Introduction

In 2013, Leica released the extremely high-quality 50mm Summicron APO ASPH in order to meet the demands of increasingly high resolution sensors. While that lens is undoubtedly incredible, it retails for $8995. In 2019, Voigtlander released its 50mm f/2 APO-Lanthar for Sony E mount, a lens of similar performance but for only $1049. It’s been very popular due to its perfect image quality and compact size. And now in 2021, Voigtlander finally has released an M-mount version. It uses four aspherical elements and a floating group to achieve extreme image quality, and is advertised as the highest performance normal lens that Voigtlander has ever made. Understandably, it’s one of the most highly-anticipated M mount lenses to ever be released.

If you’d like to save the time of reading through this whole review, I’ll tell you right now that the Voigtlander 50/2 APO fulfills all expectations. It’s optically perfect yet with a reasonable size and weight. At $999, it probably represents the highest performance-to-cost ratio of any M lens.

In this review, I’ll be comparing it to the Zeiss 50/2 Planar ZM. Most people are probably thinking a comparison to the Leica 50 APO would be more appropriate, but that sounds uninteresting as it would be comparing two essentially perfect lenses. Also, I don’t have $8995 to buy one. If you’d like to see a comparison, check out Steve Huff’s side-by-side. From his comparison, it seems the Voigtlander is slightly shorter in true focal length and has more vignetting, but otherwise the lenses perform the same. The Leica is marginally smaller, has a built-in hood, and uses a focus tab.

The Zeiss 50/2 Planar seems like an interesting comparison because it represents the highest image quality previously available in this price range. I anticipate many people will be deciding between these two lenses. Also, the Zeiss Planar is almost identical to the Leica 50 Summicron non-APO, so you get to compare the Voigtlander APO to that lens by proxy.

Build quality

With all-metal construction, the Voigtlander APO feels just as nice as a Leica. My only minor complaint is the hood’s bayonet attachment isn’t rock solid like Leica’s screw-on hoods and has some play in it:

Size and ergonomics

The Voigtlander APO is somewhat larger than the Zeiss Planar but not by that much. It’s still a reasonable size for a rangefinder lens, which is surprising considering that this lens wasn’t even designed for rangefinders originally.

Ergonomics are great, and the focus and aperture rings feel fantastic. The focus ring is very smooth with light resistance, with a focus throw of exactly 90 degrees. There is no focus bump or tab.

Viewfinder blockage

There is minor viewfinder blockage.

Image quality

Distortion: The Voigtlander APO has minimal/none, and the Zeiss Planar has slight barrel distortion. Neither lens has enough distortion to bother me.

Vignetting: The Voigtlander has stronger vignetting, but neither lens has excessive vignetting wide-open. It also looks like the Voigtlander has slightly less light transmission than the Zeiss.

Lateral chromatic aberration: Both lenses have no visible lateral chromatic aberration.

Bokeh / longitudinal chromatic aberration: I rarely do controlled tests for bokeh, but since we’re dealing with an apochromatic lens, I figured a comparison with the Zeiss Planar would be interesting.

I can definitely see some magenta/green bokeh fringing in the Zeiss’s background blur, which is nearly absent in the Voigtlander due to its apochromatic design. Otherwise, they’re very similar and both lenses have pleasing foreground and background blur.

As a 50mm f/2 lens, the Voigtlander is able to create beautifully blurred backgrounds. From a bokeh perspective, I see no strong reason to go for a 50/1.4. Here’s some samples from the Voigtlander shot wide-open:

Typical for such a highly-corrected lens, the Voigtlander’s bokeh is very smooth and modern.

Purple fringing:
A very demanding test for even the best lenses is looking for purple fringing in bright, out-of-focus areas, especially in the periphery:

Both lenses have some purple fringing, but neither has enough to be a real issue, in my opinion.

Sharpness, infinity:

The Voigtlander APO is perfect even in the corners, whereas the Zeiss is a little hazy/soft in the edges and corners at f/2. I didn’t bother showing tests at other apertures, but the Zeiss become perfect into the corners by around f/2.8-f/4. In summary, the Voigtlander APO is clearly the superior lens, but f/2 edge sharpness rarely matters unless you’re doing landscapes in the dark.

The Voigtlander’s performance is so perfect, it can feel unusual to shoot with it. I would normally never shoot landscapes wide-open, but I took the following picture at f/2 just because I could. It’s flawless corner-to-corner.

Sharpness, mid-distance (2m):

The Voigtlander APO is again perfect in all conditions. The Zeiss Planar is sharp in the center, a tiny bit less sharp in the mid-frame, and smeared in the edges and corners.

Sharpness, minimum distance (0.7m):

Both lenses perform well here, although the Zeiss Planar has a little less microcontrast at f/2. I also tested these lenses for focus shift and didn’t see anything significant.

Just for fun, I put the Voigtlander APO through the toughest test I can think of: extreme corner sharpness at 0.7m and f/2. Amazingly, it’s still sharp under these conditions:

Here’s a real-world example of the Voigtlander’s performance at minimum focus distance:

Field curvature: Field curvature often becomes most noticeable for landscapes, so for this test I found a flat field of trees and focused on the center:

Both lenses have a completely flat focus field. Although I’m only showing the results at far distances, I repeated this test at close distances and again found flat fields for both lenses.

Summary and recommendations

The Voigtlander 50/2 APO-Lanthar makes me feel spoiled. Previously, the sharpest 50mm lenses in this price range were the Zeiss Planar and Leica Summicron non-APO. Those lenses are both fantastic and leave almost nothing to be desired. Yet, the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar blows them out of the water in performance and barely costs more than the Planar. I’m definitely keeping mine for a very long time and I’m excited for all the images I’ll make with it.

There are a couple of alternatives to consider. The first is the Leica 50 Summicron APO. It’s a remarkable lens in that it performs similarly to the Voigtlander APO yet is a tad smaller and even has a built-in hood. But the price difference is currently $999 vs $8995, so I’m not sure how anyone could justify buying a Leica 50 APO. A more sensible alternative is the Zeiss 50/2 Planar (review), which offers fantastic image quality with a slightly better size and weight than the Voigtlander APO. Its main disadvantage is edge/corner performance at f/2, which for most people is completely irrelevant. I think it’s a close call between the two, and it will ultimately be a personal preference whether compactness or extreme performance are a higher priority. The Leica 50 Summicron, non-APO (review) is almost identical to the Zeiss Planar and is also a good choice if you are willing to pay more for the Leica mechanics and design, which also includes a built-in hood.

If you want a wider aperture than f/2, strongly consider the Voigtlander 50/1.5 II (review), the Leica 50 Summilux ASPH (review), and the Voigtlander 50/1.2.

Good
Insane image quality
Build quality
Size and ergonomics
Price

Bad
Slightly larger than other 50/2 options

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Other alternatives (not recommended)

Voigtlander 50mm f/3.5 Heliar
This lens offers optical perfection with a fairly limited f/3.5 aperture in a tiny but odd-looking package. For a similar price you can just get the Zeiss 50/2 Planar, so I’m not sure who this lens is for.

Zeiss 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar
Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 Heliar
These lenses use vintage optical designs and should only be used by those who intentionally want soft, dreamy images with lots of aberrations. They also have very strong focus shift, which makes them a pain to use on rangefinders.