Voigtlander 58 1.4 SLII on D3

[jonoslack]

Hi There
Well, in a quest to discover whether it's the lens or the camera which frightens the victims I bought this as a small lens to go on the front of the D3.

I'm not sure that 'dinky' is exactly the word that springs to mind, but it seems to go nicely on the D3:

(apologies for the muddy camera - not up to Marc's standards I'm afraid!)

Build quality is splendid - all metal with a rubber focus sleeve - the focusing ring is smooth as butter and quite even throughout (quite a long throw). I think it's a rather lovely piece of design - the metal lens hood is also fine (not pictured here). At £206+vat from Robert White it seems to me to be a fine bargain

The fact that the lens is also chipped means that it reports the aperture correctly. If you set the aperture on the lens to f16 then the you can set the aperture as normal on the camera (setting at anything else produces an EE on the camera's top screen). It would be nice if there was a lock on the aperture ring.

In fact, there is nothing different from any Nikon lens except that it's manual focus - focus confirmation works well, and I find it very easy to focus, even in dim light with the standard D3 screen:

(1/60th f1.4 ISO 640)

(1/60th f1.4 ISO 450) (this is the only cropped shot of the group)
It's worth noticing that the lloyd loom chair can produce a very gritty bokeh - it's done well here.

(1/60th f1.4 ISO 720)

I also think that the bokeh is pleasant, even with fundamentally busy backgrounds:

(1/60th f1.4 ISO 200)

It's hardly a macro lens, but it does focus down to .45 of a metre giving a ratio of 1:5.8 - quite useable for flowers and small objects:

(1/1000th f1.4 ISO 200)

(1/400th f1.4 ISO 200)


Finally, a couple just because I like 'em!

(1/1250th f1.4 ISO 200)

(1/2500th f1.4 ISO 200)

I haven't found anyone to point it at yet, I'll report back on that later, initial response is very favorable - I'll post a few more stopped down a bit when I can persuade myself to get off that f1.4!

 

[Steen]

Jono, please don't ... "persuade yourself to get off that f1.4"
These initial captures look *very* promising, indeed.
Can't believe you simply mount your new Nokton and just nail it at f/1.4
Obviously the focus plane is razor thin.
My main reason for wanting the larger FX sensor some day, is the larger viewfinder for such challenging manual focus.
Lots of envy
/Steen
P.S. Re the final couple, I like them too. A lot.
If they were mine I couldn't resist to print and hang up the first one of them :thumbup:

 

[clay stewart]

Congrats Jono and nice shots. I don't know if it's the same on the D3 as the D300, but you might try going to custom setting menu, then scroll to F, then to F7-custom comand dials, then to aperture settings and set it to aperture ring. Then you can use the lens aperture ring. I can't seem to figure out how to use live view at the same time, but it's nice to be able to change f stops on the lens again, sort of like having a real camera.

 

[clay stewart]

So, Jono, I've been thinking about this lens for portraits on the D300. Have you tried it on that body and if so, is it difficult to focus wide open without looking at the green dot?

 

[jonoslack]

HI Clay
Thanks for the F7 suggestion . . . . but no thanks! I did try it, but I'm so used to using the sub control dial.

As for the focus confirmation . . . it seems to me that my eye is more accurate in most circumstances at f1.4 than the green dot (it has helpful arrows on each side on the D3).

Mind you, I think I might just be lucky - I don't find manual focusing a problem with any of the lenses on the D3 - I rather like the fact that you don't need to specify a focusing point if you aren't bothering with the dot. I don't have a D300 I'm afraid, but I don't see why it would be much harder?

 

[jonoslack]

Jono, please don't ... "persuade yourself to get off that f1.4"
These initial captures look *very* promising, indeed.
Can't believe you simply mount your new Nokton and just nail it at f/1.4
Obviously the focus plane is razor thin.
My main reason for wanting the larger FX sensor some day, is the larger viewfinder for such challenging manual focus.
Lots of envy
/Steen
P.S. Re the final couple, I like them too. A lot.
If they were mine I couldn't resist to print and hang up the first one of them :thumbup:

HI Steen
erm . . . I didn't nail all of them! To be honest I didn't find it difficult, but I don't find focusing on the M8 difficult either . . . I think it must be something to do with my aging eyesight; I focus by determination rather than actually seeing :bugeyes::ROTFL:

As for envy - just follow that Jurgen around - he lives in Holland, and he's going to rob a bank - wait till he comes out and nick the dosh.:clap:

 

[jonoslack]

Hi There
It was real 'new lens weather' today
The D3 takes such things in it's stride!

a couple more:

1/60th ISO 2200 f10

1/60th ISO 280 f4.5

 

[Greg Seitz]

Now you just have to get yourself one of these to go with it! I think this one can be classified as 'dinky'. :ROTFL:

 

[Chris C]

Greg - I remember Mark Norton [or maybe Marc Andrews?] on the Leica User Forum posting an image of his monster Canon 1Ds looming over his M8 convincing me that the M8 was for me, and your image of the D3 and in-yer-face zoom alongside the D300 and Voigtlander 'pancake' 40mm lens has had a similar effect. I've been considering the D300/'pancake' combination for myself, the lens is a cousin of Jono's 58 so I hope he won't mind me asking if you could give any feedback on using the lens on the D300 in particular.

Clay Stewart's post No.3, and Jono's reply surprised me. Not having yet tried a manual lens on Nikon I had assumed that one set the aperture via the aperture ring. I had not realised that one could set lens aperture with the sub-command dial - that's a big bonus, and I like that.

Jono - I'm enjoying your posts. I don't know how the rest of the world looks at this time of year, but I suspect that you too are intoxicated by the extraordinary greens we get here in the UK every Spring. Coming out of Winter we know the greens are coming, and yet the colour always seems that much richer, complex, and more beautiful than what is expected. Just an aside. More pictures please.

......................... Chris

 

[Steen]

Looks to me to be the smallest Nikon DSLR: D40 or D40x, or the latest successor D60 ?
D300 is larger than this.

 

[Greg Seitz]

Greg - I remember Mark Norton [or maybe Marc Andrews?] on the Leica User Forum posting an image of his monster Canon 1Ds looming over his M8 convincing me that the M8 was for me, and your image of the D3 and in-yer-face zoom alongside the D300 and Voigtlander 'pancake' 40mm lens has had a similar effect. I've been considering the D300/'pancake' combination for myself, the lens is a cousin of Jono's 58 so I hope he won't mind me asking if you could give any feedback on using the lens on the D300 in particular.

Clay Stewart's post No.3, and Jono's reply surprised me. Not having yet tried a manual lens on Nikon I had assumed that one set the aperture via the aperture ring. I had not realised that one could set lens aperture with the sub-command dial - that's a big bonus, and I like that.

Jono - I'm enjoying your posts. I don't know how the rest of the world looks at this time of year, but I suspect that you too are intoxicated by the extraordinary greens we get here in the UK every Spring. Coming out of Winter we know the greens are coming, and yet the colour always seems that much richer, complex, and more beautiful than what is expected. Just an aside. More pictures please.

......................... Chris

Hi Chris,

Steen is right, it's the D40x. The D300 is pretty much in-between these extremes in size.

Focusing is pretty easy, if you want you can rely on the focus confirmation light which is more of a requirement on the D40x since the viewfinder is not as large or bright as it's bigger brothers. One trick I've found that makes all the difference when using the confirmation light to focus is to trust it just as it comes on when you are focusing from closer towards infinity rather than the other way around since there is some slop in between.

The aperture can indeed be set using the camera rather than the lens.

This lens is tons of fun to use on any of the Nikons. It's sharp wide open. The bokeh is a little busy but generally not bad.

I'll dig up some photos from it and post them later.

Greg

 

[Greg Seitz]

A few from the Voigtlander 40mm f/2

Here's a few random samples.

 

[Chris C]

... it's the D40x....

Greg - Damn. Silly me. Thank you for replying, and the additional images. The 40mm 'pancake' looks an interesting size and focal length, for both Nikon formats.

.............. Chris

 

[deepdiver]

Some more sample from Nikon D3 + Ultron 40mm SL II

Andree

 

[jonoslack]

HI There
I have to fight back against the 40 ultron battle.
So, here are a couple of shots using the SLII 58 as a kind of macro noctilux substitute - it has that odd dreamy feel that I get from both the noctilux (and the zeiss sonnar).

I think they're all shot at f1.4 and focused simply on screen (not using focus confirmation).

 

[etrigan63]

Can anyone post some comparable shots with the Zeiss 50mm f/2 Makro? I would like to compare the bokeh of that lens vs. the CV 58mm.

 

[woodyspedden]

Well, I have used both the 58 1.4 and the 40 2.0 and thought both to be quite good. Only issue for me was that the 40 seemed to have a different color rendition than the 58 and I believe in comparison to the nikkor lenses the 58 was the more accurate. However the overall image quality from the 40 was great and with the D300 what a nice compact package.

Woody

 

[etrigan63]

Well, based on what I've seen here and on flickr, I have gone ahead and ordered a 58mm from Stephen Gandy over at CameraQuest. Hopefully it will be here this weekend!

 

[etrigan63]

Well, my lens arrived today. And of course it is raining cats, dogs, pigs, frogs and giraffes. So here is my first shot with it and not a sponsored product endorsement:

I focussed on the "E" in "Lime". The bokeh looks pretty good. I will know more when I do some actual portraits.

Has anyone tried the Katzeye Split Image Microprism screens for the D300? I am contemplating getting one for this lens.

Also, what size lens cap does the LH-58 lens hood take? The included lens cap is too small for the lens hood.

 

[jonoslack]

Well, my lens arrived today. And of course it is raining cats, dogs, pigs, frogs and giraffes.

Congratulations . . . but with such interesting stuff going on outside, what on earth are you doing shooting pictures of tin cans? You obviously don't have the PJ spirit - Jack would've been out there photographing those giraffes coming down out of the sky.

Has anyone tried the Katzeye Split Image Microprism screens for the D300? I am contemplating getting one for this lens.

Also, what size lens cap does the LH-58 lens hood take? The included lens cap is too small for the lens hood.

I must say, I've found focusing pretty okay with the screen on the D3 - I've been testing by focusing before getting the confirmation, and I seem to have it down every time.

I'd like to know about the lens hood though - it's a nice lens hood, but a bore without a cap.