The new Voigtlander 28/2 is advertised as being sharper, smaller, and lighter than its pre-ASPH predecessor, which had mediocre image quality at f/2. The important question for me upon hearing about this lens is: how does it compare to the Leica 28 Summicron? The 28 Summicron is a well-loved lens thanks to its near-perfect sharpness at f/2, ideal size and handling, and beautiful rendering. If this new Voigtlander 28 performs similarly despite costing a mere $899, it could be a game-changing addition to the list of 28mm options.

Build quality and mechanics

Build quality is all-metal and at least as good as Leica. The version II feels especially luxurious since it’s made of brass and even has a metal focus tab (Leica focus tabs are plastic). Also, the back of the lens uses a refined, clean-looking design that doesn’t expose the greasy focusing helicoids to the environment. The only criticism I can make is that if you want to use a hood, it attaches with a bayonet mechanism which isn’t quite as nice as Leica’s screw-on hoods.

The feel of the lens is excellent. My copy’s focus tab moves smoothly throughout the focusing range, and the aperture ring feels very high-end.

Size and handling

The Voigtlander 28/2 is nicely compact and balances very well on an M body. In fact, I believe this is the smallest full-frame 28mm f/2 lens ever produced (unless you count the MS Optics 28/2).

Viewfinder blockage

There is very minimal viewfinder blockage; it doesn’t get much better than this for a 28mm lens.

On the topic of the viewfinder, I have a difficult relationship with 28mm lenses because I find the 28mm framelines very hard to see. If this is the case for you, one option is to find an external 28mm viewfinder such as this one from Voigtlander:

You can also use liveview for precise compositions. I would love for Leica to start offering a 0.58x viewfinder on digital M cameras, but this seems pretty unlikely.

Minimum focus distance

Perhaps the only thing I disliked about the Leica 28 Summicron is that its 0.7m minimum distance can be quite limiting. The Voigtlander 28/2 focuses down to 0.5m. For some this may be an annoyance since most rangefinders stop working past ~0.6m, but I love having the flexibility of focusing closer using liveview. Here’s a side-by-side of what 0.5m and 0.7m look like at 28mm:

And here’s a sample with the Voigtlander at 0.5m:

While the Voigtlander 28/2 is certainly not a macro lens, it feels significantly less limiting than the Leica 28 Summicron.

Image quality

Distortion: There is a tiny hint of barrel distortion, but not enough to be noticeable to me. This is impressive for a fast wide-angle lens. Funnily enough, the Leica 28 Summicron has the same exact distortion, so the Lightroom profile for the 28 Summicron corrects the Voigtlander’s distortion perfectly. I highly recommend coding the Voigtlander 28 as the 28 Summicron, as this corrects for both vignetting and distortion while also providing accurate metadata.

Vignetting: Without profile correction, vignetting at f/2 is somewhat strong. As mentioned above, using the Leica 28 Summicron profile is a convenient solution for this.

Bokeh: Out-of-focus areas render beautifully with the Voigtlander 28/2 ASPH. The bokeh is clean, and focus falls off smoothly in the transition zones. The shallow depth of field allowed by f/2 combined with the 28mm perspective creates a look that I adore.

Die-hard Leica fans might perseverate on this question: is the rendering of this Voigtlander lens as good as the 28 Summicron’s? To answer that question, here are some unlabeled pictures. Four were taken at f/2 with the Voigtlander, and three were taken at f/2 with the Summicron:

Unless you can clearly tell which is which, I think it’s fair to say the difference is not significant. (Contact me if you think you know, and I’ll tell you if you’re right!)

Longitudinal chromatic aberration:

This is not an apochromatic lens and some green/purple spherochromatism is present, but it’s minor enough that I don’t think I’ll ever be bothered by it.

Lateral chromatic aberration: This is already a non-issue on digital since Lightroom automatically corrects for lateral CA, but I see absolutely none even with correction turned off.

Sharpness, infinity:
For this test, I used the rangefinder to focus on the red curb and used this setting for all test shots.

Analysis: The Voigtlander 28/2 delivers incredible corner-to-corner performance even at f/2. Close inspection shows a tiny improvement at f/4, but f/2 is already good enough for landscapes. Field curvature appears to be almost completely absent, as focus was not changed between test shots.

Sharpness, 1.5m:
For this test, I focused using liveview at f/2 for each subject placement, but focus was not changed between f/2 and f/4.

Analysis: Basically the same performance as infinity. The Voigtlander 28/2 is sharp even in the extreme corner at f/2.

Sharpness, 0.5m:
For this test, focus was obtained with liveview at f/2 and was not changed for the f/4 shot.

Analysis: Center performance at 0.5m is excellent even at f/2.

Since this lens performs so remarkably, I decided to put it through a torture test: extreme corner sharpness at minimum distance, wide-open. I’ve only ever done this test with the APO-Lanthar lenses.

In contrast to the APO-Lanthar lenses, the 28/2 does show a small amount of softness in this test, but it’s comical how far we had to push it to show even the slightest degradation.

Focus shift: Focus shift can be evaluated in the sharpness tests, since focus was not readjusted between f/2 and f/4. I detect no focus shift, even at 0.5m. For what it’s worth, my Leica 28 Summicron V1 had some focus shift, although not enough to be bothersome.

Summary and recommendations

When I saw the announcement for this lens, I expected similar performance to the Voigtlander 35/2 Ultron (review), which is great but doesn’t break any records. Shockingly, the new Voigtlander 28/2 is one of the highest-performance 28mm lenses ever made. It’s honestly a comical lens: it’s styled like a lens from the 1950s you’d find sitting in a thrift shop, but optically it matches or exceeds the $4995 Leica 28 Summicron.

My recommendation is therefore very simple: if you are looking for a 28mm lens, get the Voigtlander. The 28 Summicron V2 costs >5X more but offers no significant benefit over the Voigtlander. The biggest advantage I can think of is the really nice screw-on hood, but this is outweighed by its limiting 0.7m minimum distance. The Summicron also comes with 6-bit coding, but it only takes a few minutes to add 6-bit coding to the Voigtlander with some sharpie or black paint. The 28 Summicron V1 (review) can be found closer to $2000, but lacks the corner-to-corner sharpness and compact hood of the V2.

The only good reason I see to consider an alternative to the Voigtlander is for an aperture beyond f/2. Options are limited. Leica’s 28 Summilux offers an impressive f/1.4 aperture, but you have to really want f/1.4 to justify the larger size and $7,495 price tag. The 7Artisans 28/1.4 (review) is far more affordable but that’s pretty much the only positive thing I can say about this lens.

I’ve decided not to keep my Voigtlander 28/2 ASPH, only because I already have a Q2 which is a more practical solution for me. Nonetheless, this is one of the most impressive lenses I’ve ever used, and I’m delighted to have tried it. If Leica one day releases a digital body with a 0.58x finder, I will buy one in a heartbeat with a Voigtlander 28/2 to go with it.

Good
Image quality
Build quality
Size and feel
Price
0.5m focus distance

Bad
None

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Other alternatives (not recommended)

Zeiss 28/2.8 Biogon
Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit ASPH
These lenses aren’t bad but they’re more expensive than the Voigtlander 28/2 ASPH despite being one stop slower and having worse performance.

Voigtlander Ultron 28mm f/2 (pre-ASPH)
I’ve never used this lens. Although it offers an f/2 aperture and a very reasonable price, by all accounts it has significantly compromised image quality. In particular, it’s known to have very blurry corners at f/2.

Additional reading

Fred Miranda’s review
BastianK’s review
Comparison vs 28 Summicron V2 by Fred Miranda
Comparison vs 28 Summicron V2 by Benj Haisch

More sample photos