This is a great wide lens for the Leica M mount. Since I mostly use this lens outdoors for landscapes during the day, I did not need a fast lens. The 3.5 aperture is plenty for that. The color rendition is great on my M11, but I'm truly impressed with the lens using my M10 Monochrom. Definitely a keeper!

This is a compact and solidly built lens, which shows little distortion at the edges and is very sharp at all apertures (not surprising, as the maximum aperture is only f/3.5). I use it on Sony Alpha bodies: being so compact, it is especially good with my a7C. A great landscape lens, it is also a good street lens in good light. I am using it more and more, as I find I often prefer the 21mm focal length to 24mm or 28mm. I am a Fan of Voigtlnder lenses because of their quality and design and also because they communicate EXIF data to the camera. I focus using hyperfocal distance for street photography and for landscapes, using Peak settings of Medium and Yellow for more precise focusing (High makes Everything Yellow, and Low is too hard to see).

Many people look at Voigtländers as an inexpensive alternative to Leica M lenses. You can do that. I wouldn't because these are great lenses in their own right. I won't dispute the quality of Leica lenses, but when you decide character is just as important as optics, this lens and other Voigtländer lenses will not disappoint. Top notch craftsmanship and the helicoid action is something that must be experienced to believe. This, along with the rest of the Voigtländer Vintage Series, namely the Ultra 35mm f/2, the Helier 50mm f/3.5, and the Nokton 75mm f/1.5 ASPH are must haves. Not only do they take beautiful pictures but they look gorgeous too! I use them on my Leica M2 and that double vintage look is smoking hot! With an adapter (I use the Voigtländer VM-E close focus adapter which I also highly recommend) I get great use with these lenses on my Sony A9 as well (see attached). The use of a film emulator like the Mastin Labs Ektar 100 draws out the vintage character of the lens even more. I really enjoy using it and if you like the vintage look without having to comb through fungus ridden used lenses on eBay, I think you will too. Worth every penny and you won't need a lot of pennies either (relatively speaking).

The size, build quality, style and function of this lens make it a great piece of kit.  The wide angle makes it easy to focus it becomes almost like a point and shoot. Great color, contrast and sunstars.

This lens is a lot of fun to use. It's small and barely noticeable on the camera body.

This lens is just a great walk-around lens. You can easily set the focus distance in-camera and walk around taking photos that are sharp.

The Infinity focus setting is a hard-stop and truly focuses to infinity.

Colors are contrasty and there is vignetting wide open. None of my software has a lens profile that I can automatically apply, but it's easy enough to up apply some pre-sharpening and remove the vignette manually. That's all I've really felt the need to do.

When stopped down to 5.6 it doesn't need correcting at all. It's tack-sharp and very slight vignette, if any. I feel like the lens does a rather good job all-around. It looks sharp and it's a joy to use. I'm still learning how to use it to its fullest potential, but I imagine it will last me for many years of casual photography.

If I had one complaint, I feel like it could do a better job controlling highlights in harsher light. There are instances where I have a tough time recovering the highlights in post. I will have to try out a ND filter and see how that works.


One interesting note is that the lens-hood screws into the filter instead of the lens itself (if you choose to use a filter).


Happy with this purchase!

Slightly surprised how small and compact this little gem of a lens is. After shooting with SLR lenses for a number of years, this came as a pleasant change. Despite its compactness, the optical quality is quite amazing even wide open. Build quality is as expected from Voigtlander, top notch. Very tactile feel with the clicky aperture ring and smooth focusing. Really enjoy the focusing knob over the traditional tab, makes focusing easier and more enjoyable. This is lens is perfect for well composed landscape or even travel photography or if you enjoy wide angle of view. Also, great adapted to crop sensor cameras like the Fujifilm for a small and lightweight setup via adapter. Being a color-skopar design you’ll get beautiful color rendition, as well and great B&W tonality as expected from the oldest lens manufacturer in the world.

Love this little lens! Gorgeous optics in a small & light package. Build quality is solid perfection. A true work of art to hold in your hands. Perfect for walk-around town, street shooting, landscape or architecture. It's basically never going to leave my prime bag - and will probably also be in my zoom bag when I carry the big guys around.

Exceeded expectation. So sharp that It is undersampled for 24MP sensor (i.e. lens out-resolves the sensor). Very low distortion. Edge/corner is nearly as sharp as central. Star images are so tight that image reduction causes dimmer stars to disappear.

Small, lightweight yet solid metal. Well machined and calibrated (Infinity setting really is infinity focus). Manual focus and aperture is smooth with just the right viscosity.

Very small, extremely sharp. It's a little hard to focus (I'm using it on a Sony A6000), but that is typical for being such a wide-angle lens. I used to have a 21 super angulon when I had a Leica, and this lens is comparable.

Love this lens. My first Voigtlander, definitely not the last.