Welcome To Hypocrisy Central: The Voigtlander M Pivot Part 1.
Why hypocrisy? I am glad I imagined that you asked.
For starters when I bought a digital vintage Leica M Type 240 I had a host of Artisans lenses. I swore that I would not pivot to other lenses. Wrote my own post…
…and one for 35mmc about them. It lasted for a while. First was the ZEISS 50mm f/2 interloper.
The Artisan lenses remained. There were inklings of a ZEISS revolt… but while I got a great deal on the ZEISS 50m f/2 to finish out a respectable M mount prime lens trio would cost a small fortune. Wide and portrait ZM lenses cost quite a bit. Four digits in fact. I am not built for that. Are they worth it? Yes. Am I willing to pay that much for them? No. I prize value also.
Then something else happened. I had messed around and ended up with multiple lenses near each other in spec.
Then a lens landed at my local camera shop that I traded all of the lenses above for, the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 VM.
It is awesome! A perfect melding of the three lenses above. Near as fast as the fast and wonky 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1. Nearly as wide as the far better than it has any business being 35mm f/1.4. IQ as grown up and build quality as good as the ZEISS 50mm f/2 ZM. All in a package nearly as compact as the slower ZEISS. A win all around.
I said I was good. Will leave the rest of the Artisan band intact… right… right!?
But I could not stop shopping for lenses to complete a proper Voigtlander prime trio. You see, while both ZEISS and Voigtlander are made by Cosina, which might explain the similar build quality levels, Voigtlander lenses are quite a bit more affordable. This continued for months as I also tried to justify staying with the Artisan lenses. Even wrote a recent post about this effort.
Even created an image I love with one of these lenses.
These Artisan lenses were still viable. But as much as I defend and genuinely like these lenses there were a few issues. None of them are related to the brand names.
- The build is good. Fine. Just fine.
- Despite my genuine affection for the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 lens, I must admit that the 50mm build is meh at best.
- The 7Artsans 35mm f/1.4 and TTArtisan 21mm f/1.5 are better. But the ZEISS and Voigtlander lenses are even better than them. While I initially liked the built in hood on the 35mm I started feeling that it was a bit loose and spins a bit too freely after some time.
- The size and weight.
- The 50mm f/1.1 is small for such a spec, but it has some heft. While I really like the 21mm f/1.5 I tend not to use it because of its size.
- At f/2 the small size of the ZEISS lens is expected. But at f/1.2 the Voigtlander is a bit of a marvel to me.
Then there is the pretty one. The TTArtisan 28mm f/5.6.
I thought I would definitely keep this one. It looks good. It is compact. It takes a great image. But over time I found that I was not using it. The odd placement of the zone focus markings and locking focus lever were cute at first but did it no favors in the wild. I readily made peace with the f/5.6 aperture but this came back to bite this lens in the end. More on that below.
I was not looking for anything as wide as the Voigtlander 15mm f/5 III.
The 40mm f/1.2 takes the place of the Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5…
…and 40mm f/1.4 I had in the past.
Great lenses. But I prefer the 40mm f/1.2 over them both.
So most of my attention went to searching for a portrait lens. The two top contenders were 75mm Voigtlander lenses. The Voigtlander 75mm f/1.5 and 75mm f/1.9. Then one day it happened. On one of my MPB searches (I was trolling KEH also.), two lenses appeared that I had never looked at before.And they both did two things.
- Posed as interesting alternatives to the Artisan lenses I had.
- Posed as very good value options even compared to Artisan lenses.
That last bullet surprised me. All of the other lenses I had looked at cost more than $500 or $600 used. Even more new. That put the price for two lenses at over $1,000. Nope. These lenses were both listed in Like New for little more than $300. That is used Artisan lens territory.
Here are the lenses with made up categories of why I did not know about them, why they are so reasonably priced (My theory anyway.), and what lenses they replaced. Was going to write might replace but on arrival I quickly realized these would be my new go to lenses.
The Voigtlander Color-Skopar 21mm f/4 VM P.
Why I did not know about it.
I believe it just got lost in the mix. If you search B&H right now for 20mm to 29mm M mount Voigtlander lenses 18 lenses show up as of the writing of this post. Also blend in faster aperture lenses likely distracting me. But this is where that pretty TTartisans lens above worked against itself. This Voigtlander lens is nearly as small as the attractive TTArtisans 28mm f/5.6 above. Remember when I said that lens’ aperture would come back to bite it in the end. Well, if f/5.6 is good f/4 is even better.
Why it is so reasonably priced.
I have no Earthly idea. After holding this lens in hand and seeing the images it produces I have no good reason why these are little more than $400 new and $300 used.
Note/Update: Though this is a lens intended for film I find it works well with the digital M 240 but there is one caveat. One must use the Leica 21mm f/2.8 profile in the camera. I found this out when I noticed a magenta cast in the corners from today’s images that I had not seen before. After some quick Googling and back and forth testing I realized that I had accidentally used the Leica 75mm in camera lens profile. This explains why I saw no magenta corners the first few days with this lens. If you forget to use the right in camera profile all is not lost. Ok. That was overly dramatic. These images clean up nicely in Lightroom if you apply the Voigtlander 21mm f/4 Color Skopar lens profile. Nice. Now I am curious about what happens if you use the right profile in camera and apply the Voigtlander profile in Lightroom. Anyhoo. I am relieved. I really like this lens.
What lenses it replaced.
Nearly as small and slightly faster than the TTArtisans 28mm f/5.6 and as wide as the much faster 21mm f/1.5 it seemed the perfect compromise between the two. At such a wide focal length I found that the TTArtisans 21mm’s f/1.5 aperture was not really necessary for my purposes.
The Voigtlander Heliar Classic 75mm f/1.8 VM.
Why I did not know about it.
Because it was discontinued. I had focused on the more recent f/1.9 and f/1.5 lenses mentioned above. Until this lens showed up on MPB I had not really known about it. After a quick search of older reviews, I was really glad I found it.
Why it is so reasonably priced.
I would imagine because it was discontinued.
What lens it replaced.
The 7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 mentioned above. While not as fast on arrival immediate benefits were realized.
- As much as I had fixated on f/1.25 when I held both lenses in hand I would gladly trade the loss of light for a lighter lens… I am sorry. I will show myself out. And after a quick IQ and bokeh test this lens does just fine.
- Better build quality. Not that the 7Artisans is bad. But the Voigtlander is better.
And lastly there is this. There is something to be said for the satisfaction of having matching brand lenses.
So. Enough of this nonsense for now. This concludes part 1. Parts 2 and 3 will be about the sample images with both lenses with film and digital.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 
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