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Soft images from Voigtlander 125mm macro
Posted By: roentarre, 06-16-2007, 09:18 PM

Late afternoon yesterday, Joel and I went for some macro shots testing out our macro lenses... This is a freezing winter - not many flowers around ...

Voigtlander 125mm macro is really an amazing lens, unfortunately producing too many soft images with crayon bokeh (Sarcasm applied)

This lens amazingly bring out shadow details and its colour much more than pentax DFA 100 macro or Tamron 90mm macro...



The bokeh is sooooo creamy and the reality of the subject is dark, dim and boring. The colour is just hitting at you.



The DOF is paper thin so there are unsharp areas within the same leaf ... The leaf does have an undulating surface









This lens is so addictive because of its bokeh. I am heading towards collecting the rest of voigtlander primes

James
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06-16-2007, 09:44 PM   #2
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Looks like you had a fun day. #3 and #6 are my faves. The textures and colors, sharpness and smoothness are really nice.
06-16-2007, 10:11 PM   #3
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Thanks, Betsy!

QuoteOriginally posted by betsypdx Quote
Looks like you had a fun day. #3 and #6 are my faves. The textures and colors, sharpness and smoothness are really nice.
Knowing your photography style with a lot of emphasis on selective DOF and composition, I really appreciate your comment. (Your pentax gallery shots are really great using various attempts on DOF and composition, making ordinary objects quite oustanding on photos )

If it were not to test out this lens, I would have stayed at home studying after a half day at work.

Some more shots









06-16-2007, 11:08 PM   #4
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That is a heavy bastard James. Strong arms, a heavy tripod, a good flash, light - use what you have at hands and the reward is obvious! Congratulations to this fine lens.

(Btw, the other Cosina Voigtländer lenses are a mixed collection I'm afraid, The 125mm macro is the gem, the SL75/2.5 is very good, in the same league as the FA77, the other ones are not as exciting imho.)

06-16-2007, 11:21 PM   #5
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Thanks Jonas!

QuoteOriginally posted by Jonas B Quote
That is a heavy bastard James. Strong arms, a heavy tripod, a good flash, light - use what you have at hands and the reward is obvious! Congratulations to this fine lens..
Jonas, I did not use tripod or flash at all (I know I have been naughty - a lot of shots do not appear to be in focus after post processing at home, conversion from RAW to JPEGs.)

Though I did not make a controlled experiment comparing all the macros, it is stark obvious that Tamron has a lot of shadow areas showing up while Voigtlander brings up no dark black spots at all.

A* 200mm macro is too dark to use and interestingly, the view finder appears so dark and its images are bright pale green instead of the dark green in Voigtlander. The graduation of the bokeh tends to be smoother with Voigtlander as well ...

QuoteOriginally posted by Jonas B Quote
(Btw, the other Cosina Voigtländer lenses are a mixed collection I'm afraid, The 125mm macro is the gem, the SL75/2.5 is very good, in the same league as the FA77, the other ones are not as exciting imho.)
Thank you for the advice. Now I gonna think twice about it. I know 12mm and 15mm only have Leica M mount and the only k mount voiglander lenses would be either 75mm or 180mm f4 ... Since this is your opinion, I definitely take it as a grain of salt.

Maybe I will stop it there with Voigtlander collection.
06-17-2007, 04:48 PM   #6
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James, surely there is somebod out there ready to swear by any of the Voigtländer (hey, now that you are an aficionado you have to start spelling it right; it's an a with two dots above it: ä as in Voigtländer ) SL lenses.

I agree about the wonderschöne build quality but you also have to take a somewhat lower contrast (sometimes good) into account. I think this mainly comes from a coating somewhat inferior to the SMC. The SL75 has everything essential. The 40mm is sometimes mentioned as a great lens. It is good but it also happens that the bokeh from time to time is pretty ugly, even worse than what you see from the FA43 sometimes. I see no real advantage to the SL40 there. The other ones you have already mentioned.

The Pentax primes are good enough to turn some options into non-options.

regards,
06-17-2007, 07:23 PM   #7
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James,
wonderful - all of them... - #3 from the first set, and #2 from the second set are my favorites - but all around, wow...


you've captured subjects that seem they should be ordinary and should have "blah" color and they still pop off the screen and are beautiful. excellent work!!


Last edited by khardur; 06-17-2007 at 07:30 PM. Reason: edited my grammar
06-17-2007, 08:00 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by Jonas B Quote
James, surely there is somebod out there ready to swear by any of the Voigtländer (hey, now that you are an aficionado you have to start spelling it right; it's an a with two dots above it: ä as in Voigtländer ) SL lenses.
Hi Jonas, my laptop does not have the key for "a" with 2 small dots above it (not sure where to look for it)

But seeing is believing. This lens really impressed me a lot !

QuoteOriginally posted by khardur Quote
James,
wonderful - all of them... - #3 from the first set, and #2 from the second set are my favorites - but all around, wow...


you've captured subjects that seem they should be ordinary and should have "blah" color and they still pop off the screen and are beautiful. excellent work!!
Hi Dan. This is the beauty of this lens bringing out colour and details out of shadow areas so beautifully. Seriously, these subjects are really mundane!

Thank you for the comment. p.s. The diffuse light from overcast sky helps with colour I guess...
06-17-2007, 10:52 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by roentarre Quote
Hi Jonas, my laptop does not have the key for "a" with 2 small dots above it (not sure where to look for it)

But seeing is believing. This lens really impressed me a lot !


Hmm. I think we have a problem here. I'm sure a real aficionado would buy a new laptop with the correct keys available. So, I take that part back then. The lens is still a gem!

regards,
06-18-2007, 05:00 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Jonas B Quote
James, surely there is somebod out there ready to swear by any of the Voigtländer (hey, now that you are an aficionado you have to start spelling it right; it's an a with two dots above it: ä as in Voigtländer ) SL lenses.
More importantly, how do you pronounce it? (I really would like to know, we don't have umlauts normally.)
06-18-2007, 05:03 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by roentarre Quote


These two may have just sold me this lens! Cosina owes you a commission.
06-18-2007, 07:20 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by carpents Quote
More importantly, how do you pronounce it? (I really would like to know, we don't have umlauts normally.)
Hmm. It's German but as the Swedish and German ä is pretty much the same I can make a try.

Example:
You know the German musician Friedrich Händel (English name: Frideric Handel, he lived for a long time in London, England)? The guy who wrote Fireworks music and Messias in the 18th century? He had the same ä in his family name.

Or:
Like in landing on the moon - in the word landing you have very nearly the same sound but in the long version. If you try to pronounce landing with a short vowel in the first syllable you have it good enough.

The accentuation in Voigtländer should be at the first syllable.

Maybe somebody better in Germany/English can explain it better...

regards,
06-18-2007, 08:20 AM   #13
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Should sound like "Foigtlender" right...

QuoteOriginally posted by Jonas B Quote
Hmm. It's German but as the Swedish and German ä is pretty much the same I can make a try.

Example:
You know the German musician Friedrich Händel (English name: Frideric Handel, he lived for a long time in London, England)? The guy who wrote Fireworks music and Messias in the 18th century? He had the same ä in his family name.

Or:
Like in landing on the moon - in the word landing you have very nearly the same sound but in the long version. If you try to pronounce landing with a short vowel in the first syllable you have it good enough.

The accentuation in Voigtländer should be at the first syllable.

Maybe somebody better in Germany/English can explain it better...

regards,
06-18-2007, 08:49 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by and Quote
Should sound like "Foigtlender" right...
Doh. Right. As in Volkswagen...

thanks,
06-19-2007, 06:15 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by carpents Quote
These two may have just sold me this lens! Cosina owes you a commission.
Thanks Sean for the comment. I doubt these images would even qualify the pentax gallery selection criteria...

QuoteOriginally posted by Jonas B Quote
Doh. Right. As in Volkswagen...

thanks,
Does the brand really pronounce like that?


Cheers

James
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