Voigtlander 25mm f0.95

[billh]

Thanks for the review Michael. I bought one of these the day I saw Philip Bloom mention it. I was also impressed with the things you mentioned, and I was surprised at the image quality (on a GH1) wide open (although I have been using it mostly for video). I have an f1.0 Noctilux, which another photographer is using at the moment, but my sense is this Voigtlander is sharper wide open than the Noctilux. I could be misremembering, or seeing what I think is higher contrast at these apertures from the Voigtlander.

Have you tried it on the GH2?

[michael]

Not yet, but I expect to receive my production GH2 this week, and plan to use the two together for both video and stills.

Chris has this combo on order as well.

Michael

[jimby]

"MFT is half the size of full-frame 35mm in the stills world."

Not to be too pointed-headed here, but the MFT sensor is about a quarter the size of the full frame 35mm.

MFT =~ 17mm x 13mm  (area ~ 221mm)

35mm FF = 36mm x 24mm (area ~ 864mm)

Wouldn't want any newbies to go around thinking their MFT is half the size of a 35mm FF.  It's easy to make that assumption because the focal length of the MFT lenses tend to be half of their equivalents in 35mm.

APS-C sensors are actually about half the size of 35mm FF.

[michael]

Correct.

Michael

[dturina]

I don't know about you guys, but reading the article, all I can think of is that portrait of Michael holding the camera.

That medium format Pentax has absolutely the most beautiful portrait colors. Absolutely stunning. Wow.

[John Camp]

Not to be super pointy-headed about it, but the m4/3 sensors are 18x13.5 with an area of 243 sq mm, or little more than 28% of FF. APS-C comes in a couple different flavors, with m4/3 about 58% of the size of the APS-C used by Nikon and Sony (the Canon APS-C is a bit smaller.)

JC

[PierreVandevenne]

I don't know about you guys, but reading the article, all I can think of is that portrait of Michael holding the camera.
That medium format Pentax has absolutely the most beautiful portrait colors. Absolutely stunning. Wow.

Agreed. I found myself simultaneously wanting

- a lumix and a nokton
- a 645D
- to have Michael's look and poise a few years from now...

[douglasf13]

FWIW, approximate field of view and DOF equivalents would be:  25 f.95 on m4/3 = 35 f1.4 on APS-C = 50 f2 on 35mm.

And, yes, I stress approximate here!   

[jimby]

John Camp wrote:
>not to be super pointy-headed about it, but the m4/3 sensors are 18x13.5 with an area of 243 sq mm<

Actually I can out pointy-head you!  The micro 4/3 sensor may be that size, but the actual imaging area is around 17.3mm x 13mm.  The imaging area is what counts.

[Ray]

To be ultra-super-critially pointy-headed about this, the full frame Canon DSLR sensors are 2.6x the area of their APS-C or cropped-format cameras.

[dturina]

Agreed. I found myself simultaneously wanting

- a lumix and a nokton
- a 645D
- to have Michael's look and poise a few years from now...

I keep telling myself it's just correct exposure, good color profile and good choice of a tone curve and saturation, but man, I'm such an equipment junky I need to go to rehab, when I see a pic like that I just start drooling.

[sojournerphoto]

I keep telling myself it's just correct exposure, good color profile and good choice of a tone curve and saturation, but man, I'm such an equipment junky I need to go to rehab, when I see a pic like that I just start drooling.

Funny isn't it. After all it's just a small jpg for the web, so you shouldn't really be able to tell. My immediate thought was M9...

Mike

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

This type of super fast lenses with comparable DOF for m4/3, I believe is the way to go.
I recently had a first portrait session with my old Mamiya Universal and 6x9 negatives on TMX,
and am very very happy with the difference compared to the smaller formats I used in former times.
Though I still see a big difference I'm happy to see creative possibilities of MF coming down
into the domain of small cameras and especially in low-light situations ...

[fredjeang]

Frankly, just by the look I would buy this lens. Does it not reminds those beutifull radioactives Takumar? If optically it is as good...