GEAR MINI TESTS
VOIGTLANDER 110MM F/2.5 MACRO APO-LANTHAR £875/$1099 flaghead.co.uk
SPECIFICATIONS Mount: Sony E Aperture range: f/2.5-22 Optical construction: 14 elements in 12 groups, abnormal partial dispersion lens Aperture blades: 10 Close focus: 35cm/13.78in Maximummagnification: 1:1
Filter size: 62mm Dimension (LxD): 8.4x99.7mm/3.09x3.93in Weight: 771g/1.7lb
Brands like Zeiss, Leica and Schneider-Kreuznach are well known to filmmakers, but they aren’t the only optical experts from Germany with a long history in making quality glass. Voigtlander was a huge name in days gone by but has been re-establishing itself as amaker of good qualitymanual focus lenses, although they are now actually made by Japanese firmCosina. The firm’s latest lens is a 110mm f/2.5 MACRO APO-Lanthar for full- frame E-mount cameras and its price puts it up against Sony’s own 90mm f/2.8 macro AF lens, which is around the same price. Of course, the Sony offers AF but the Voigtlander is a manually-geared MF only lens, and filmmakers will love the geared feel of the focus ring. The APO-Lanthar focuses as close as 35cm to give life-size magnification without any extra accessories. The longer focal length allows a comfortable working distance “With extreme close- ups, open aperture quality was decent”
RIGHT The geared feel of the focus ring is particularly pleasing
when shooting close up and also gives a flattering perspective for portrait and general work. This lens is a quality piece of engineering with an all-metal body, 14 lens elements and an aperture ring with 0.3EV step click-stops. I tried the lens on a full-frame Sony A7R; on this body the lens is the senior partner and the combination is clearly front heavy. The lens has the circuitry to work with Sony’s five-axis image stabilisation system in cameras with that feature. This is a handy benefit, especially shooting handheld extreme close-ups because camera shake can potentially ruin your shots. The lens’s profile gets slimmer as you get closer to the camera body and this does make getting at the aperture ring a tad fiddly. Get used to it and it works fine and the ring’s smooth yet positive action makes up for the minor niggle. The focusing barrel is smooth and nicely taut so there’s no feel of sloppiness and focus stays put if you take your hand off the barrel.
The focus barrel has a long travel, taking about one and a half full turns to cover from infinity down to the 35cmminimum focusing distance. To be fair, the travel to cover from infinity to one metre is about an eighth of a rotation, so most of the barrel’s travel takes place when you venture into the territory of close-up shooting. For example, from 45cm to 38cm takes ¼of a turn but given how critical focus is with close-up subjects, the long travel makes critical fine-tuning simple. On the camera you do get the benefit of focus peaking and magnifying focus check to help achieve critical focus. Optically, the 110mm lens performed with credit. We tested it at all apertures with normal outdoors subjects but also at 1:1 to see how it fared in its specialist area. With extreme close-ups, open aperture quality was decent in the centre and acceptable at the edges, but macro workers usually frequent mid to small apertures to get some depth- of-field in their shots so this isn’t a big issue. Stop down to f/5.6 and beyond and you start to appreciate this lens’s skills because pictures are crisp across the frame. It just gets better from this point with f/11 being the best aperture, delivering contrasty, very sharp shots. If you do want to explore the wider apertures, then the ten-blade iris diaphragmwill give some eye- catching bokeh. WC PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 8/10 If you yearn for the direct focus feel of a truemanual focus lens, the Voigtlander 110mm f/2.5MACRO APO-Lanthar has plenty going for it, including a fine optical performance Pros: Optical quality, metal body, smooth focusing barrel Cons: Long focus travel with close subjects, no IS or AF
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PRO MOVIEMAKER SUMMER 2019
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