New Voigtlander M Mount 15mm lens and 15-35 Zoom Finder

<p>I noticed that no one has started a new thread here for the new M mount 15mm and 15 to 35 zoom finder that has just been announced by Voigtlander so I thought I would start a thread to discuss it here on photonet.</p>

<p>http://www.voigtlander.com/cms/voigtlaender/voigtlaender_cms.nsf/id/pa_fdih7pykbx.html</p>

<p>http://www.voigtlander.com/cms/voigtlaender/voigtlaender_cms.nsf/id/pa_fdih7pykbx.html/$file/15mmsuperwideheliarneu.jpg</p>

<p>New to the 15mm lens is rangefinder coupling and now takes 52mm filters. Improved body construction as well by the looks of it.</p>

<p>It's worth noting that these supposedly won't come with a finder, like the newer 21mm in M mount. A German retailer has them up for pre-order on eBay at about $550, which would make it $675 with a finder. Compare at $455 for the current version and a new CV mount adapter. The specs also list a slightly longer minimum focusing distance (0.5m vs. 0.3m).</p>

<p>Hopefully the price will be lower at cameraquest/photovillage. I much prefer the look of the newer CV offerings, and the ability to hold a filter would be quite handy.</p>

<p>It's Rf coupled in the M mount version. Not a big advantage for this focal length. This might be the reason for the steeper price and the longer minimum focus distance. Looks more professional, but it's not that compact anymore and SM compability is lost.</p>

<p>Looks like the same formula in a new barrel. It's a terrific lens, but I don't think I'll be trading up my screw mount version.</p>

<p>It weights 50% more.<br>

Rangefinder coupling is useless on this lens.<br>

I am glad to see the Voigtlander finally has a decent site.</p>

<p>That 15-35 zoom finder is bizarre! Almost Steampunk in appearance.</p>

<p>The great thing about the finder (other than the range) is that you can set it to crop to 1.3x or 1.5x. Very handy. I'd hate to imagine how much it will cost, though!</p>

<p>Whats steampunk?</p>

<p>James, Google images for the term. Hard to describe.</p>

<p>This new M mount lens seems to provoke alot of derision simply because they upgraded it for rangefinder coupling. Their new Zoom Finder with crop factor adjustments for both M8 and Epson RD-1 show that they are targeting the digital market as well. Are any of the 18 and 21mm lenses out there from any brand not rangefinder coupled? Certainly they too could be focused without coupling as well but they arent. It seems perfectly logical if your upgrading a lens to couple it at the same time to cater for the new crop factored market. I remember when the Zeiss 15 came out people were saying for that kind of money they should have coupled it! I never in my wildest dreams expected the gripes to flow the other way. It is fair however to be concerned with the move away from LTM but I think there will be a good used market of the screw mount version with some (not all) switching to the M mount version.<br>

I think this new lens will be a winner, I always found the LTM 15 had a bit lower barrel quality than the later lenses they made. With excellent optics and a new more solid barrel and now able to add common 52mm filters I think its worth a bit more. I sold my 15mm with the announcement of the WATE but wasnt expecting the price, woops :-), so I seriously will consider getting the new M version.</p>

<p>I am impressed with both items. The new 15/4.5 will be great to use on the M8. The finder is an absolute work of genius. I am thinking of all the cameras that it is going to revitalize while enhancing my film Ms and my M8 and RD-1s. </p>

<p>Lower at photo village? Are you guys kidding. They are the most overpriced store when it comes to "M" gear in the nation. Great service but at that price.........</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Lower at photo village? Are you guys kidding. They are the most overpriced store when it comes to "M" gear in the nation. Great service but at that price.........</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Cameraquest and Photo Village are the two main Voigtlander dealers in North America, unless things have changed a lot since last year. They have the same pricing on all the CV stuff, which are generally quite a bit lower than the Japanese MSRP, and somewhat lower than European prices. This has nothing to do with Photo Village's Leica pricing.</p>

<p>I don't know why CV isn't releasing new lenses in LTM. They can then sell 6 bit coded M adapters. Seems like a missed opportunity to me.</p>

<p>I saw this info the day before I posted my review of the current version. I love this little lens on the M8. It has its issues, but ease of focus is not one of them. Ill stick with the oldie!</p>

<p>http://www.stevehuffphotos.com/Steve_Huff_Photos/VOIGTLANDER_15_HELIAR_REVIEW.html</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Strangely, there have been no official announcement of this new version of 15/4.5 lens from Japanese Cosina/Voigtlander.</p>

<p>The Voigtlander.com offers downloadable manuals of the M-mount lenses in pdf format, but these pdf files areactually scanned images of the manuals printed on paper instead of the original data.</p>

<p>I wonder how tightly this website is related to Japanese Cosina?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Strangely, there have been no official announcement of this new version of 15/4.5 lens from Japanese Cosina/Voigtlander.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The best I can do is this info here:</p>

<p>http://blog.photo.net/?p=4912</p>

<p>Except for the parts that are obviously my opinion, everything in that post is from Voigtlander materials that Rich at <a href="http://www.photovillage.com/">The Photo Village</a> was kind enough to provide to me.</p>

<p>Hi, Josh,</p>

<p>Thanks for the direction!</p>

<p>Cameraquest has info now.</p>