Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

Soccer mom.

2012, Inspiration, Leica M9(P)/M-E (CCD Lives!), Portrait, Street, The Beautiful Game, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

Taken partially against the light — wide open — with the “bargain” 75 Color Heliar.

The 100% crops (not shown) are quite impressive; the detailed rendering is obvious, even in this web-sized image.

More than the sharpness, I really appreciate how this lens is handling the light in this scene.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer 75mm Color Heliar LTM @ f/2.5.

Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM (hmmm….).

2012, Inspiration, Teaching point, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

I’m beginning to see some magic from this Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar… I may have to revise my opinion that the Leica 75mm Summarit bests it.

If this lens is even close to its Leica equivalent, I would call it a remarkable achievement at 25% of the price.

It’s a shame it’s discontinued.

—Peter.

Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM (test crops).

2012, Inspiration, Teaching point, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this lens is pretty impressive — beginning wide open @ f/2.5.

For my own comparison purposes, I shot this test scene to evaluate central sharpness.

Focus is on the leaves inside the red box:

[Note: these are DNG files converted directly to JPG using Aperture 3, with no sharpening added.]

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM.

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Here is the 100% crop of the above @ f/2.5:

(please click on the image to view)

↑Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM @ f/2.5 (100% crop, no sharpening).

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And here is the 100% crop @ f/4:

(please click on the image to view)

↑Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM @ f/4 (100% crop, no sharpening).

Amazingly sharp, don’t you think?

—Peter.

Debut of the 75/2.5 Color Heliar.

2012, Inspiration, Print, Teaching point, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

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The test image below marks the debut of my Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM.

The lens was discontinued a while ago, but I was fortunate enough to find a “new-old stock” one, which arrived yesterday.

Over the years, I’ve read quite a bit about this lens and how it compares quite favourably to the Leica 75mm Summarit (a wonderful lens in its own right — please see my user report here).

What piqued my interest was the reported performance-to-size ratio — I’m always looking for small and lightweight lenses that are capable of powerhouse performance (which, as far as I’m concerned, represents the ethos of the Leica M system).

Having now seen it, I can definitely state that the Color Heliar is indeed incredibly light and and incredibly small.  Some performance trade-off must have been made in order to achieve this state of airiness, but in my limited time with it, I just don’t see it.*

In a word, the Color Heliar’s performance @ f/2.5 is impressive.

I’ll try and post another test shot — including 100% crops — tomorrow.**

—Peter.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer 75mm Color Heliar @ f/2.5.

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*More often than not, the more sought after — and more expensive — Leica counterpart lenses will excel in the areas of build quality, micro-contrast, flare resistance, sharpness wide open, corner performance, etc… but sometimes the differences are very subtle and some of those qualities, for my type of shooting, are not critical.

**Please note that I have no intention of writing a review, I’m just sharing the information I gather during my evaluation of this lens.