The Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar is without doubt a high contrast optic. It’s true that once in a while I like to wonder down a path of vintage low contrast lenses, but ultimately the look I most prefer in my images is derived from using high contrast optics. Though to be honest, it’s such a small lens, keeping the hood mounted all the time doesn’t really do any harm, and likely helps control flare etc anyway.Įverything I have so far mentioned aside, actually its the image quality that really impacts on my desire to keep it! The Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5 undoubtedly fits into the category of lenses that most frequently and specifically fit my personal image quality preferences. A little ring to screw on in place of the hood would be a nice addition, I think.
My issue is, when you remove the hood it leaves the thread exposed which just looks a little ugly. Like most lenses, it allows a filter to be attached within the hood using the thread inside the front of the lens. To be fair this is quiet an elegant solution to the problem of fitting the hood to the lens. The only design flaw (if you could call it such a thing) is that the hood screws to the outer part of the front of the lens. In fact, as you can probably tell by the pictures within this post, mounting it on a Barnack is pretty much standard for me. But mounted on a Barnack Leica it feels very nice indeed. Unfortunately, it’s slightly too light to balance an m-body properly so can suffer the tilting back/looking up issue when attached to a camera hanging from a neck strap.
All in all, it doesn’t feel fussy to use at all – which I’ve always thought is quite an achievement for such a small lens.ĭespite its size – and possibly to do with the fact that it’s made of brass – it’s not too light either. I do much prefer a proper focus tab, but I can make do with this instead just fine! The aperture control is also very easily grabbed. Yes, it’s fair to say that the little focusing pin isn’t as perfectly comfortable to use as a good indented focusing tab, but it still works very nicely. Despite its small size, it’s a really nice lens to use in almost all regards. I can imagine that looking at it without the experience of using it you might find yourself concerned that it will fall short somewhat in this department? Actually this isn’t the case at all.
Handling and designĪnyway, in a bid to drift closer to the more rational reasons why I can’t sell my Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5, I’m going to (properly) start this review with some thoughts about how it handles. If I regret selling it, my chances of finding another one without losing money are quite slim. To my mind this makes the lens even harder to part with. I’ve no idea how one might fully quantify such a statement – especially as there are very few reviews of this lens published online – but one thing is for sure, very few of these lenses appear on eBay, and those that do appear seem to be going up in value. Apparently it wasn’t that popular when it was available to buy new, but has consistently gained in popularity since it went out of production. dealer/forum owner – is also seeming to be gaining a little bit of a cult status. The Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5 also now seems to be quite hard to come by, and with this rarity – at least according to a certain U.S. But let’s not dwell too much on that – this sort of kit-fancy is just daft, right…? There really is a lot more to a lens than its aesthetics when married to a stunningly brassed 1932 Leica Model E Standard and Voigtlander 28/35 mini-finder… …. This lens – unlike a some of the other smaller Voigtlander lenses from the same era – is made of brass. The fact that I got a bargain aside, the way the Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5 looks is probably the most irrational justification for my desire to keep it… but, just look at the thing… These sorts of bargains don’t come along that often! This is actually the first reason I can’t find myself willing to part with it. As such I won it for quite a small amount of money – espcially relative to what I see them go for today. The seller had taken some awful photos of it they were mostly out of focus and from so far away it was hard to determine anything useful.
I bought it on one of those incredibly rare occasions when a you stumble across a bargain on eBay. I’ve had my Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5 for years. Whilst some of my reasons for keeping it feel quite legitimate, a good few of my reasonings aren’t entirely rational! I shall start with the less rational, and work up from there… It’s a lens that I only use once or twice a year, but despite this I can’t part with it. The Voigtlander 28mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar fits into a category of lenses I own that I can’t quite entirely rationalise.
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