A comfortable and compact wide-angle prime, the Color-Skopar 21mm f/3.5 Aspherical from Voigtlander is a Sony E-mount lens well-suited for landscapes, nature, and other wide-field subjects. Its optical design includes one aspherical element and one low dispersion element, which help to minimize both spherical and chromatic aberrations in order to achieve a high degree of sharpness, clarity, and color accuracy. The manual focus design affords fine-tuned control over focus placement, along with a minimum focusing distance of 7.9" and a 10-blade diaphragm is also used for a smooth bokeh quality.
- E-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
- Aperture Range: f/3.5 to f/22
- One Aspherical Element
- One Low Dispersion Element
Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Aspherica... Overview
Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Aspherica... Specs
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Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Aspherica... Reviews
Fun and Sharp
This lens is a lot of fun to use. It's small and barely noticeable on the camera body. This lens is just a great walk-around lens. You can easily set the focus distance in-camera and walk around taking photos that are sharp. The Infinity focus setting is a hard-stop and truly focuses to infinity. Colors are contrasty and there is vignetting wide open. None of my software has a lens profile that I can automatically apply, but it's easy enough to up apply some pre-sharpening and remove the vignette manually. That's all I've really felt the need to do. When stopped down to 5.6 it doesn't need correcting at all. It's tack-sharp and very slight vignette, if any. I feel like the lens does a rather good job all-around. It looks sharp and it's a joy to use. I'm still learning how to use it to its fullest potential, but I imagine it will last me for many years of casual photography. If I had one complaint, I feel like it could do a better job controlling highlights in harsher light. There are instances where I have a tough time recovering the highlights in post. I will have to try out a ND filter and see how that works. One interesting note is that the lens-hood screws into the filter instead of the lens itself (if you choose to use a filter). Happy with this purchase!
Excellent!
Exceeded expectation. So sharp that It is undersampled for 24MP sensor (i.e. lens out-resolves the sensor). Very low distortion. Edge/corner is nearly as sharp as central. Star images are so tight that image reduction causes dimmer stars to disappear. Small, lightweight yet solid metal. Well machined and calibrated (Infinity setting really is infinity focus). Manual focus and aperture is smooth with just the right viscosity.
Lovely little lens
This is my first Voigtlander lens and I'm enjoying it. I like the colors and the sunstars when it's stopped down. Most of the focus throw is in the close to medium range with only a few degrees between 50m to infinity. With the electric contacts this plays very well with Sony's focus magnification and I'm finding it pretty easy to focus on what I want. The lens hood screws into the filter threads and seems a little odd to me but I'm using a step up ring when I use filters and couldn't use it anyway. The old school metal and glass build feels great and I expect I will keep it a long time. With the small size, it's easy to always keep it in the bag.
Gorgeous. Compact. Metal.
Love this lens. My first Voigtlander, definitely not the last.
A gem!
Love this little lens! Gorgeous optics in a small & light package. Build quality is solid perfection. A true work of art to hold in your hands. Perfect for walk-around town, street shooting, landscape or architecture. It's basically never going to leave my prime bag - and will probably also be in my zoom bag when I carry the big guys around.
Just what the doctor ordered
After comparing this little lens with my Loxia 21, I sold the Loxia and couldn’t be happier. First, the image quality is fantastic. Is it as good as the Loxia? Short answer is no, but only if you are the type who zooms in to 300% to pixel peep. The Loxia is slightly sharper in the midfield and corners, but only slightly so. I would never notice the difference in print or on screen. That’s how good this Voigtländer is. Second, size and haptics. It’s small! And light. The perfect travel companion when you want to limit yourself to one or two lenses. Pair it with a small 35mm or 50mm and you are good for travel or landscape. Focus ring is smooth and aperture ring is up front making it easy to change while looking through the viewfinder. I’ve even used this little lens for portraits. Full frame and crop mode on an A7R3 (giving you a 32mm 18mp image). To my surprise the images are lovely! This lens renders in a way that makes people look good. VERY sharp at f3.5 in the middle. It’s got a look that is similar to the Loxia. To conclude, this lens gives you a lot for the money. Very small and portable, excellent image quality, easy to use.
Compact, Sharp, and Useful
This is a compact and solidly built lens, which shows little distortion at the edges and is very sharp at all apertures (not surprising, as the maximum aperture is only f/3.5). I use it on Sony Alpha bodies: being so compact, it is especially good with my a7C. A great landscape lens, it is also a good street lens in good light. I am using it more and more, as I find I often prefer the 21mm focal length to 24mm or 28mm. I am a Fan of Voigtlnder lenses because of their quality and design and also because they communicate EXIF data to the camera. I focus using hyperfocal distance for street photography and for landscapes, using Peak settings of Medium and Yellow for more precise focusing (High makes Everything Yellow, and Low is too hard to see).
Easily My Favorite Wide Lens
This lens is the sharpest lens I own and by a very wide margin has the best colors. The build quality blows my mind too. I later bought the larger and more expensive Voigt 21mm f1.4 because after having used the 21mm f3.5 I was so stunned at the sharpness, sunstars and colors that I thought the 21mm must be beyond belief. I could then sell the smaller lens. But except for speed and the marginal background blur benefit I could not tell the difference. Given how small and light the f3.5 was and that in almost all cases with a super wide I'd need at least f3.5 for my images anyway I decided to keep it. And I find myself using it more because it is a traveler's joy. It's easy to focus with Sony A bodies and furthermore so wide that you can almost leave it at f7.1 as a point & shoot; it is very forgiving of imperfect focus. I may keep the f1.4 too for nightscapes.
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