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Cosina Voigtländer SL Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5
Started By
ChrisLilley
, 27 May 2009 21:07
2 replies to this topic
#2
aure
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- LocationMoscow
Posted 09 June 2009 - 12:06
This is kinda special lens. Very compact and light, build quality is the same as other early Cosina-Voigtlander SL lenses. Not sure how many of these were made, but it's long time out of production and rather hard to find (hint: japanese sellers on Ebay), retail price was around 375$, I got mine secondhand for 430$ but saw USD 700+ price tags since then.
As the name 'Color' suggests, it is producing vivid colors, especially reds: I was surprised when I saw pictures of the flowers on my camera LCD screen - it was not so saturated in reality.
The second half of the name - 'Heliar' - means it is supposed to show slight halo around bright areas in contrasty scenes. (That's what I read in the reviews of it's rangefinder brother). Not always visible, but you can see if you know what to look for.
Glass is non-APO, so CA can be visible but not bothersome, to me. Pictures come out not as razor sharp as V 90/3.5, making it more suitable to women portrature (I think it is rather microcontrast, than sharpness itself, because it is not soft by any means) . Acceptably sharp wide open, very good at f/4 and downwards. Bokeh is mostly neutral.
I like this lens a lot, easy to carry and joy to use.
All shot at f/4:
As the name 'Color' suggests, it is producing vivid colors, especially reds: I was surprised when I saw pictures of the flowers on my camera LCD screen - it was not so saturated in reality.
The second half of the name - 'Heliar' - means it is supposed to show slight halo around bright areas in contrasty scenes. (That's what I read in the reviews of it's rangefinder brother). Not always visible, but you can see if you know what to look for.
Glass is non-APO, so CA can be visible but not bothersome, to me. Pictures come out not as razor sharp as V 90/3.5, making it more suitable to women portrature (I think it is rather microcontrast, than sharpness itself, because it is not soft by any means) . Acceptably sharp wide open, very good at f/4 and downwards. Bokeh is mostly neutral.
I like this lens a lot, easy to carry and joy to use.
All shot at f/4:
#3
percafluvialitis
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- Subscriber
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- 343 posts
Posted 05 January 2013 - 16:00
This is a very nice street photo lens, often more useable than a 50mm (which I find too wide for medium distances). It's small, light-weight and the technical image quality is good to very good. Wide open you'll see very slight vignetting, which is gone at f/4. There is some geometric distortion (very slight pincushion) but it's not enough to notice in practice.
I've used it on the D4 and D800 and while I think it's good to very good, I've never felt it to match the excellent sharpness of the other SL series teles (the 90/3.5, 125/2.5 and 180/4). Real strengths why this brush is very good is the bokeh, also the lens has a wonderful fingerprint, very dimensional ie. the 3D "pop" is there to touch in photos.
Weaknesses: I have two, both with same structural problem - the silver focusing ring unscrews itself. Quick googling of user comments confirms this is a common problem with the lens. Easy to fix, some glue in the threads and it was cured.
Unlike the other SL series tele lenses, the 75/2.5 will show purple fringing when pushed to it.
For sample photos uploaded in original size, see my photoset on Flickr:
I've used it on the D4 and D800 and while I think it's good to very good, I've never felt it to match the excellent sharpness of the other SL series teles (the 90/3.5, 125/2.5 and 180/4). Real strengths why this brush is very good is the bokeh, also the lens has a wonderful fingerprint, very dimensional ie. the 3D "pop" is there to touch in photos.
Weaknesses: I have two, both with same structural problem - the silver focusing ring unscrews itself. Quick googling of user comments confirms this is a common problem with the lens. Easy to fix, some glue in the threads and it was cured.
Unlike the other SL series tele lenses, the 75/2.5 will show purple fringing when pushed to it.
For sample photos uploaded in original size, see my photoset on Flickr:
Edited by percafluvialitis, 05 January 2013 - 22:07 .
Vilhelm
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