In early lens design, wide angles were handled much differently than today. Because of the short focal length inherent with a wide angle, the rear element of the lens must be very close to the film plane. This worked just fine in box cameras and rangefinders, but with the advent of the SLR, an intrusive lens element fell out of favor as it interferes with mirror operation.
To solve the problem of extreme wide angles on an SLR, the “reverse telephoto”, or retro-focus, lenses were developed. This is the style you see for modern cameras. The downside of this design is that more glass elements are required for optical correction…and this gets more complicated the wider you go.
Back in the early 2000’s, Voigtlander released two non-retro-focus wides (a 12mm and 15mm) to compliment their SL product range. Both of these had the benefit of being high performing, lighter, compact options for SLR shooters looking for a super wide that doesn’t tip the scale.
Lens Protrudes 12mm from Body
SPECS:
8 Elements | 6 Groups
Aperture Blades = 10
Filter Ø = No Filter Threads
Min Focus = 0.3m
Min Aperture = f4.5
Weight = 173g (246g w/caps & viewfinder)
Length = 12mm (45mm including invasive portion)
Non-Retro-focus Design…Mirror Lock-Up Required
PROS:
As with other Cosina made Voigtlanders, the build quality and operation of this lens is high end. Focusing is smooth yet secure, and the click stops at each marked distance makes bumping the lens out of focus difficult. Retro-focus wide angles are much bulkier and the 15mm’s small form factor makes this my new go to travel wide.
One cool feature of this lens is that it’s not limited to Nikon F bodies! With the use of adapters, it can be secured to Leica screw and M-mounts. There is an official Voigtlander adapter that I’m still trying to track down, but this added versatility is huge.
Focus Knob w/Click Stops
CONS:
The obvious, number one drawback to this lens is that mirror lock-up is required, loosing the ability to meter/compose through the lens. This turns your Nikon SLR into a rangefinder with zone focusing. However, with a 15mm focal length, the depth of field is so large that a zone focus can be set for most shooting situations. Since composition can no longer be done through the lens, it must now be done with an external finder. The provided finder is nicely built, but it does not have finder lines as the entire view is “in frame”. This is tricky to get used to, making sure that you look through the finder straight on.
Now that the SLR’s metering is no longer possible, the use of an external light meter is recommended for tricky lighting situations. Because of this added “inconvenience”, I chose to use the 15/4.5 on my Nikon F4 to get the benefit of auto film advance. I feel that having to manually meter and advance the frame to be a bit too inconvenient when shooting a new place.
One other drawback to note, due to the nature of the wide optics, no filters can be used. While not a big issue, since a polarizer would make the sky look uneven at 15mm, the use of colored filters for black and white film is lost.
246g As Shown, Not Bad for an Extreme Wide Angle
BOTTOM LINE:
This lens has changed the way I look at travel photography. In order to pack light and not carry around a bulky camera bag, I have captured most of my travel with a normal and/or short telephoto. But this Voigtlander enables me to leave it on the camera body and pack a 50mm or 85mm second lens.
This won’t be to everyone’s taste as many use their wide angle for landscapes, and the loss of filters may be too much to overcome. I feel that the unique performance or “look”, in addition to being so compact and light will make this a staple in my regular travel kit.
Nikon F4 | Voigtlander 15mm | Kodak Portra 400
Nikon F4 | Voigtlander 15mm | Kodak Pro Image 100
