Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Lens, Black, for Sony E-Mount Cameras

## Hardware Design__Rating: 9/10__The industrial design is the perfect balance of functionality and elegance. There are no superfluous buttons or rings. In fact, there are no buttons at all. This is a fully manual lens which means that both the aperture and focus are set on the lens itself. However, __the rings controlling these settings can be easily operated as they are well separated from each other and have different widths__ (Unlike the Loxia models).This lens is the direct descendant of the original Super Wide Heliar by Voigtlander. It's is actually the third generation __specifically made to be used on Sony FE Mount camera bodies__. Previous versions, made for Leica, could always be adapted to be used on Sony A7 series cameras, but that introduced several issues: purple coloring towards the edges (due to the way the light would impact the sensor), larger _effective_ lens size (due to the adapter) and no exposure info being fed back to the camera. Since this is a fully Sony FE-Mount lens, EXIFinfo is passed to the camera for each shot. Additionally, the optical issues have been corrected (more on that later).This lens is __tremendously small__. It's just slightly larger than the Sony/Zeiss 35mm/f2.8 (http://amzn.to/1ORg8jR), which is my point of reference for small lenses on FE mount.I used to use a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 (http://amzn.to/1UejkFq) before switching to this lens and although they are both native Sony FE-Mount lenses, the difference in volume and weight is just ludicrous. Although the Rokinon is an "OK" lens from an optical point of view, it poses several disadvantages: it doesn't communicate with the camera in any way, so Exposure EXIF information is not embedded in images. Also, the Rokinon lens exhibits some serious distortion that needs to be corrected in post-production. Granted, the Rokinon 14mm is a _faster_ lens (i.e. f/2.8 vs f/4.5), but in this case, I rather sacrifice those few stops for excellent image quality, portability and building construction.The focus ring is fully mechanical, meaning that it has both _start_ and _stop_ points as opposed to the _focus by wire_ method used by modern auto-focus lenses where the focus ring turns freely in both directions. Mechanical focusing provides a better feedback and allows to achieve accurate focus easier and faster than focus by wire most of the time, in my opinionIt's worth mentioning that the camera can be set to activate the _focus magnifier_ as soon as the focus ring is operated, which is a feature that some people may find appealing. I prefer setting one of the camera's configurable buttons to do so, but that's just personal preference.One disadvantage of Voiglander's design, is the fact that the __lens hood is permanently attached__. That means that, no filters can be used on this lens.## Hardware Quality__Rating: 10/10__The Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 is a little and hefty bundle of metal and glass. It feels as solid as the Sony/Zeiss 55mm/f1.8 (http://amzn.to/1Veynkx) or any Batis lens (http://amzn.to/2356hKb) released by Zeiss. This may not be a coincidence, as Cosina Japan manufactures several Zeiss lenses.Although the lens is relatively heavy, it doesn't make the Sony A7 II camera feel out of balance. The focusing ring moves smoothly, with just the right amount of friction. The aperture ring makes an audible and pleasant "click" when changing apertures. However, __it can be easily de-clicked to improve operation and handling when filming video__.## General Performance__Rating: 9/10__The lens' performance is extraordinary, in my humble opinion, and I'm not the only one out there praising it. There is a famous review for the first generation of this lens by Ken Rockwell and he puts it ahead of the Leica 21 mm f/2.8 (http://amzn.to/1THCmSm) and the Leica 18mm f/3.8 (http://amzn.to/1UpSEBs). Although the reviewed model was geared towards Leica Film cameras, this version has been optimized to work on digital cameras.### Sharpness / Corner testsI setup the camera on a tripod, disabled "Steady Shot" and took several shots of the scene below with different apertures (f/4.5, f/9.0 and f/22.0), always focusing on infinity. The attached images were edited just to slightly increase exposure, no other post-processing was performed. I have included images of corners and center of the frame as reference.The Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 sharpness performance in both center and corners is outstanding. I keep checking the photos on camera (LCD screen), zooming in and having difficulty finding images that are not sharp, even without using a tripod. I'm not exaggerating, it's really impressive to say the least. Although sharpness tends to fall towards the ends (especially at f/4.5), image quality is still very good.### ContrastAlthough the lens doesn't have the outstanding color contrast performance of Zeiss lenses, it's pretty close to it!, and does not small achievement. Obviously, contrast can be tweaked in post-production via Lightroom.### VignettingThere is definitely vignetting, but that's just expected considering such a wide focus lens. It's worth mentioning however, that it's much controlled than the vignetting presented by previous Heliar generations. Additionally, __the purple tint on edges exhibited by previous generations has been controlled__. In any case, vignetting can easily be corrected by clicking a checkbox in Lightroom (see below).## Ease of Use__Rating: 10/10__The lens is as easy to use as any other manual focusing lens. Actually, I would say it's _easier_ to use. This is because due to its wide angle and small aperture (i.e. f/4.5), it's very likely it would be used for landscape and/or architecture photography, in which case just setting the focus ring to infinity would be enough to have everything crisp and focused most of the time.

Extremely well made lens. The metal construction feels sturdy. The focus ring and aperture ring are very smooth and easy to operate. Click less aperture mode is easy to activate. The lens has an internal focus design.The front glass element is convex forward so is at risk of getting damaged. I put on a 58mm filter to protect it. The metal lens hood is built in to the lens but wouldn't do a great job protecting the lens alone.The greatest part of the lens is that all of the data is transmitted to my a7 camera in real time. The aperture is available to view when composing the shot in the viewfinder.Immediately when I turn the focus ring, the camera goes into zoom mode to focus assist. There is no lag whatsoever. This option can be disabled in the camera body if desired.The lens is sharp and appears to reproduce colors well. There are full tests of the lens online elsewhere, but for all my purposes this lens is absolutely fantastic.For the price it would be hard to find a better wide angle lens that is this compact. I can literally disassemble the lens and camera and stick them in my pockets. Combined with an a7 type body, the Voigtlander 15mm Heliar iii must be one of the most compact and best ultra wide angle setups available.

I bought this lens as part of my kit for a two week California landscape trip, mounted on my trusty Sony a7r2. It has great build quality and nice smooth focus and aperture clicking. Fully manual of course so I was careful to make sure I used the depth of field markings on the lens keeping infinity just inside the relevant f stop. But thats when I noticed after a few days that things got soft on infinity if I used the lens markings which annoyed me a little as I had already shot a few tests and all seemed good. I think you really need to be super careful working with hyperfocal lens markings and in the end I just used the digital focus magnifier on the camera to get my images tack sharp. f8 to f16 were best apertures for me in the field. Will do some more lens based hyperfocal tests now back in Australia, but apart from that nice lens and the mk 3 really does improve on previous in edges and CA, also Lightroom now has a great profile of the lens which gets rid on the small amount of distortion and strong vignetting in one simple step.

I tried two of these lenses from Amazon. I have two Sony E-Mount cameras. I tried the lenses in both cameras. The lenses entered the camera mount OK but would not rotate fully and lock into position. The combo worked, but one day when the combo was on my car seat, the two separated. I was concerned next time the lens would hit the pavement. So I returned it and went for a Sony zoom.

Great wide-angle lens for my Sony A7II. Very small and lightweight, takes no space or weight in my camera bag. Purchased through Samy's Camera, and they were the real star of this show. The first copy of the lens I received had smearing in the corners. Samy's stood behind this lens 100%, allowing me to continue using the original lens while the manufacturer was sorting out their problems and attempting to deliver the second run of the lens. Samy's kept me informed of the delays from the manufacturer, always allowing me either a refund or to continue waiting (I chose to wait because I really do like this lens a lot and wanted a good copy). When the manufacturer finally supplied a new batch of lenses to Samy's, they sent me a pre-paid address label for the return, and offered to hold my original lens for two weeks after I received the new lens, just to be sure the new lens was better than the original. It was significantly better, I'm very satisfied with it, and extremely satisfied with Samy's excellent customer service. I'd recommend them to anyone making a purchase.