Great at wide aperatures.
Great bokeh.

No red dot?

I needed a lens for low light situations with a $300 budget max and considered the Summarit 50/1.5 and the Canon 50/1.4.

This lens is great at wide aperatures. It's still sharp at the focus point and then produces an amazing bokeh.

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I also considered and tested the Leica Summarit 50/1.5 and a Canon 50/1.4 both of which you could get for <$300

supperb optical quality. very good build quality. the best 50mm i have used (exept the sumicron which is not mine).

not leica (but i was able to build a system of rangefinder with voigtlander in price range of leicas one lense)

i think that its the only substitution to the leica lenses. its not top quality of the leica not in terms of the build quality and not optically. but it costs 1/4 of hte leica. the image quality you can achive with it is much closer to leica than any other 50mm lense i have used. it feels great while working with it which is very importent to me. photography with rangefinders for me is an intuition and the nokton is there, i feel free with it. stopping down 1 f-stop delivers great image. at f4 the quality is superb. focusing is very smooth and rewording. the lense hood is very usefull, and its not a real problem to use filters on it as one reviewer noticed (it mught be problematic if one changes filters for each frame... not me). i use this lense on r2 body, others are snapshot skopar and lenthar 90mm. i think that only the real experts who get used to leica top quality will notice in my exhabition that the images are not taken with the leicas. i recomened you to read the reviews of erwin puts (there are other voigtlanders too). i think he's a graet expert and real leuca freak.

Customer Service

not yet

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zeiss plannar 50/1.7, nikons, pentaxes, sumicrom m (corrent).

optics and colors

construction...terrible

fantastic optics!lens is very sharp and color is superb. Constuction looks superb but no where near it. read my other reviews of voigtlander lens. i bought it thinking that the lens construction should be the last to check as it LOOKS great. I have 5 voigtlander lens and every one of them have imperfection in terms of the lens coating. just look at it and let the light reflects and you will see certain points that is not coated. although it does not affect the outcome of the picture. it is very irritating to notice such thinks considering even a cheap sigma cosumer lens can do a better complete coat

Customer Service

none

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35/1.7 90/3.5 15/4.5 28/1.9

Optical quality

Weight and size

Large and heavy, but optically excellent even at wide apertures. Some complain about the bokeh but I don't find it objectionable. A fine lens for low light photography indoors and outdoors.

Customer Service

Not needed.

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50/1.5 Sonnar, 50/1.5 Summarit

Excellent quality, fast, well-made.

Heavier than other Voigtlanders.

A superlative standard lens - top notch quality at bargain-basement price. What more could anyone ask for? It looks nice, as well!

Customer Service

N/A

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Other 50s from Canon, Zeiss and others.

Like handling a piece of jewrly.
Photos are sharp edge-to-edge with impreceptable distortion around the fringes. Most importantly, the photos have a real beauty that transends just sharpness and contrast. There's a sense of 'soul' in the photos.
The F-stop scale "clicks" every 1/2 stop and that's nice.
I like the built-in, yet removable lens shade ring.
Finish (black) seems durable and is very attractive.

None really. Sometimes it feels like the focusing ring is too close to the camera body, but I think it more of a function of the Bessa R body and those darn strap rings.

Overall, I can't see how another lens would make me any happier. I love the personality of this lens and the compromise between clarity and tone. The photos 'pop' and have a wonderful sense of place and depth. The lens is definitely sharper than my Nikon AND has a ton more grace. I suppose a nice Leica ASPH would do the same job, but why bother when this lens makes me look as good as it does? I'm sold. Buy this lens and focus on the picture, not the name on the front.

Customer Service

Time will tell.

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Olympus OM, Canonett, Hexar RF, Mamiya 645, Nikon FM2

The lens seems to be well constructed and feels solid. It has a nice 1/2 stop aperture click, nice weight, large aperture, good finish, douple aspherical finish

The lens cap seems flimsy

This is one sharp 50mm lens. I shot slides with this lens and all of them turn out to be tack sharp and contrasty. The weight of the lens also feels right with my Bessa-R and with the large aperture, I am able to capture some pictures under low light condition. Unless you blow up the pictures, I would say that the pictures taken with this lens is as good as those taken with the Leica Summilux 50/1.4 which I borrowed from a friend. Also comparable to my Contax 45/2.0 when shot wide open. Overall I am impressed with this lens which costs very much less than the Leica 50/1.4 and has a larger aperture than the Contax 45/2.0. A must for those who are into rangefinders and yet limited by budget.

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Voigtlander 15mm lens, Leica & Contax rangefinders & lenses