Cosina announced Color Skopar 20mm/f3.5 SLII Asph.

<p>Hi folks,</p>

<p>Yeseterday, Cosina announced the release of new lens (for Nikon Ai-s mount with a chip and Pentax KA mount) in the title at the beginning of March. It has one aspherical element (indicated in blue) and is designed to cover FX format.</p>

<p>Here's the link to Cosina's website. WARNING: it's in Japanese (I couldn't find the English page), but you should be able to read the lens' name and see the picture and optics.</p>

<p>http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/v-lens/sl2/20sl/</p>

<p>Hope you enjoy it.</p>

<P>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<P>

<I>Thanks to Robert Hooper, you can find some info in English on this page:

<BR>

<A HREF="http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/english/sl2-e.html">

http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigt/english/sl2-e.html</A>

<P>

-- Shun</I>

<P>

<p>Akira-san..... What's color Skopar? I just took a look at link. Is it like a line of lenses? Cheers!</p>

<p>Hi, Rene', I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by "a line of lenses".</p>

<p>This new Color Skopar is a wideangle prime like an older Ai (and later Ai-s) Nikkor 20mm/f3.5.</p>

<p>Color Skopar is really an old classic Voigtländer lens from the 40's used on their rangefinder folders. Cosina uses the Voigtländer brand and has done Color Skopar lenses for their modern rangefinders as well. I don't know how much this new lens has in common with the classic design but every new lens is great news!<br>

Thanks for the heads up Akira.</p>

<p>Pete, I agree with you! Much more now that Nikon is cutting on backward compatibility of new lenses on MF cameras (G lenses do not have aperture rings) and is reducing the availability of new MF lenses. At least we have an alternative if we are looking for a new MF lens for an old MF Nikon body.</p>

<p>If this new wide-angle lens has anything quality-wise in common with the 125/2.5 APO-Lanthar from Cosina (under the Voigtländer label), it should be an excellent performer. I'll put it on my wish-list.</p>

<p>What price is suggested, Akira?</p>

<p>According to the link: 55,000 Yen, plus 2000 for the lens shade.</p>

<p>Hi guys.<br>

You go to this site,put the address you have,et voila,the translation before your eyes.You can see the price also.<br>

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/</p>

<p>Is the 55000 yen the suggested retail price? That would be about 460 euros on today's exchange rate...could be lower but it's still ok, exchange rates are not that favorable for buying Japanese lenses right now.<br>

I'm eagerly waiting for some reviews and test results. Nikon is not exactly strong in this area and having a 200 gram 20 mm lens would be most useful for the situations when I want to travel light. I assume 52 mm filter size, sweet.</p>

<p>Could be a nice addition for my FM2 primes setup as well.</p>

<p>Hi, folks,</p>

<p>As Luca has deciphered, the suggested retail price is 55,000 yen and the hood, 2,000 yen. It takes 52mm filter. It focuses as close as up to 20cm (magnification factor of 1:6.1) but the incorporation of the floating element is not mentioned.</p>

<p>Bjorn, long time no see. I hope you feel all right now, after the illness caused by the sheep tick.</p>

<p>Akira-san.... Bjorn kind of answer my question! I don't know much about classic Nikon lenses and all that so Color Skopar meant nothing to me. I don't understand why all the names like Cosina, Voigtländer and now a Color Skopar. They are the same company, aren't they?</p>

<p>Some additional info:</p>

<ul>

<li>The physical length (not focal length) for the lens is 28.8mm when focusing to infinity.</li>

<li>Weight 205 grams</li>

<li>9 elements in 6 groups, the one element at the very rear is aspherical; that is the element printed in light blue in the cross-sectional diagram</li>

<li>minimum aperture f22</li>

<li>Unlike the Zeiss ZF lenses that are also manufactured by Cosina, these Voigtländer lenses have the CPU inside so that you can get the lens EXIF data on DSLRs.</li>

</ul>

<p>To me, the strage part is the when Nikon has Cosina make some products for sale under the Nikon brand name, people consider those cheap stuffs below the usual Nikon quality. However, lenses manufactured by Cosina with German brand names demand a high premium.</p>

<p>Well, as long as they are quality items, I don't mind a German connection. Labelling the lenses by that ancient brand "Voigtländer" is of course seen only as a concession to vanity (and profit?). However, my Voigtländer 125/2.5 APO-Lanthar by Cosina brings the current AFS Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8 VR to a deserved shame, and their 15/4.5 Heliar and 21/4 Scopar for the "F" mount are simply superb - all of these lenses with a mechanical build to match both price and image quality.<br>

Akira - yes, it's been a while since we last met. But I currently have sent my son as an envoy to Tokyo :)</p>

<p>Very interesting. Glad to see it. I wonder how it will stack up against Nikon's 20/2.8D-AF?</p>

<p>Probably much better. That will be my initial expectations until real testing can commence.</p>

<p>On a 20 mm I am ready to give up a stop in maximum aperture for the convenience of using 52 mm filters, i.e. the same size of all my primes. I'm waiting to see a field test of this lens.</p>

<p>Shun, thanks for the neat follow-up!</p>

<p>Rene', I would second Bjorn. Now that the brand names are sold and bought here and there, being confused by the brand names is nothing but the waste of time.</p>

<p>Cosina will release a promising 20/3.5 lens, period. :)</p>

<p>Bjorn, I hope your son will enjoy his fruitful stay in Tokyo!</p>

<p>Akira, one thing I am glad about the Japanese written language is that it has adapted a lot of Chinese characters. In my early teens when my English skill was quite limited, I actually mainly read the instructions in Japanese on the Fuji developer/fixer boxes. (Those instructions were bi-lingual, Japanese/English.) Those were the days when my grandmother would roll her eyes when she smelled the strong odor from those chemicals in our bathroom.</p>

<p>I have only seen Cosina-manufactured Zeiss ZF lenses but not the Voigtländers. There is absolutely no doubt about the construction quality being first rate. However, I think that exact same physical lens (same optics, same build) with a Nikon brand name on it will be considerably cheaper. With a Cosina brand name on it, you'll have a tough time selling any.</p>

<p>In any case, in these days of DSLRs and AF-S lenses, these AI-S lenses are a specialty item for a narrow market. I can certainly understand why Nikon doesn't even bother with it.</p>

<p>Rene, most of the German lens manufacturers name their products. Zeiss Planar, Zeiss Distagon, Leitz Summicron, Leica Elmar, etc. These generally convey some information about the general focal length and aperture. Colar Skopar is the name that Cosina picked for this lens. There are so many other lenses with Skopar in the name that saying Colar Skopar doesn't mean very much.</p>

<p>Voigtlander was an Austrian camera company. Zeiss bought the company in the 1950's and the company has been sold multiple times since then. Cosina currently owns the name. They think that the lens will be easier to sell by having the classic camera Voigtlander name on it. Voigtlander is simply one of their other brands just like General Motors has brands called Chevrolet and Buick. Many people use the term CV as shorthand for Cosina/Voigtlander to differentiate it from the original Voigtlander cameras and lenses that are now decades old.</p>

<p>To follow up on what Shun said. In the past 5 years I think Cosina has improved their quality control and build quality. Cosina will make a camera or lens for you based on your specifications and then you can slap your name on it and sell it. The Nikon FM10 is made by Cosina for Nikon and is generally regarded as having a cheaper feel to it. Cosina also builds cameras and lenses for Zeiss but these have a much higher build quality.</p>

<p>I have a couple of the Cosina/Voigtlander Bessa rangefinders from 6-7 years ago. They are mostly plastic with an average build quality but low in price. Since then the newer rangefinders have a much more substantial feel to them but of course the price has gone up as well.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Already in 1868 the Voigtländer headquarters moved from Austria's capital Vienna to Braunschweig in Germany so I think for practical purposes most would consider the company as one of the german manufacturers.</p>

<p>I am a bit hazy on this, but the "color" in the Color Skopar might refer to coatings in the past.<br>

Voightlander used to (and still does it with one lense I think) do a "color" version and a b&w version. The color has multi-coatings on air to glass surfaces. The Skopar without the word color had one surface or none coated. Some folks like the non-color version for B&W film use. (This was re their rangefinder lenses, for their rangfinders, Leicas, RD1, etc).<br>

I do not know if this has any relevance to their lenses for the Nikon mount though, (just a historical note :)</p>

<p>Considering that Nikon is phasing out MF lenses and considering the long term relationship between Nikon and Cosina (and between japanese firms) I would not be surprised if one day we will discover that Nikon actually licensed Cosina to manufacutre MF lenses with Nikon AIS mount and chip, getting a royalty on each sold. This way they will make a small money at zero cost and without loosing sales of their products.</p>

<p>Quick work with the currency translator at xe.com shows that 55K Yen is equivalent to almost $600 US. That's a very expensive lens, considering that I bought my Nikkor 20 f/3.5 for about $200 used. The older Nikkors still turn up for sale now and then.</p>