The german store Fotomundus is the first store having the new Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95 Micro Four Thirds lens in Stock (UPDATE: Now sold out!!). Check out the Fotomundus website or the [shoplink 17032]Fotomundus eBay store (Click here)[/shoplink]. ANother german store will have the lens in Stock in a few days: [shoplink 16903]Bayern-Fotoversand eBay store (Click here)[/shoplink].
Björn Utpott posted two images taken with the GF1+Voigtländer 25mm combo. Thee is also one RAW image zou can download here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1778054/BU_100924_120308_F095.RW2
The new Voigtländer is 1.5 stops brighter than the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7 lens[/shoplink]. The lens alone weights 410g and Björn noticed that “the camera be somewhat unstable held at arms length, reflections on the rear screen can make it difficult to judge the optimum focus distance“. “I’m still debating whether adding this lens will be a priority. On the one hand, it has amazing potential as a low light lens where you can choose to work with a relatively shallow depth of field. On the other hand, it’s quite heavy, expensive and automatic control of focus and aperture are not supported.“
11 Responses
I will go for the Pana 25/1.?.
…but who knows when Panasonic will release their fast prime. It may take a year or more 🙁
For me, it all depends on what 1.? is in that 25mm Panasonic. 25mm F1.4 is too close to smaller and presumably cheaper 20mm F1.7. Why not get 20mm F1.7 + 25mm F0.95 for the same price?
If Panasonic’s 25mm is F1.2, than it is a better option than 25mm F0.95 MF Cosina. Taking into account both are sharp wide open.
And there’s that bright wide under consideration lens. Will Panasonic go Canon/Nikon route* and make 12mm F1.4?
* they both make 24mm F1.4 lenses for full frame
I assume the lens should be used with an EVF. It will stabilize the weight of the lens and adds better focus control.
Yet another example of why a build in VF is still a good thing and cannot be replaced by a “screen-finder”. And while it gives the camera an odd look, Zacuto’s “Z-Finder”-range might be a good idea…
Zacuto may work, but better option is dedicated EVF (built-in Panasonic or optional Olympus VF-2). Hope for Olympus/Panasonic take into account EVF development for a precise ability to manual focusing with Cosina on board.
From my experience, ,the VF-2 allows precise focusing of 85/1.4 lenses (with shallower DOF than the Cosina will ever have) even with magnification turned off. The diopter must be tuned to the viewing eye, though (alas, I thought I had perfect vision).
Admin, do you have any idea when the lens will hit the UK market?
This may be a silly and irrelevant question, but will there be a silver or steel colored version of this lens?
The combination of a silver camera and a black lens just looks so silly to me.
Silver finish will be possibly available in future, it depends how popular the lens will be. Anyway I am happy to see the first genuinely developed high-end lens for MFT, especially from traditional brand like Cosina is, hope it is not the last one and there will be more and more of these.
Probably a nice lens, but the size and weight are a turn off. It’s just 5mm shorter than the PL D-Summilux 25mm (when mounted on an adapter), and 100 grams lighter.
The obvious pluses are the additional f stop and closer minimal focus distance, then again it does not have autofocus…
It will have to perform as good as the PL to make any sense. Judging by the few samples online, I doubt it will. Waiting to see some new samples.
Is there some reviews/samples somewhere?
Hope the price will drop a little bit…