Comments on: New lens coming out soon: Voigtlander Color Skopar 20mm F3.5 SL II Aspherical (for Nikon Ai-s)

By: ChrisL

ChrisL — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:34:20 +0000

Rumour confirmed, official announcement

By: ChrisL

ChrisL — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:33:12 +0000

http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/english/sl2-e.html

By: ChrisL

ChrisL — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:10:08 +0000

Almost every lens had the 52mm filter size at that time.

I have and like the Nikkor 20mm f/4, mine is currently having an AI kit fitted for use on D90. Lovely, compact, sharp, flare-resistant lens. Interested to see how the Skopar compares. Looks about the same size as the CV 40/2, which makes it even more compact.

By: Adam Maas

Adam Maas — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:37:08 +0000

Yep, but I did specify MOLDED aspherics. Which are relatively new to camera optics, at least at the mass-production level (molded aspherical elements didn’t become common in optical designs until the last decade)

By: UF

UF — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:16:41 +0000

It’s my old Nikkor 20mm ƒ4! Now made by the allies!

By: MB

MB — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:53:39 +0000

Early attempts at making aspheric lenses to correct spherical aberration were made by René Descartes in the 1620s, and by Constantijn Huygens in the 1630s. The Visby lenses produced by Vikings on the island of Gotland in the 10th or 11th century are also aspheric, but there is no evidence that the science behind the technique was known, they were ’simply’ produced by craftsmen working from experience of what worked.

By: Adam Maas

Adam Maas — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:08:27 +0000

50 year old tech? Hmm, molded Asphericals are 50 year old tech? Both the 40/2 Ultron and this new 20 use molded aspherical elements. The only modern lens design elements you don’t see in the Cosina Voigtlander lenses is floating elements, and that only because Cosina’s factory is not set up to build the focusing systems for them.

Both the 40/2 and 20/3.5 designs are new clean-sheet designs. The 58’s an older design (it’s based on the basic layout used by the Rokkor 58/1.2 and Noct-Nikkor) but that’s its selling point (A classic fast normal in a focal length we haven’t seen much of since the 80’s).

You might want to actually read up on the designs before commenting. It just makes you look ignorant.

oh, and btw, the CT-1 SLR chassis that Cosina rebrands (and used as the starting point for the Bessa RF’s) is 30 years old, not 50.

By: Fried Toast

Fried Toast — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:27:48 +0000

It’s correct on Map Camera’s site now. I’m close enough I could go bug ‘em about it, but they probably wouldn’t tell me anything. I’ve never had any luck squeezin’ info out of Japanese salespeople.

By: Ernst

Ernst — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:38:32 +0000

That’s my point: when manually focusing a 200mm lens, you can easily tell when you’re passing through the point of maximum focus. When manually focusing a 20mm lens, it’s harder. This is why autofocus is useful on wide lenses.

A 16mm Fisheye always looks sharp in the viewfinder. Print it at 8×10 and you realize all your pictures are soft. This is why the conventional wisdom “wide lenses don’t need autofocus” is exactly wrong.

Focus is less critical on slow lenses because WIDE OPEN they have greater DOF than fast lenses. Compare a 50mm f/1.2 and a 50mm f/1.8 WIDE OPEN and tell me which one is more sensitive to focus errors.

You could stop them both down to f/8, but that would be to deliberately miss the point.

By: Cluebat

Cluebat — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:24:46 +0000

Fail. Commenting on items without checking out their substance indicates you’re seriously made of fail. I’d give you a clue but it seems you’re so clueless it’s not going to help.

By: James Clarke

James Clarke — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:04:58 +0000

Hopefully the Chip works well, one of their previous lenses consistently under exposed by 2/3 of a stop.

By: Ralf

Ralf — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:36:02 +0000

Well I’m thinking that 20mm is unlikely to be used in a situation where you need to focus quickly – not like you’ll be using it to shoot the tennis. I use WA mostly for landscapes and autofocus is useless to me. Maybe some will use it where they need autofocus, so buy a 20mm Nikkor.

I usually stop down my WA to f8 -f11 and autofocus is really unnecessary.

By: Joel

Joel — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:23:22 +0000

true, but if I buy this I really can’t afford the 35/1.8 at the moment too…

By: Joel

Joel — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:22:17 +0000

D90 user so have to relly on 3rd party like voigtlander to give me supported MF lenses, as nikon doesn’t want to

By: MB

MB — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:09:19 +0000

No reason to take my opinion so personally.
There is nothing wrong in China made lenses, companies like Nikon and others are making lenses and everything else there because it is impossible to achieve that level of high quality manufacturing anywhere else in the world.
Nikon is not my precious, and I am not a Sméagol.
Voigtländer is just a name of a German company that seized to exist back in 1956.
Cosina is just a Japan based manufacturer that has been photo industry cuckoo bird for decades and have always made and sold their products under other names (Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Contax, Yashica, Konica, Vivitar and others), and it is a shame really because Cosina have always managed to achieve very good build quality. 50 years ago Cosina designed and manufactured SLR camera that has been sold under every more or less significant name in photo industry. They have managed to modify that design and make the rangefinder camera out of it that was sold under some highly respected names (Rollei and Voigtländer for example).
The lenses Cosina is making today are using 50 year old technology, and I personally am not willing or able to use it, so kill me. Clueless or not I could use whatever I like, and I could choose not to use what I don’t like, just as you should.
This site would be very boring place if everyone was just drooling about every new rumor on it: oh how could I live without yet another 20mm lens.
And you should inspect if there is anything really made in Germany in you German cars for example (hint: open the hood first!).

By: rjm

rjm — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:33:19 +0000

ha ha! My thought exactly. Hardly the same price bracket though….

By: rjm

rjm — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:29:37 +0000

All the used manual focus lenses muddy the choice, assuming the CPU isn’t the make or break feature for you.

As well as the 20/2.8 there’s the UD 20/3.5 and the well-regarded 20/4. All sell used for the same or less than Cosina’s asking price. (as yet unknown, but not too hard to estimate at ~$500.)

A full frame, compact 20mm lens is a tough beast to get right, there’s going to be compromises even with modern miracles such as aspherical lenses etc. It will be a fine lens, but I doubt it will obsolete the Nikkors across the board.

By: rjm

rjm — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:13:29 +0000

Since I happen to have used both extensively I’ll volunteer to be the one to point out you’re clueless.

My Ultron 40mm SLII (I’m looking it it right now) is marked “Made in Japan”. Which is more than your precious Nikkors can claim these days, eh?

Fair point, Cosina just bought the Voigtlander name for the prestige it would bring. Also, the build quality isn’t quite in the same league as, say, the early AiS lenses. Optically however they more than hold their own. Certain things they do better, certain things they do worse.

By: Adam Maas

Adam Maas — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:08:39 +0000

There’s one major difference, the Voigtlander is an Aspherical design. This should mean that it will have much better edge performance than the 20/3.5 Nikkor.

By: David

David — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:07:28 +0000

20-30mm on a Nikon in 35mm 1.5 ratio
http://www.dcviews.com/lenses/Digital-SLR-lenses.htm