All the cockpit shots in Top Gun 2 were filmed with this lens. Impressive.

I am rather impressed by this lens' performance given its parameters. 21mm, f/1.4, at that size? It seems like a very clever optical concoction, so kudos to Cosina. Thanks for the review, as always.

Love how you started voigtlander reviews!!!

Honestly this is pretty impressive. As it needs to be, for a manual focus lens at that price point, personally with a 21mm like this, I can't really think of a photo that you need to take at f/1.4 that needs pixel-perfect sharpness corner-to-corner (aside from Astro, which is quite niche). Looks to be a fantastic video lens tbh.

Fantastic review Christopher, very clear and accurate description of this beautiful lens. I have mine and I love it despite the heavy vignette.

The aesthetic of these Voightlander lenses is very much like Pentax’s Takumar and Super Takumar lenses of the 1960s and early 70s. The focus ring in Particular is almost exact copy. Wonderful in use

@ryanstark2350

3 ай бұрын

It's even more like the very early 50s Takumars. Those are some of my favorite vintage lenses but these Voigtlanders improve with wider apertures on wider angle lenses. I'm definitely looking into getting some of these lenses. The 40mm Nokton f1.2 looks very good.

Maybe it's the lens itself, maybe the lens inspired you, maybe you're simply developing as a photographer, but your sample images in this review stood out as pretty darn great!

Wonderful that we are seeing a Voigtlaender review! There are few reviewers I trust more than CF. I would love to see the 50mm 1.2 or even (especially) the f1 reviewed. i own this 21mm Nokton and use it on a Z6. It is probably my most used lens, for my personal work where i don’t need AF. Although Christopher pointed it out, i feel it should be stressed that this lens really does focus close and (more importantly) its close focus produces sharp contrasty images. Depending on what you are using it for of course, this is a really great advantage. With the fast speed and close focus distance, you can get super dramatic subject separation. it’s really quite an amazing lens in this regard IMO. For my uses, the corner sharpness is not an issue, but i do find the same issue as CF.

@shmuelaryehkoltov241

Жыл бұрын

I have both this lens (for E-mount) and the 50mm f1.2 Nokton VM lens, using both on a Nikon Z5. I love them both. The 21mm is my favorite, a lens I only got recently, but already have come to prefer over my other lenses. If you're curious about the 50mm f1.2, then I can say that it is pretty sharp even wide open and you do get some very beautiful images with it. Stop it down to f4 and I believe that it's sharp from edge to edge. The big weakness of this lens is the chromatic aberration when wide open, which is to be expected I suppose, size and aperture considered. Since I mostly shoot in BnW I'm not that concerned with it, but it is fairly visible when shooting in color. It is only really an issue with contrasting edges of course. I don't have any issues focusing with it, even at f1.2. If you consider getting it, and you don't already have it :), then go for it. The images are beautiful and you can even get this medium format feeling when shot correctly.

I think the "vignetting problem" is generally overrated. I always add some anyway to centre the attention. Love your uploads! Many thanks!

I used to own this lens. Sold it. Well built and it gave nice results in everyday photography, but it totally failed in my northern lights photography due to extremely much astigmatism and coma. Stars looked like bees, astigmatism gave the stars wings. Now I’m using Sony 14/1,8 instead. Generally I love Voigtländer lenses, both for the quality feel and for the picture quality. My favourite is the APO-Lanthar 50/2. That lens is almost perfect in every way.

Having mechanical control over manual camera functions gives me back that old muscle memory that came from working with film SLRs. I'm sensible enough to use autofocus lenses where they are needed, but if that's not an issue, I'd rather use my Voigtlanders. I have the 50 1.2 and 21 1.4 Noktons and I'm getting great results on my a7III and a7rV. I was especially thrilled with the cityscape shots I got with my 21mm 1.4 Voigtlander in Kabukicho, Tokyo last week. I'm so glad I brought this lens with me for that once in a lifetime trip. I recommend Voigtlanders to anyone looking for portability and unobtrusiveness. They also have that "cool" hipster cachet which doesn't bother me at all.

Another great video mate, well done. Ive only ever had one voigtlander (nokton 40mm f1.4 MC) and i cant praise it enough, even with its technical "flaws" although i would love Chris to do a review on it if he ever got the chance 😉 Cheers!

thanks for the great and thorough review!! tbh i'm mighty impressed by this lens - yes, vignetting and corner softness are there, but they're not that bad considering f1.4 is quite a feature for that wide of a lens! plus it's quite tiny for what it is. of course in astro better corners wide open would be great, but for everything else those are quite good enough. also that the lens really improves already at f2, and has great close focus performance. really impressive lens!

it does produce very good contrast, color and saturation. 👍

The lens looks badass

I agree with vignetting and corner sharpness, for that price was left wanting more. Also would love it to have less focus breathing and option to de-click the aperture for filmmakers and some weather sealing could be nice

This is main landscapes lens, and I've had it for a couple years now. I find it's harder to get good results than I initially thought it would be, The lens demands you get everything right to produce good results. It you're casually snapping away, you'll probably end up disappointed. Weird that a piece of metal and glass seems to have a personality like this.

@_benjimouse_

Жыл бұрын

@My Epic Photography Channel I went totally voigtlander MF when I had an R2 and had gotten frustrated with the AF. For landscapes, it's no big issue imo. I have an A1 now and AF lenses for sports and wildlife, things that need it, but I don't think there's an reason to now replace the lenses I use for things that don't.

This lens looks very nice, but last week i shot a used color skopar 21f3,5 for low budged money. I love this little lens so much, i bought it because the small size and Low weight. F1.4 sounds very good, one day i will buy it. In my camera-bag are 3 Voigtländer-Lenses. 10mm hyperwide heliar, the 35mm Apo-lanthar and the 21mm Color-Skopar. I love them all, they works very nice and have her own character. Shure, the Sony 20mmf1.8 is a great lens, too. But if you turn the lens in the mount, to disconnect to the cam-body, you will see big distortion and vignetting. That's fact!

Great review. How does this compare against the ULTRON 1.8? Is the slightly faster aperture worth the extra weight?

I think it seems like a lovely lens, tbh. At the end of the day a good image is about the 'feel' of the image, and this lens seems to do that a lot better than some lens that are more 'technically' perfect. Also, at least it's sharp edge to edge when stopped down. So if you want to use it for landscape photography at f8 or whatever you can expect essentially perfect image quality.

Recently i came back from Japan doing street photography using Sony APSC with Voigt 15mm/4.5 III emount. The combo served me very well, light and well balanced. Used 85% of the the time. For the love of Voigt lenses, i am checking your video. But maybe I will stick to APSC as it is certainly lighter and it is 22mm ish

Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN is around the corner...

Thanks for the (as always) great review. Like Chris, I am disappointed by the corner sharpness at wider apertures, especially because this is due to strong coma. A shame indeed, otherwise this 21mm would have been a fantastic lens for astrophotography.

With such good distortion performance, I bet you'd find that corner softness is due to field curvature. Suggestive of a recipe for a film lens!

Can u pls review the color skopar 21/3.5 emount?

Hey Chris. Any luck on the R7. They are hard to come by.

I love the nokton 40mm 1.2 on my a7c

With a focal length this wide, were I to have this lens, would be used for landscape, street or other wide work, doubt I would ever use the lens wide open. However, others clearly have different uses in mind.

Need to compare the tt artisans 21mm 1.5 to this ! Thanks for the review .

@Fujifilm2021

11 ай бұрын

Which is better?

Hopefully Christopher will be able to get his hands on the ultra-wide trio from Voigtlander (10/12/15mm) for testing. I've got the 21mm f/3.5, so I'd also be interested in a review of that if it ever becomes available from Voigtlander for testing. I wonder how it stacks up against this f/1.4 option.

@Vantrakter

Жыл бұрын

Phillipreeve have reviewed both, they talk about a "mid zone dip" not appearing on the bigger faster lens, that is significantly faster. I don't particularly see said dip in my 21 3,5 and really like how well defined the sunstars are at f/4 as well as the general color and contrast of it. It's hard to find a cheaper alternative with exif.

@dylanglynn5703

Жыл бұрын

I have the 15mm, and although i am huge fan of the 21mm Nokton, see my comment above, and also appreciate the 35mm Nokton, i am often disappointed with the 15mm. i want so much to like it, it is a great lens in man ways, but my copy at least, is just not that sharp, and I am not an obsessive with sharpness. I wish there more Voigtlaender reviews out there….

@pmc7105

Жыл бұрын

@@dylanglynn5703 Yeah, my first Voigtlander was the 15mm for FE mount, it has soft corners. Apparently the 15 is known for sample variation, although after people started commenting on it, the lens wasn't available for a while. Perhaps they heard the feedback and the new ones rolling off the line have been fixed.

@dylanglynn5703

Жыл бұрын

@@pmc7105 actually i have often wondered whether i just have a poor sample (or etc etc). i picked it up secondhand so there are loads of possibilities as to what could be the issue. I’ve wondered b/c overall ive not been overly impressed by it, not jst the corners - it is a super portable super wide angle after all. but my only points of comparison at the super wide end are the zeiss 18mm distagon and the laowa 9mm… both of which i love. I really should find a way of checking the copy that i have. thanks for the heads up, i’ll follow it up b/c the lens should be great! :)

The german Django says: The „i“ in Voightländer is silent 😎 - On a more serious note: Sigma will soon (6th august) announce a 20mm f 1.4 DG DN Art. You may want Sigma to ask them to send you one - quickly 😀

I’d love to get a Voigtlander lens for my Fuji but I feel like they’re a bit overpriced by name because of some of their really high class lenses for Leica and stuff. Who knows maybe I’ll get one someday but for now my Mitakon 35mm is nice enough for me.

@justinhoward6755

Жыл бұрын

I could never justify that kind of spending for my Sony when the 24mm GM is the same price but better, and native. Over 1k for a manual focus lens of this caliber seems like a joke to me.

No review on the 35mm 1.4?

@Vantrakter

Жыл бұрын

The Nokton Classic? I'd imagine Chris would like it as much as the Nokton 35/1,2. Maybe even less since my cats cough up prettier things than the classic's bokeh.

@dch2896

Жыл бұрын

@@Vantrakter That classic bokeh and the flare is the signature of the lens. Some people enjoy it. Some people don't.

Be nice to see it compared to the Loxia 21mm.

@princeharbinger

Жыл бұрын

@@skipper4114 Interesting, thanks for the response. I know sometimes there can be variance issues such as decentering. I saw Fredmiranda's comparison, and he concluded that the CV was the better lens. The Loxia came very close though. I do like the sunstars on the Loxia slightly better. The weathersealing is also a plus, but the build of the CV reminds me of some of my favorite 1960's Takumar lenses. I do wish that the performance was better wide open for astro applications, but stopping down to F2.8 for coma is very acceptable for astro. I guess I could use it at F/1.4 for flower shots. Not sure if I feel comfortable using it for portraiture since it's a 21mm. I'll mainly be using it for landscape.

@princeharbinger

Жыл бұрын

@@skipper4114 I would love to see the Northern Lights one day. I live in America in a state called New Jersey. Why are you selling it? Have you found a better lens?

@princeharbinger

Жыл бұрын

@@skipper4114 Where are you thinking of moving to next? Why do you move so often. If you don't mind me asking.

Nice lens. I really like the sample pictures. Shame of the focus breathing (I'm a video guy),

@ilkercelik_com

Жыл бұрын

I have the leica m version. Focus breathing is minimal. By the way reminding it is a manual focus lens, hunting for focus will not be the case. It is not disturbing at all as it is not realized. It is my favorite video lens.

Who cares about corner sharpness or vignetting, photography is about image quality and creating art, not about sharpness or vignetting. Just look at that micro contrast ''3D pop'' even on a wide angle lens... Only Voigtlander, Zeiss, Leica, Nikon and Hasselblad can pull that off... Micro contrast? 10/10! Tonality? 10/10! Did not expect any less from a Voigtlander lens.

There's a noticeable quality difference between M mount & E mount Voigtlander lenses , i realised after switching to M mount & my decision was right .

@shmuelaryehkoltov241

Жыл бұрын

How so? Built quality or image quality? And which camera and lenses are you using?

@arunr4103

Жыл бұрын

@@shmuelaryehkoltov241 Build quality is almost same but image quality is noticeable better than Sony version am using a7III , lumix S1 & few BM cine cameras

@pdp11

Жыл бұрын

@@arunr4103 It's because Sony sensors use much thicker glass than Leica M.

Pricey compared to what?

This Voigtlanders are the real art lenses not the Sigmas. The 40mm f1.2 Nokton looks to be very good.

SDG

Manual $1000 lens. No thanks, I’ll keep my Sony 20 1.8

@Donbros

Жыл бұрын

Totally agree. Smaller lighter perfect af just no 1.4

First!!!

@Badonicus

Жыл бұрын

Anything else youd like to add

@diegorivera2711

Жыл бұрын

@@Badonicus yes. Thanks for your contribution. Cheers!