Has anyone tried the Voigtlander 75/2.5 Color Heliar? any comparisons to the Leica 75mm Summilux 1.4? i'm interested in their particular qualities when used wide open any help would be much appreciated. thanks

-- Simon Larbalestier (larby@simon-larbalestier.co.uk), December 11, 2001

Answers

Simon,

I found this gallery from Cosina last year that has some nice natural light portraits of Japanese models made with the 75mm Heliar in SLR mount. I e-mailed Cosina, and they told me that the SLR mount is optically identical to the RF version, but obviously has a different mount due to the mirror box on the SLR, (just like the 90mm Elmarit M and R). These photos look pretty good to me, but I don't know if it is the subject or not that is swaying me. Still... I keep thinking about adding this lens either to my Leica M or Nikon SLR. Take a look, (to speed up the loading, cancel the translation program prompt... the photos look fine with the Japanese characters), and click to enlarge the images:

75mm Heliar gallery

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 11, 2001.

I had one for a week selling it for a friend, so I shot a roll with it. It was a very nice performing lens, and much more to my ergonomic liking than the behemoth 75 Summilux I used 3-4 times/year. At comparable apertures, though, I'd say the Summilux has a clear edge (no pun intended).

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), December 11, 2001.

Hello Simon, Before buying the 75 Summilux, I owned the 75 Heliar. I found the lens to be sharp and snappy from f/5.6 to f/16 or f/22. I forget whether the smallest opening was 16 or 22. From f/2.5 to f/4.5 the lens produced a noticably softer image. I also had some problems with flare in some lighting conditions. This suprised me as other brands of lenses would render the same lighting conditions without flare. All in all, I was not pleased with the lens. On the plus side, it is very compact and is sharp within certain limits. Subjectively, I felt that the Heliar lacked character. By that I mean it was just a lens that was sharp at times and unpredictable at others. The 75 Summilux, by comparison to any other lens I have used is spectacular. I have no fears using it wide open at 1.4. Even at 1.4 the image it produces is beautiful. To compare it to the Heliar I used, the summilux at 1.4 gives me a better image than the Heliar did at 5.6. Stopping down to f/2 makes the Summilux even better. The Summilux image also embodies the famous " Leica Look". Highlights to shadows are rendered with a crisp fullness. It is the one lens that makes whatever I shoot turn out better in a way I could not have forseen. It really is incredible. As it should be for the price. And it is worth every penny of that price. Good luck, Peter

-- Peter McDonough (31416@mediaone.net), December 11, 2001.

Peter

I share your enthusiasm for the Summilux. I have the 80mm Summilux-R lens, contemporary with the 75mm, and it has exactly the same characteristics.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 14, 2001.

Peter and Robin,

In Erwin Puts' "Leica Lens Compendium" he reviews both the 75mm M and the 80mm R under the same heading. His feeling is that they are so close to one another as to not need seperate listings.

It is probably not fair to compare a 400 Dollar lens to these massive expensive optical gems, but in the end, the image on film is all that counts and you get what you pay for.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 14, 2001.

I was lucy enough to find a second hand Summilux so thanks for all the advice and info Simon

-- Simon Larbalestier (larby@simon-larbalestier.co.uk), December 14, 2001.