Voigtländer 15mm F4.5 Super Wide Heliar E-mount lens review by 2manycamera
 2manycamera#42977 date: Jan-10-2018 | |
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| sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 5 distortion: 4 flare control: 4 overall: 4.6 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | 17mm/4.0 Canon FD. 20mm/2.8 Minolta Rokkor-X. 11-16/2.8 Tokina. 16/2.8 Sony E. |
| price paid: | $650 used |
| positive: | Ideal for interiors. When you fill the frame, it's excellent for landscapes. Surprisingly goos for walk around, street photography. Electronic connection makes critical focus easy, enables TTL radio flash controls, and adds EXIF info to files. |
| negative: | While distortions are very well controlled, insuring straight lines in home interiors demand very careful composition. Hardly a knock on the lens itself, but a reality of using an ultra wide. Too slow for most low-light, star photography on NEX6 and original a7. |
| comment: | Originally purchased to replace my 17/4.0 Canon FD for use in realty photography. As good as the Canon is, the Voightlander goes to 110 degrees, with very little distortion. The electronic contacts makes focusing very easy, and being able to uses the Odin wireless flash program became so much easier. There is significant vignetting, however I tend to shoot at F8 for most shots, so vignetting is well controlled. Because it is so wide, filling the frame for landscapes makes for far better compositions. Stunningly sharp at F5.6-8, still good wide-open. The big surprise for me was how usable it is set at F8, 1 meter for focus and auto ISO, for walk around street shots.Being so useful in so many situations, it has become my most used lens on the a7. The only real drawback has been the F4.5 maximum aperture. My realty and scenic photos are always on a tripod, but I also like walking around at dusk in cityscapes. Sometimes I either get camera movement or use ISO's higher than I like to use. Also, I now live in the Sierra foothills and have the opportunity to shoot dark skies. F4.5 is a bit too slow to get what I'm after. Build quality is excellent. Solid, smooth and well balanced. It's a winner in almost every use. |
; 20MPrating summary
- total reviews: 5
- sharpness: 4.90
- color: 4.80
- build: 5.00
- distortion: 4.40
- flare control: 4.80
- overall: 4.78