2016
Voigtländer Super Wide Heliar 15mm f4.5 (FE) - It's super!
The Voigtlander Super Wide Heliar 15mm f4.5 Aspherical III (FE) has a name so long that a 15mm focal length would probably be needed to capture its full width. Voigtlander, which is actually Cosina, is probably best known for making affordable, high quality M-mount lenses, as well as some f0.95 lenses for the Micro Four Thirds mount.
This particular lens is the company's first foray into E-mount and is the longest of three recently released focal lengths (the others being 12mm and 10mm). The Super Wide Heliar is optically identical to the VM (Leica mount) version III, which has been successfully adapted by many A7 shooters. The new lens is slightly bigger and heavier, focuses closer, and provides electronic contacts for manual focus assistance, aperture display, and full 5-axis stabilization.
The Voigtlander 15/4.5 specs:
Build Quality/Handling (Excellent/Excellent)
The all-metal Voigtlander is beautifully made and is as good or better than the best-made vintage lenses I've tried. The aperture ring clicks through all the stops with measured precision, while the focus ring is incredibly smooth. This lens is a real joy to use and is a great fit for the Sony A7s. It is compact and dense without being too heavy, and is therefore highly portable.
My only qualm is the plastic lens cap that can sometimes come off the lens. This is especially true with a mounted filter. In fact, the cap doesn't really stay on my polarizer at all, so I'll need to pick up a generic 58mm cap to slap on the filter.
Image Quality (Excellent)
I've mostly been shooting it on the A7s and it performs very well on that camera.
This particular lens is the company's first foray into E-mount and is the longest of three recently released focal lengths (the others being 12mm and 10mm). The Super Wide Heliar is optically identical to the VM (Leica mount) version III, which has been successfully adapted by many A7 shooters. The new lens is slightly bigger and heavier, focuses closer, and provides electronic contacts for manual focus assistance, aperture display, and full 5-axis stabilization.
The Voigtlander 15/4.5 specs:
- 11 elements in 9 groups (some aspherical)
- Weight - 294 grams
- Length - 66.4 mm
- Filter size - 58 mm
- Min. focus distance - 0.3 m
- Aperture - 10 blades, f4.5 to f22 in 1/3 stops
Build Quality/Handling (Excellent/Excellent)
The all-metal Voigtlander is beautifully made and is as good or better than the best-made vintage lenses I've tried. The aperture ring clicks through all the stops with measured precision, while the focus ring is incredibly smooth. This lens is a real joy to use and is a great fit for the Sony A7s. It is compact and dense without being too heavy, and is therefore highly portable.
My only qualm is the plastic lens cap that can sometimes come off the lens. This is especially true with a mounted filter. In fact, the cap doesn't really stay on my polarizer at all, so I'll need to pick up a generic 58mm cap to slap on the filter.
Image Quality (Excellent)
I've mostly been shooting it on the A7s and it performs very well on that camera.
f8 (click image for full resolution)
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f4.5 (click image for full resolution)
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f5.6 (click image for full resolution)
f4.5 (click image for full resolution)
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f11 (click image for full resolution)
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And here are a few on the Sony a6000.
f4.5 ISO 400
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f4.5 ISO 800
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ISO 100
Centre @ f4.5
f5.6
f8
f11
right edge @ f4.5
f8
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f5.6
f11
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This lens is sharp from f4.5 on both the 12 and 24mp Sony sensors. Things do improve slightly after stopping down, but really there is little difference between the different f-stops. Interestingly, diffraction seems to be slightly reducing sharpness already at f11. I think my findings here generally echo those of others who have tested this lens (or the VM version) on various Sony cameras.
Bokeh? What bokeh? It's very difficult to throw anything out of focus due to the combination of slow speed (f4.5), long (for a lens this wide) minimum focus distance (0.3m), and ultra wide focal length (15mm). When it does happen, here's the quality one can expect to get from the Voigtlander. Not the smoothest stuff I've seen, but since I rarely get to see it, it's not an issue.
Bokeh? What bokeh? It's very difficult to throw anything out of focus due to the combination of slow speed (f4.5), long (for a lens this wide) minimum focus distance (0.3m), and ultra wide focal length (15mm). When it does happen, here's the quality one can expect to get from the Voigtlander. Not the smoothest stuff I've seen, but since I rarely get to see it, it's not an issue.
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The Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 shows good flare resistance. There's never any visible loss of contrast with bright sources in or close to the edge of the frame. It is also very difficult to get ghosting flare on this lens (compared to the Samyang 12mm f2, for example), but when it does appear, it sometimes ain't pretty.
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Which brings us to sunstars. The ten-blade aperture produces attractive star shapes, especially during long exposures.
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Distortion is very well controlled for a lens this wide. There's a light amount of barrel distortion but it's barely visible in real-world use and I never find the need to correct it.
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Most of the reviews I read note the significant vignetting this lens produces. That hasn't been my experience. Sure, there's some vignetting at f4.5 but to my eyes it really isn't that bad. Apparently there's a Lightroom profile for this lens that corrects it, but I don't use it. Also, CA is well controlled with tiny bit of purple fringing visible in extreme, high contrast situations.
Vignetting at f4.5
f8
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f5.6
f11
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f4.5
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f5.6
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Conclusion
This lens is a great ultra wide angle option for full frame E-mount shooters. It's got amazing build quality and handles very well on the A7-series cameras. The image quality is excellent as well with great sharpness and contrast, good flare resistance, and minimal distortion and CA. The few shortcomings include slow maximum aperture, below average minimum focusing distance, and the sometimes strange, angular ghosting. It's not the cheapest lens, but it should satisfy most landscape and architectural shooters. I hope that Voigtlander reproduces more of their rangefinder lenses in E-mount. I would love to see the 40mm f1.4, the 21mm f1.8, and some of the more exotic offerings like the 35mm f1.2 become available for the A7-series cameras.
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Sample Images
This lens is a great ultra wide angle option for full frame E-mount shooters. It's got amazing build quality and handles very well on the A7-series cameras. The image quality is excellent as well with great sharpness and contrast, good flare resistance, and minimal distortion and CA. The few shortcomings include slow maximum aperture, below average minimum focusing distance, and the sometimes strange, angular ghosting. It's not the cheapest lens, but it should satisfy most landscape and architectural shooters. I hope that Voigtlander reproduces more of their rangefinder lenses in E-mount. I would love to see the 40mm f1.4, the 21mm f1.8, and some of the more exotic offerings like the 35mm f1.2 become available for the A7-series cameras.
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Sample Images
