| Review of: Voigtlander Ultron SLII 40mm F2 by amaurosis on Thu July 30, 2009 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
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Reviews: 10
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It's remarkable that nobody has reviewed this lens here yet as one would assume that with its all metal build, excellent overall image quality and compact size it would particularly appeal to Pentax users.
The Ultron's physical length doesn't exceed that of the Pentax DA 21mm and 70mm Limited pancakes and also the build quality is easily on par with that of Pentax' counterparts. Manual focus on this lens is easily the best and most enjoyable I have operated to date, the focus ring being very well damped and rubberized with a focus throw that is just about perfect. The lens comes with a tiny, thoughtfully designed lens hood, a close-up filter and a snap-on lens cap. The latter is the only minor design flaw: it is made of plastic and only fits on the lens hood. Due to its small size (33mm, I think) it is sometimes awkward to use. Overall the Ultron SLII feels very substantial and balances well on my K-m.
Image quality is generally very good. Colour reproduction, sharpness and contrast seem excellent to me and while I do not perfrom any formal tests with my lenses, I cannot complain about chromatic aberration, vignetting or distortion. My pictures generally turn out very well with this lens. Notably, it is already sharp at its biggest aperture of F/2, which allows for some interesting possibilities in low light. While the bokeh is not outstanding, it commonly looks good to me. I have also seen examples where it could have been a bit more pleasant, but overall you'd have to be very critical to seriously call it problematic, I'd say. Anyway, depth of field is more than shallow enough for creative use without making manual focussing too difficult.
I bought the Voigtländer Ultron to complement my setup with a fast, compact lens for travelling and while I thought I preferred normal to wide focal ranges, it has quickly grown on me with its 40mm, i. e. long-normal, focal length. It is a very versatile lens and a great option for street and night photography. Anyone interested in the incredibly popular Pentax DA 40mm Limited lens should seriously consider the Ultron SLII as an alternative. It is hardly any bigger than the DA but a whole stop faster and provides plenty of value for a fair price.
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