Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar 65mm f/2 Aspherical 1:2 Macro Lens
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The Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 is a apochromatic macro lens designed and manufactured by Cosina Co., Ltd in Japan. This is precision all-manual lens is targeted at the high-end, limited production lens market. This lens has no image stabilization, no autofocus, and no auto-aperture, so why would I want one? Because the APO-Lanthar 65 was designed to produce the sharpest and highest corrected images on the market today. So if you can live without AF and IS, I know I can, the lens is really worth a look.
Can this lens really produce the sharpest and cleanest images of any macro lens made today? This article will fill you in on everything that you need to know about this lens, specifications, test images, comparisons, and if its the leader in its class.
What is a Voigtländer?
Voigtländer, pronounced fohgt-len-der, is an optical company originally founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna in 1756 making it, by far, the oldest name in camera brands. In 1965 Carl Zeiss and Voigtländer integrated in 1965, and a year later Zeiss sold Voigtländer to Rollei. From 1999 until now, Voigtländer lenses have been manufactured and marketed by Cosina Co., Ltd, which has been in business in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan since 1959. Cosina will celebrate its 60th anniversary in February 2019.
Released in late 2017 the 65mm f/2 is the first new APO-Lanthar macro lens since the Voigtlander 90mm F3.5 APO-Lanthar SL II was released in 2010. The APO-Lanthars are very well regarded today, the 125mm f/2.5 SL for example, sells for 2 to 3 times the original retail price.
The Optical Design
This is the only accurate optical diagram for the APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 that I have seen apart from the Japanese Cosina website. All of the other diagrams found online are misleading since they only indicate the aspherical element position and not the actual optical layout which includes all of the low-dispersion elements!
This is the correct, complete, 65mm f/2 diagram showing all of the element types.
VOIGTLANDER APO-LANTHAR 65MM F/2 optical layout diagram showing the low dispersion glass and aspherical element.
This lens was optimized for a digital sensor using 6 low dispersion elements, one aspherical element, and a floating element design. For comparison, the Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens has one aspherical element and only 2 low dispersion type elements, the famous APO-Lanthar 125mm f/2.5 SLI lens used only 2 low dispersion elements.
Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 at infinity, 1:4 and 1:2 magnification ratios.
Mechanical Design and Cosmetics
The APO-Lanthar 65 is made in the same factory has been making the Zeiss brand consumer lenses since 2006, including Z and ZM series, Otus, Batis, Milvus, Touit and Loxia lines, and it shows in this lens. Zeiss has alway been the reference level for precision that other manufacturers strive to reach over consumer market lenses, like those from Canon or Nikon.
This all-metal lens feels really solid with a wide silky-smooth focus ring and engraved manual aperture ring. For me personally, this blacked out understated industrial type of design is preferred over the bright chrome and gold accented lenses, because the last thing I want when working in-the-field is lens that stands out. The quality and feel of this lens gives the impression of precision and being made to the highest standards possible, the exact opposite of the consumer market lenses with glass-reinforced plastic composite barrels without any manual aperture control and non-coupled focus rings.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Type: manual focus macro lens Focal length: 65mm at infinity Aperture: 10 blades
Maximum magnification ratio: 1/2 lifesize or 0.5x
Coverage: Full frame Working distance: 31 cm or 12 inches
Mount: Sony E-mount. See the E-mount communication notes below.
Chromatic Aberration Correction: APO design. See the chromatic aberration test on this page.
Filter threads: 67mm Coverage: Full frame.
Optical design: 10 elements in 8 groups including 6 LD elements and 1 aspherical element.
For reference the 125mm APO-Lanthar uses 11 elements in 9 groups with 2 LD elements.
Lens mount: Full frame Sony E-mount with electrical contacts
Manual helical focusing direction: Nikon style direction
Weight: 625g ( 22 ounces )
Cost: 120,000 JPY list price (before tax) in Japan. 999 EUR. The street price in the US is $999. The lens is still new so used prices are about $800-900 USD.
Accessories: Screw-on lens hood included
E-Mount Communication
EXIF Data - lens aperture data is included in the image EXIF data so the images will include the aperture value that was used when the photo was made
Lens Correction info - Lens EXIF data shows the following correction info that is used in RAW file editing programs, ACR (adobe Camera Raw), Lightroom, Capture 1, to provide auto-correction.
Vignetting Correction: Auto
Distortion Correction Setting: Off
Distortion Correction: None
Lateral Chromatic Aberration: Auto
Note: Adobe ACR (adobe Camera Raw) 10.1, Lightroom Classic CC 7.1, and Lightroom CC 1.1 offers auto lens correction for the APO-Lanthar 65. Capture one 11 also offers lens auto corrections on some Voigtlander lenses but it does not offer lens correction for the APO-Lanthar 65.
Manual Focus Assist - Focus peaking will work when manual focus is detected by the camera. Also Focus enlargement function will also work.
5 Axis Image Stabilization - the lens is installed with distance to subject information to enable support for X,Y shift compensation.
Rating
What I like about the lens
Strong center sharpness
Real APO correction
Ultra smooth focus action
Large deeply scalloped focus ring
Focus ring design stops the lens from rolling
All-black industrial design without any chrome or gold trim
10 blade iris
Very precise front-mounted aperture ring
Things that I dislike about the lens
1:2 magnification ratio maximum
No tripod mount
Things I am disappointed with
Manual aperture
Things I don't need
The shallow lens hood is not really needed due to the deeply recessed front element
Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar 65mm f/2 Sharpness Test
Coming soon.
Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar 65mm f/2 Chromatic Aberration Test
To test for chromatic aberration I shot the lens from f/2 down to f/5.6. The good news is that chromatic aberrations did not increase by stopping down as they do with some lenses. To make sure there was no chromatic aberration correction has been applied to the images, I double checked that no corrections were being applied in RAW file conversion by running RAW files using RawDigger, since this program does not use any lens correction EXIF data settings.
Lateral Chromatic Aberration test results
Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 at 0.5x and f/2.
Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 at 0.5x f/2 and 100% view
Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 at 0.5x f/2 and 200% view
CA Test conclusion
No problems here. Since the images were so clean I am only showing the images from f/2 and f/2.8 apertures. Its pointless to show and f/4 and smaller they are so clean.
At 100% view in Photoshop, lateral CAs are almost impossible to see wide-open at f/2.
At 200% view I can see tiny amount of fringing in the corner and center crops, but these are very faint to the point where I doubt that many people can even see the fringing. By f/2.8 and smaller, the traces of CAs cleaned up.
The lateral CA correction with this lens, even wide open, are about as good as it gets in any consumer market macro lens I have tested so far.
Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations test results
Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 at 0.5x f/2 and 100% view
Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 at 0.5x f/2.8
Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 and f/2.8 at 100% view
LoCA Test conclusion
Longitudinal CAs were very mild overall at f/2 with very amounts by f/2.8. LoCAs and gone by f/4 and did not increase stopping down.
At 100% view in Photoshop there are some mild LoCAs wide-open at f/2. One stop down at f/2.8 the LoCAs are at a very low level. Compared to other lenses I have tested so far, this lens is one of the best, even beating the legendary APO-Lanthar 125mm. The APO-Lanthar 65 was as clean at f/2.8, as the APO-Lanthar 125mm is at f/4.
Since LoCAs do not increase by stopping down as is the case with a lot of other lenses, there are no traces at all at f/5.6 and f/8, where I normally photograph.
Overall Chromatic Aberration conclusion
Out of all the consumer market macro lenses I have tested so far the APO-Lanthar 65 has the best chromatic aberration suppression. The only two lenses that have better CA suppression are two special lenses made for certain magnification ranges, the Schneider Macro Varon and Scanner Nikkor ED lenses, both of these lenses have absolutely no trace of CAs. Neither the MV or the Scanner Nikkor are consumer market lenses.
When I visited the Cosina factory last month I specifically asked how well this lens is corrected and the rep explained confidently that the APO-Lanthar 65 was designed to perform at the very highest level compared to any lens on consumer market today, even better than the excellent APO-Lanthar 125mm lens. I was a little skeptical because the only other fast f/2 macro lenses that I know of, the Zeiss ZF 100mm f/2 and the Olympus OM 90mm f/2 and both are well known for having issues with LoCAs.
Cosina did an excellent job of CA suppression with this lens and since CAs are nonexistent at medium and small apertures CAs are going to relevent in real-world photography.
Notes on Sony Auto Lens Correction
The Sony A6000 has the ability to automatically compensate for geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and lens shading (also known as vignetting), as images are captured. The body used for this test has the corrections disabled:
Shading Comp. = off
Chro. Aber. Comp. = off
Distortion Comp. = off
In the case of using the APO-Lanthar 65 there is shading Comp. and Chro. Aber. enabled in the lens EXIF data by the lens itself so the camera settings do not have control of these settings but I verified that there was no Chro. Aber. auto correction by converting RAW images in RawDigger, since this program does not use any lens correction EXIF data settings.
Auto-corrections can also be disabled in Adobe RAW convertor or ACR, and Lightroom or LR. But you should know that Sony (and other brands like Leica, Fuji, and others) include Opcodes in the EXIF image data than instruct ACR and LR to correct for certain aberrations automatically and the effect is not controllable by the user.
Sharpness Test Setup
Camera: Sony α6300, model # ILCE-6300, also known as: A6300
Sensor size: 23.5 × 15.6 mm. APS-C. 28.21 mm diagonal. 3.92 micron sensor pitch
Flash: Godox 2.4GHz system. Godox TT350s wireless flash x 2 with one Godox X1s 2.4G wireless flash transmitter
For this test I used a 200mm, 8 inch, silicon test wafer for a target. These are very highly detailed and perfectly flat so they make one of the best targets out there for lens comparisons. They have much finer detail and are not prone to warping or shrinking as natural targets, like a butterfly wings, like to do in the middle of a test.
Test Notes
-The CV65 lens was focus bracketed and the single sharpest image was chosen at 100% view in Photoshop.
-All images were shot as RAW ARW files and processed in PS CC with all noise reduction and lens correction turned off, all settings were zeroed out to true zero
-Test images here were not being corrected for Lateral Chromatic Aberration in RAW file conversion.To be sure that no chromatic aberration or distortion correction was being applied in the Adobe Camera Raw conversion, I also ran a test file in RawDigger and Capture 1 to confirm.
APO-Lanthar 65 links:
Two interesting APO-Lanthar 65 tests:
Jim Klasson tests the Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 65mm F2 against the Coastal Optical 60 mm f/4. The APO-LANTHAR 65 is sharper but the Costal Optics 60 has less LoCAs.
http://blog.kasson.com/the-last-word/voigtlander-602-apo-lanthar-loca-focus-shift/
Check out this test at lens tip where the Voigtlander MACRO APO-LANTHAR 65mm F2 sets a new center resolution record:
https://www.lenstip.com/index.php?test=obiektywu&test_ob=517
70 pages of misc discussions on the APO-LANTHAR 65 on Fred Miranda's site:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1451413/0
More APO-Lanthar 65 info on the Cosina Japan site:
http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigtlander/e-mount/e-65mm/index.html
http://www.cosina.co.jp/seihin/voigtlander/index.html