Originally posted by biz-engineer A big part of glass wonder is placebo effect. Blind tests debunk subjectivity, as most lenses stopped down can't be distinguished by only looking at images without knowing what lens was used. Remain the cases of open apertures, subject separation mostly related to aperture and focal length.
There are plenty of Voigtländer 50mm f/2 APO reviews online, with test shots showing centre and corner performance at various apertures, and in fairness the resolution, contrast and lack of aberrations is
very impressive. I stop short of complimenting the colour, since - as I keep repeating - this is due not just to the lens, but also the profile used (whether embedded, provided by software, or user created). However, the contrast is excellent from wide open, and all example images in these reviews look nicely saturated. From the brief reading I've done, I'm quite sure Andy's picked up one heck of a lens, and there's every reason to believe it is one of the best 50mm f/2 lenses available in terms of optical performance.
You pay for it, though. At around $1,000 for a manual-focus-only, non-weather-resistant lens with a maximum aperture of f/2, you'd want image quality to be very, very good indeed. Thankfully, it appears to be even better than that, and I suspect it's well worth the money for those that are seeking edge-to-edge sharpness, almost-zero aberrations and smooth out-of-focus rendering from maximum to minimum apertures.
For the same price in Pentax land, the D FA*50/1.4 is faster, has very good auto-focus, all-weather construction, it's sharp and contrasty, and with a suitable profile could provide the same colour rendering as the Voigtländer... but it's also much bigger and heavier, and a casual comparison of various reviews suggests the Voigtländer is "better" optically (I say "better" in quotes, because everyone has different tastes in sharpness and rendering).
As always, the "best" lens is the one that satisfies the individual photographer's requirements and preferences. I think Andy's found his... and let's be honest, we're all excited when we discover a lens that really pleases us
Last edited by BigMackCam; 08-31-2021 at 03:43 AM.