Voigtländer 15 mm Super Wide Heliar, version III

[Abbyroza]

Just had a day of testing with the brand-new, improved 15mm prime from Voigtländer. They call it the 'Aspherical III'. This lens is the improved version of the older 'Aspherical II', which had a lot of problems on a full-frame camera's like the A7: heavy vignetting, and lack of detail and a lot of chromatic aberration in the corners. So I was very curious about how this lens would perform.

 

The results are absolutely positive: there is still some vignetting, but nothing that cannot be easily corrected in PS or Lightroom. But the good news is that sharpness is excellent, even in the corners of the image, and at wide open aperture (4.5), and also the colorcast problem has been solved almost entirely.

 

Moreover, this little lens is very well built and finished and very compact. A treat on the A7, even for long walks. It can hold a filter in its thread, but the lens hood is a fixed one. 

 

The in-body stabiliation of the A7 mk II works flawlessly, although at this focal lengt that is not such a big deal.

 

This could very well become my favorite lens for my A7 mk II

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[Vivek]

HI, AFAIK, it is a Leica M lens being promoted as specifically made for the A7 series (which it clearly is NOT). It is an adapted lens. 

 

Wrong section, I think.

[Abbyroza]

HI, AFAIK, it is a Leica M lens being promoted as specifically made for the A7 series (which it clearly is NOT). It is an adapted lens. 

 

Wrong section, I think.

The subtitle of this section reads: Lenses for Sony A7 / Sony A7R / Sony A7S by Sony and other manufacturers like Zeiss Loxia". To my understanding, that includes lenses by other manufacturers, such as Leica and Voigtländer. I don't see in which section lenses made by third parties that will fit on the A7 with an adapter, would belong. But I'm open to suggestions... 

[Vivek]

Hi, This one: http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/forum/12-showcase-adapted-lenses/

 

There is already a thread on this lens there.

 

This isn't like the Loxia or the Mitakon 50/0.95 which are only made for the A7 series. 

[Abbyroza]

Sorry guys, I missed the other thread completely!  I see what you mean now. Shall I remove my post here? 

[corinthian]

HI, AFAIK, it is a Leica M lens being promoted as specifically made for the A7 series (which it clearly is NOT). It is an adapted lens. 

 

Wrong section, I think.

I'm going to have to disagree. This particular version (version III) is an E mount lens, not a Leica lens used with an adaptor. It's been redesigned specifically for use on full frame cameras and it has a native Sony mount. So while I totally see your point, I think that it's not fair to say that it's not a lens made for Sony A7 cameras - after all, it won't work on anything else. Still, this is semantics, so I guess it'll be up to the mods to call this one.

[corinthian]

Ignore my previous comment, I can't edit it anymore but it's clearly wrong. I'd misread an article and was under the impression that the version III had a native mount. Sorry for the confusion.

[p360]

I am awaiting mine.  Should be here in a couple of days.  Can’t wait to try it out.