Which "Super-Wide" Lens for an a7R ?

[yeer31]

Hi,

A bit late to the conversation but I've owned the Voigtlander (albeit version II)  and currently own the 16-35mm FE Zeiss. I had considered the Samyang/Rokinon 14mm but found it way too big for it to be a practical lens. I'd have to forgo bringing along many other lenses. I ended up getting Voigtlander and, eventually, the 16-35mm and selling the Voigtlander.

 

My personal experience was that the Voigtlander 15mm f4 II was a great lens, as someone else mentioned, very light and compact. Image quality was great - sharp and great contrast. The only drawbacks I found were that there was a little edge distortion/smearing, edge colour cast (not present in version III) and the difficulty in mounting filters. Yes, version II and III have filter threads but they also have a built in lens hood which cannot be removed. This makes stacking filters impractical - any more than 2, even slim ones, will cause vignetting. Because of the un-removable lens hood, you can't use a step down ring and use larger diameter filters.

 

I eventually sold the 15mm to get the 16-35mm for two reasons - because 16-35mm covers 75% of my requirements and the version III of the Voigtlander (which solves the colour cast problem and has improved the edge distortion) was announced and would be a better fit for my needs.

 

As it turns out, the 16-35mm suits my needs very well and I've not felt the need to replace the 15mm, even though I ocassionaly miss having it for the unique look it produces. The 16-35mm produces a very even looking image at 16mm which differs from the Voigtlander which tends to exaggerate the distances and add dramatic impact to photographs. And this can be easily manipulated using the distortion control in either Lightroom or Photoshop, to create really great images.

 

At the end of the day, which will suit you more will depend on your specific needs, hope this post is helpful to you.

 

Cheers

 

Ray

[Ben]

Just to toss in 2 adapted Options:

 

-Nikon 20mm F1.8 G ED

-Tamron 15-30 F2.8

 

Best Regards

 

Ben

[MarcB83]

I own the FE 16-35mm/4; excellent (especially from 16-28 - check DxO tests), extremely versatile.  I use my Lee 100mm/4" filter system with it, but I cannot ude the widest perspectives (roughly below 20mm) with a polarizer at the end of the Lee filter holder - it vignettes.

I also own the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm/2.8; very nice effect, very sharp; no filters; fast.  My standard lens for astrophotography or for extreme wide-angle perspectives.  Very inexpensive.

I have seen numerous shots from the Voigtlander 15mm/4.5 III (check the Sony FE lenses forum on Fred Miranda).  Extremely nice and considerably better than previous generations.  No filters, not very fast; one focal length.  But light and compact. Relatively inexpensive.

As always, you have to make choices and compromises...

[SimonT]

Background: Photography is a hobby, not my profession.

 

Now I also want to buy a rectilinear "super" wide angle lens for my a7R. My list of candidate full-frame lenses includes…

Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS (SEL1635Z)

Voigtländer 15 mm Super Wide Heliar, version III

Samyang 14mm f/2.8

 

Question (1): Should other candidate lenses be added to my list?

Question (2): How do my candidate lenses compare? (A rather open ended question :-)

An amateur? As Charlie Chaplin said, "We don't live long enough to be anything else." ;-)

 

I recently had the Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm and found the quality to be extremely good so that one trip I rarely removed it when shooting at 35mm to replace it with the Zeiss Loxia 35mm. I found it to be far better than the Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm.

 

I liked the Voigtländer 15mm prototype at Photokina, but it also has an integrated petal lens hood, i.e. potential filter problems.

 

I did consider the Samyang but it becomes huge if you need a filter system to cover the integrated petal lens hood.

 

If you want a smaller system, you might consider the new 25mm Batis, (if it is wide enough for you) or even the good old manual focus 20mm Nikkor with a 52mm thread, which I also use.

 

My opinion? The Zeiss 16-35mm for versatility plus one of the tiny prime lenses, like Voigtlänger or Nikkor (or another) for when you have time and need filters.

 

Hope it helps.

[Gougan21]

Hello, forgive my poor english.

 

I experienced myself wide angle since i stard to shoot and after few tries, i change my 5d mark iii against a alpha 7. I have been very desapointed by the 16-35 zeiss i waited long but my last choice is to use the 12-24 sigma in a mout with the la-ae4' and the result is , according to my mind, very acceptable and help me living my architecture life in wide angle as i like her!

[coastguy]

I am a little surprised no one has mentioned the Sony 10-18mm lens.  I am using it on an A7R II and it works great between 12-17mm.  I picked up this idea from Trey Ratcliff and prices for this lens are quite reasonable.