permalink

@Gesture: Try to find a Leica 50/1.4 Summilux version I for this Voigtlander lens price which is even a new lens. Best of luck.....already the Canon 50/1.4 LTM lens prices are up to about $350-400. The Leitz 50/1.5 Summarit lens easily goes for $550-600. That's the price and performance range you need to compare to!

11 months agopermalink

Rhaegar

kinda hard to see these aberrations in B&W

11 months agopermalink

blåland

There are color samples on their website.

11 months agopermalink

Kaqpa

Hey Blålans, let Rhaegar complain. His identity depends on it.

11 months ago*permalink

There are a whole lot of lenses from the 70s on ebay for pretty cheap that "dared to express various aberrations"

Come to think of it there are also a lot of current model, brand new Chinese lenses that "dare to express various aberrations" at very low prices.

11 months agopermalink

Nilangsu

Very well said.

11 months agopermalink

"whole lot of lenses from the 70s on ebay for pretty cheap" - not for LTM or M-mount with this lens speed!

11 months agopermalink

Kavu

Wow...this looks like it will compete with (fill in Leica Summicron 50mm version here), and is much better than (fill in recently released Voigtlander 50mm lens here) when it comes to (select some type of photography here, portraiture, landscape, etc.).

11 months agopermalink

Wow, so cool and meta of you to comment on the state of comments rather than the article.

11 months ago*permalink

Kavu

Sounds like someone needs some diaper cream!

That was actually a comment on how many similar lenses one company is releasing...but whatever. Grow up.

11 months ago*permalink

I guess you lost your cool. That's rough.

11 months agopermalink

Kavu

Guess I couldn't expect you to grow up in 3 hours...

11 months agopermalink

I stopped growing up a while ago. Now I mainly grow out.

11 months agopermalink

06m1r3m86

I am such a sucker for these classic looking lenses. I don't have a camera they'd work on, and I would probably be super broke if I did.

11 months agopermalink

You can adapt this kind of VM lenses to any mirrorless camera (cropped or full frame) with cheap adapter.

11 months agopermalink

Start with a good used mirrorless. That won’t break the bank.

11 months agopermalink

dbateman

You could use a Megadap adapter to Nikon's Z-mount and get autofocus.
That might be fun on the new Zfc, too bad that camera is only APS-C. Nikon needs to make a Zf, with 135 format sensor.

11 months agopermalink

SteveAnderson

Yes a Zf with huge, bright, split prism OVF.

11 months agopermalink

Nokiron

It's really nice having "new old lenses" available. But the pricing is kind of confusing for this one though, what makes it an option instead of the Nokton 50 1.5 Vintage?

11 months agopermalink

On the first look it looks a bit strange that a modern CV 50/1.2 M-lens sells for about $1000 whereas this classic 50/1.5 lens goes for a similar price range $825. I suspect that this "classic" version price orients itself on existing prices for Leica 50/1.4 Summilux version I lenses which are even more expensive. Cheaper alternatives like the Leitz 50/1.5 Summarit go for about $550-600 also.

11 months agopermalink

Nokiron

The Nokton 50 1.5 Vintage is $949. Which is why I'm curious about the difference.

11 months agopermalink

@Nokiron: I am also curious what the difference between both CV versions is. I am just assuming, but maybe the classic CV 50/1.5 lens is imitating a look from a 1950s lens whereas the CV 50/1.5 Nokton vintage lens has more a pre-ASPH era look.

11 months agopermalink

Stujomo

Nokton 50mm f1.5 vintage is far from vintage with aspherical elements. It just looks visually like a vintage lens. Even the LTM 50mm f1.5 Nokton was a rather modern design.

11 months agopermalink

supersargas

Another one?. How about a 28 or a 24 that works for digital?? Neither their E or VM lineup have one.

11 months agopermalink

The 28 Ultron VM works very well on digital!

11 months agopermalink

supersargas

On Leica digital. Not on anything else, as far as I know.

11 months agopermalink

Ranger 9

supersargas PIXII owners would tell you that 28mm makes an excellent semi-wide focal length on their camera. You just can't hear them saying that because there are only five of them.

11 months agopermalink

supersargas

Ranger 9: Why would anyone buy that, I would ask.
Making an APS-C camera with a mount that exclusively has optics designed for 135 sounds so ridiculous.

On the plus side, it's made in Europe.

11 months agopermalink

Semper DSLR

"and dares to express various aberrations"

Dare to be flawed! But I can get that a whole lot cheaper.

11 months agopermalink

archerscreek

“Hey let’s make an inferior lens and call the flaws art so we can charge more for it.” It reminds me of Pee Wee Herman crashing his bike and exclaiming, “I meant to do that!”

11 months agopermalink