Thursday 8 March 2012

The Sony NEX-7 with a little known lens

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens
Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens

Not everybody will be aware that in addition to m-mount and m4/3 lenses Voigtlander make manual focus lenses for Nikon and Canon DSLR's. They used to make them for Pentax K mount as well but I believe they have stopped, though you can still find them.


Their website has a truly wonderful translated description.
Classic Collection SL II Lenses


A lot of photo lovers fit out their SLR cameras with Voigtländer lenses for years.
Therefor are good reasons. The special effort of the Voigtländer prime focus,
the first class manufacturing and best robustness.
You must not have a cornucopia of automation to make nice pictures, that´s why
the lenses are so popular. The equipment, with the accordant adapter, allows
their application on cameras of renowned brands.

"You must not have a cornucopia of automation to make nice pictures" - I'm presuming this means that you don't need AF to take good pictures. I couldn't have put it better myself. Well actually I could!!

Here's part of the range for Nikon plus m4/3 and NEX adapters from the Robert White website.



 I've been trying to come up with a good quality wide angle manual focus prime lens that will do justice to the NEX-7 sensor for some time. The Sony 18-55mm zoom and 16mm f/2.8 are OK, but I wanted a sharp across the frame prime, preferably MF because it helps with my stitching images together. I was looking at various m-mount alternatives, but many of them have this vignetting and purple cast problem.

This one doesn't.



However you will have noticed the price!! Even if I was prepared to sell one my organs to buy it, Leica lenses are in such short supply that I probably wouldn't be able to get one. Shame!!

Fortunately for my bank balance, I suddenly remembered that there was another alternative. I had one of these 20mm f/3.5's for my Nikon D3X and I also used it on m4/3 with an adapter.

I always got really good results with it so decided to give it a try.

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens

Its a beautifully made little lens. And it is small. As you can see from the top and bottom pictures the adapter is the same size! It is sharp across the frame, and has some CA and fringing though this is well controlled. I was aware that my previous copy didn't have particularly good bokeh and this one is the same, however since I'll have it on f/8 or f/11 most of the time that doesn't concern me. It fits the NEX-7 very well and its not too small. It should make a nice 2-lens set with my Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5.

Its a better alternative for this than the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, which while a superb lens isn't wide enough for what I shoot. The Zeiss 35mm isn't quite wide enough either. The 20mm, with its 30mm APS-C equivalent focal length will work just fine for me.

I'm glad I remembered it.

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 20mm f/3.5 Nikon mount lens