Updated November 2022

Introduction

The Voigtlander APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8 is an exciting lens because there aren’t many options for 90mm in M mount. Leica offers the 90/2 APO Summicron, which is a great lens but quite large, heavy, and expensive for those who don’t need their telephoto lens to have an f/2 aperture.

Other 90mm options are limited. The Leica 90/4 macro looks very handy but is horribly priced at $4,095. There is also the new Leica 90 Noctilux, which has the fun quirk of costing $13,795. Other than the lenses so far mentioned, no other 90mm lenses are currently in production by Zeiss, Voigtlander, or Leica.

I’ve been wanting a new 90mm lens, and this new Voigtlander APO-Skopar seems to check all of right boxes for me: sharp, compact, and relatively affordable. Stephen Gandy at CameraQuest offered to loan me a copy for review, which I excitedly accepted.

Build quality and mechanics

This lens is all-metal and feels just as nice as any Leica lens. It includes a hood which is also all-metal and feels very nicely built. The focus and aperture rings are smooth and a pleasure to use.

Size and feel

The size, weight, and feel of this lens are superb. It feels very balanced and easy to shoot with on my M10. The focus ring has a relatively short throw (about 90 degrees) which I personally prefer.

Despite being a 90mm lens, it’s only slightly larger than the 50 Summilux ASPH:

It’s easy to tell from these pictures how compact this lens is, but it’s harder to convey just how lightweight it is as well. It’s so light, that my M10 doesn’t even tip forward with it attached. 90mm isn’t a focal length that I use a whole lot, so it’s great to be able to add it to my bag without adding too much extra weight to my shoulders.

Image quality

Distortion: I honestly didn’t bother checking. I never noticed any and I doubt there’s a significant amount.

Vignetting: Well-controlled.

Lateral chromatic aberration: Basically none.

Longitudinal chromatic aberration (spherochromatism): The APO designation is justified here, as I haven’t noticed any longitudinal CA in any of my pictures. You can see the lack of color separation in the out-of-focus highlights here:

Purple fringing: I never torture tested this lens for purple fringing, but the fact that none shows up on the following photo is a very good sign. It’s probably never something to worry about with this lens.

Bokeh/rendering: Out of focus areas are very smooth and pleasant with this lens. Transition zones also look great as the portrait below demonstrates. Just behind the focus plane there can be a bit of soap-bubble bokeh (look at the bushes in the above photo) but it’s not enough to distract me.

Sharpness, infinity:

Really good performance here. There’s a very slight amount of degradation at f/2.8 in the mid-frame and corners but I would still be comfortable shooting landscapes wide open on my 24MP M10. It sharpens up at f/5.6 but not much improvement is needed.

Sharpness, 2m:

At 2m, this lens looks sharp corner-to-corner at f/2.8. I didn’t even bother testing narrower apertures.

Sharpness, 0.9m:

Absolutely no loss of image quality in the center at minimum focusing distance. There is some contrast loss in the corners but this is of no real-world relevance.

Focus calibration

This is where the review gets … complicated.

My review copy did not focus correctly on my M10 (it frontfocused especially at longer distances). Fred Miranda states in his review that he tried three different copies, none of which were calibrated right on his M10-R. Other people have posted about similar problems on forums. Given this, many would conclude the following: Voigtlander is doing a bad job at calibrating these lenses, and they should be avoided.

However, I tried my review copy on two different M11 cameras at the Leica store, and it appeared to focus perfectly on both. This, to me, suggests another possibility: There is significant variation between camera bodies in flange distance and/or rangefinder calibration. Voigtlander is making this lens properly, but unfortunately it may or may not focus accurately on a specific camera body depending on this variation. To get even more conjectural, it could also be that the M11 is more accurately calibrated than previous models, and that’s why my lens worked well on the M11 but not my M10.

Summary and recommendations

Before going on to more general recommendations, should people even buy this lens given the aforementioned focus calibration headaches? It’s a valid question, especially given that I’m not aware of an easy process for having Voigtlander lenses re-calibrated. Leica lenses, on the other hand, can be sent to Leica’s repair department paired with a camera body, and they will ensure the camera and lens are calibrated to each other perfectly.

Here is what I recommend: buy this lens from somewhere with a free and easy return policy. Immediately test it for focusing accuracy at both near and far distances. If it doesn’t focus properly, return it. If it does, celebrate the fact that you now own what is in my opinion, the overall best 90mm lens available for M mount.

If I buy an M11 one day, I’ll definitely pick up another copy of this lens with the hope that they pair well together. The Voigtlander 90 APO combines excellent image quality with a very practical f/2.8 aperture in a delightfully small and light package. To have one of these in my kit would be a no-brainer.

Good
Excellent image quality
Size, weight, and feel
Build quality
Price

Bad
Rangefinder calibration woes

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Alternatives

Recommended:
Leica 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron M ASPH (review)
This lens is basically perfect, but I only recommend it for those who really want f/2 or are willing to use a viewfinder magnifier or EVF. The f/2 aperture makes it difficult to focus with a 0.72 viewfinder, and also adds significant size and weight.

Zeiss 85mm f/4 Tele-Tessar ZM (review)
For those who don’t need faster than f/4, this is a superb lens. It’s at least as sharp as the Voigtlander, and a similar size/weight. It’s discontinued but can be found used for a great price. The only thing I didn’t like is the frameline inaccuracy of an 85mm lens with 90mm framelines.

Leica 90mm f/2.5 Summarit-M
Leica 90mm f/2.4 Summarit-M
I haven’t tried these lenses, but others describe them a being similarly sharp and compact as the Voigtlander. They’re discontinued, more expensive, and have worse build quality (the focus ring is covered with rubber), but have the advantage that they can be calibrated by Leica if needed.

Leica 90mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M
I tried this lens many years ago and liked it. It’s significantly larger and heavier than the Voigtlander, and the image quality isn’t as excellent. It’s also discontinued and costs ~$1000 on the used market. But it’s still a well-built, well-balanced lens that makes great pictures, and can be calibrated by Leica if needed.

Not recommended:
Voigtlander 90mm f/3.5 LTM
Leica Elmar-C 90mm f/4
Minolta 90mm f/4
There are a lot of vintage, compact, modest-aperture telephoto lenses for M mount or LTM such as the three listed above. I would have a hard time recommending any of them over the Zeiss 85/4, since they have worse image quality and no real advantage other than a slight edge in price. These older lenses also tend to have lots of issues with haze and fungus.

Leica Macro-Elmar-M 90mm f/4
From what I hear, this lens offers the same image quality as the Zeiss 85/4, in an even more compact collapsible package. I’m sure it would be amazing to carry this lens around for landscapes and travel. But I’ll never know, since it costs four THOUSAND dollars retail despite having only four elements, no aspheres, and no special glass.

Leica Summilux 90mm f/1.5 ASPH
I have no doubt this lens is amazing, but it sounds incredibly awkward to use on an M body. It’s also $13,695 retail. For those who truly need such a fast telephoto lens, it would make vastly more sense to get a Canon body and the RF 85mm f/1.2.

Additional reading

Review by Fred Miranda
Review by Matt Osborne

More sample images