Voigtlander announces upcoming release of a 50mm F2 APO-Lanthar lens for Sony E-mount

These times are over with modern lenses :-(

Oct 8, 2019permalink

You can still buy these old lenses and use with any Sony camera with an appropriate adapter. However don't expect stellar quality except stopped down.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

Mortal Lion

Almost all of these lenses have the excellent and proven double gauss 6 elements in five groups design. Each has it's own character so a lens for every mood. Most of them are cheaper versions of F1.8 or 1.7 lenses with only the aperture a bit narrower.

Oct 8, 2019*permalink

technotic

They can be used with brands other than Sony.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

No one said they can't but the lens in the news article is only for Sony E mount.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

S Yu

If only Nikon's 50/0.95 were double gauss, it could be ~500g and 1/4th the price, or lower.

Oct 9, 2019permalink

So presumably this is a Leica 50mm APO style lens with its mind-boggling resolution and mind-boggling price and a miniscule size and zero lateral CA, but considerably more affordable and probably a lot bigger.

So it seems a little odd there's no resolution/lines performance info.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

King of Song

No need to disappoint anyone with facts, when asumptions are already so high.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

@King of Song. Apparently you don't know what Voigtlander/Cosina have done lately. As far as I'm concerned, they never have published MTF graphs for their 65mm APO and 110mm APO, yet they are sharper than most of Leica lenses (or most of the lenses from any manufacturer, for that matter), even slightly better than the 50mm APO-Summicron-M. The only exceptions that I remember right now are those newer APO-Summicron-SL, which are in about the same level, with the advantage of having AF. I don't think this little Voigtlander 50mm APO will be optically as good the 65mm and 110mm (at the widest apertures). TBH I think that it will be a little less sharp than the 50mm APO-Summicron-M. But if it achieves 90% of the performance of the little Leica, for 1/10th of the price, It's already a very good deal. The main reason why I'm not interested in this new Voigt 50mm is the limited magnification. But depending on the price/performance, maybe I'll buy it to use it with extension tubes.

Oct 15, 2019*permalink

@King of Song, now we have facts. This time Cosina published the MTF in their japanese website. If you thought the op's assumptions were "already so high", the facts are even "higher". The performance of this little Voigtlander exceeded even my own expectatations. It's not only "almost as good as" the Leica 50mm APO-M. It's slightly better, almost achieving the supreme performance of the new APO-Summicron-SL - which is much bigger and heavier.

Oct 30, 2019permalink

(unknown member)

It seems nobody understands this lens.
It's an insanely high IQ, compact, light optic for landscape shooters.

Sony is (was) lacking exactly this sort of high performance 50 that isn't huge and heavy.

Hopefully it's priced fairly as well.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

nandbytes

Loxia 50

Oct 8, 2019permalink

milkod2001

For landscapes when you stop this lens down to f11-16 and do the very same with Sony 50 1.8 you get very, very identical results. Main advantage of this lens could be f2 performance with quality of bokeh but for landscapes this lens be like any other lens stopped down.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

The sony isn't that good and a lot larger, and it has CA. This lens should be CA-free have absurd resolution and give MF results with the right sensor. that's really the point of it.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

milkod2001

@The Name is Bond
By MF if you mean medium format results that's only something you are only imagining. For that you need MF sensor and MF lenses. No FF lens lens will give you that :). But then again if new 50 f2 be close to 65 f2 or 110 f2.5 we have very good lens here.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

Medium format just a few years ago was less than 50MP. Now we have the sensors at FF with MF resolution, but not the lenses. This lens could indeed potentially give medium format performance if it's anything like the Leica. Certainly enough for fine art and more than enough for billboards. and sure, normalised to 8 inches, the real MF sensor still outdoes the FF at higher ISO and for DR, but only by a stop.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

(unknown member)

The loxia 50 isn't great, the only good loxia is the 21 and I'm sure this 50 will be better than it.

The 50FE isn't great, but it's a plasticity cheap AF OE offering so it's not fair to compare.

Real medium format (not that baby MF stuff) is in another class for reasons other than resolution, they're also 10-20 times the cost of FF for a complete system.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

dqnielg

If this can avoid fringing, and the Lanther APOs generally do a great job with fringing, it'll probably be a good astro lens.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

CekariYH

Great, another 50mm to the lineup...

Oct 7, 2019permalink

(unknown member)

So this manual lens or the F0.95 25mm lens for micro four thirds.
I bet the MFT option is cheaper too.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Why would you even consider the 25mm if you use a Sony FE system?

If you use both systems (m4/3 and Sony FE), performance-wise, I'm sure the APO-Lanthar can give much better results. Not only in regard of sharpness, but especially in the control of chromatic aberrations. Although the DoF from these two would probably be similar, both the lack of LoCA and the aperture blades design lead me to believe that the bokeh would be more pleasing in the 50mm.
As for the price, I believe it will be around the same of the 25mm (USD 800-850). Because Voigtlander already has the stellar 65mm APO, which has the bonus of being "macro-ish" and can be found for around USD 850. So I don't think they would charge more than that just for the compact size.

So, the only reason someone could have to buy the 25mm instead of this 50mm is if they have a m4/3 camera and no Sony FE camera.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

@Camera Crow, not to mention that the potential buyers of this 50mm will be landscape shooters, which don't usually shoot with such small sensors like the m4/3.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

I understand this one is more for compactness. But they could have gone with at least 0.25x magnification. It will probably be good for landscape photographers (due the suberb sharpness and lack of CA) that don't want to deal with the size/weight of the 65mm APO or those who find that FL too long.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

0.45cm minimum focusing distance is common for 50mm for a good reason. It is not easy to make a lens that is sharp both at infinity and at a very short distance. That is why macro lenses exist : they are optimized to be sharp at short distance...

Oct 8, 2019permalink

@Karroly, I'm aware of that. That's why I admire what Cosina has done in both the 65mm and the 110mm. At very short distances they almost as sharp as a good copy of a Sony 90mm and sharper at infinity. And that's also why I said 0.25x. I was not asking for another macro.
Anyways, I'm almost convinced that I will have to sell most of my current gear to buy a prime lens like I always wanted. Because the only company that achieved that was Leica in their APO-Summicron-SL series. They have: superb sharpness at any focus distance, excellent control of chromatic aberrations (both lateral and longitudinal), low distortion, good (0.2x) magnification, good AF, good building quality, internal focus AND reasonable size. The only downsides, IMO are the price and non mechanical MF. But for me they are the closest you can get from the concept of "no compromise".

Oct 8, 2019permalink

IdM photography

Great to have the EXIF data... I hope other lens producers do the same...

Oct 7, 2019permalink

dansclic

Well there is at least one advantage : there is no risk with thislens that the stepping motor breaks down and makes your camera unusable.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

A second advantage : no motor noise
A third advantage : does not draw any juice from the battery
;-)

Oct 8, 2019permalink

Dan_168

Also no one will complain about AF accuracy, LOL. I am in.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

Dan_168,
To be honest, MF has its own inaccuracies and weaknesses, too...

Oct 8, 2019permalink

DeathArrow

Just what the world needed: another manual focus lens. Even Yongnuo is doing autofocus lenses.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Well, hopefully it's a try APO in which case it's going to be almost unique sitting alongside the Leica 50/f2 APO of astonishing price and performance, but cheaper. With the right sensor you'll get MF resolution.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Dan_168

I don't know about the rest of the world, in my own world, I just put in a order for few more manual focus Loxia for my Sony and MIlvus for my Nikon system. and if this lens is close to the quality of their 65 and 110, I am in.

Oct 8, 2019*permalink

Vlaitor

I am excited anything coming from Voigtlander! Good to see them keep rolling.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Mariano Pacifico

Sony got Zeiss and Voigtlander. Sony is turning German.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Vadimka

@ mariano pacifico, NO, both Zeiss and Voighlander are manufactured by Cosina factory in Japan, and most Sony cameras are made in China and Thailand, so if anything Sony turns Japanese with help of Zeiss and Voigt. :)

Oct 7, 2019*permalink

Artem Holstov

This lens looks so 20th century)

Oct 7, 2019permalink

The Silver Nemesis

Sorry Skipper, “Lanthar”, not “Lanther”. Check the title, please. Thanks!

Oct 7, 2019permalink

panther fan

All these high end manual lens options designed natively for the e-mount, like the Zeiss loxia line or the voigtländer lenses, are missing one huge feature > electronic aperture

Why on earth would you deny users the ability to focus wide open? Even cheap film cameras in the 1970s were able to do this. And now when we finally have cameras with focus peaking, magnification and all the other nice manual focus features this is not possible anymore?
With an electronic aperture you could even make it user selectable....

Oct 7, 2019*permalink

David610

I totally agree.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Remi Deprez

Great note! And this possibility should be available with the native AF lens in MF mode! Voigtlander, Sony, we talk to you!

Oct 7, 2019permalink

jwasturias

I concur.

Oct 8, 2019permalink

Waipingqi

It's manual focus. It's actually harder to focus wide open on manual focus, you're only making it needlessly difficult for no gain.

Oct 16, 2019permalink

panther fan

@Waipingqi
No it is way easier, because you can actually see what is in focus and what is not in focus.

It doesn't matter if you are at F1.8 or F8 the plane of perfect focus is just 0.00001mm. It is just that the plane of acceptable focus is bigger at F8 than at F1.8. And this plane of acceptable focus is what you see in the viewfinder or is detected by the focus aids.
If you now focus at F1.8 you may miss focus only by 1mm, but if you focus at F8 you may miss it by 10 or 20mm. So the optimal way is to focus at F1.8 and then stop down immediately before shooting.

This also has other advantages like a cleaner viewfinder in low light.

[Of course this only works on lenses without focus shift. But this is pretty easily achievable on manual focus lenses thanks to the very large focus groups]

Oct 16, 2019permalink

Phil Flash

Would have been better if they came out with a 52.5mm to cover the yawning gap between the existing 50mm lenses and the Zony 55mm 1.8.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

RubberDials

Lol

Oct 7, 2019permalink

David610

Most 50mm lenses are @52mm.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

jonas ar

Pleased to see that they celebrate their anniversary with a new e-mount lens in their distinguished line

Oct 7, 2019permalink

The one gaping hole in the Sony lens line up was the utter lack of any 50mm prime lens. Thankfully Voightlander discovered this never before filled gap and designed this lens :)

Oct 7, 2019permalink

jonas ar

One can never have too many fifties! :)

Oct 7, 2019permalink

biza43

What gaping hole?

Oct 7, 2019permalink

Mistral75

I get the (recurring) joke but how many apochromatic 50mm prime lenses are there in the Sony lens line-up?

Oct 7, 2019*permalink

aidaho

>What gaping hole?

The one for mounting your auxiliary sarcasm detector.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

biza43

"The one for mounting your auxiliary sarcasm detector."

Still waiting for the reply.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

carton

Leica M has five 50mm lenses to choose from depending on aperture and amount of corrections. The newest one is f/2, and they're asking twice as much as the f/1.4 version because it brings better corrections.

I think there's enough demand in this focal length to justify various tradeoffs beyond line-up hole-filling.

Oct 7, 2019permalink

@biza43. Its sarcasm dude. Not meant to be taken seriously. That's what the smiley at the end of the lost was for. :)

Oct 7, 2019permalink