Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR L 75mm F2.5

Reissue of Voigtlander medium telephoto lens

A review and photo examples of the Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR 75mm.

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Gallery

Photo example with EPSON R-D1

1．Overview

The Color Heliar L 75mm F2.5 is a Voigtlander brand L39 screw-mount medium telephoto lens released by Cosina in 1999.

The lens consists of 6 elements in 5 groups, has a minimum shooting distance of 1.0m, and is linked to the Leica M rangefinder.
The filter diameter is 43mm, and the total length of the lens is approximately 64.5mm from the mount surface to the tip of the hood.

2．Usage

With an aperture setting of f/2.4, it is not particularly bright, so rendering is stable even at full aperture, which can be seen in the rendering of the cat’s fur and the foreground and background bokeh.

This is partly due to the fact that the example photo was taken with an Epson R-D1 with an APS-C size sensor, and the example image has been cropped at the edges.
Unfortunately, I have not used it with a 35mm full-size sensor so I cannot evaluate the edges.

Cosina Voigtlander lenses from the early 2000s suffer from balsam separation at the lens joint, and many are cloudy, so it is necessary to check when purchasing. Depending on the degree of cloudiness, in many cases there is no problem in direct light, so depending on the price it could be a good choice.

3．Add info.

The Color Heliar 75mm for SLR cameras has also been released with the same lens configuration, and the minimum shooting distance of the SLR lens is 0.7m, which is closer than the 1m of this lens.

The Color Heliar name was used for the Color Heliar 105mm F3.5, one of the lenses that came with the Bessa II 6×9 film camera released by the former Voigtlander. However, the focal length is 46mm in 35mm format, which is not related to 75mm, and the maximum aperture F value is not close either.

The lens configuration is also not Heliar type, and Cosina/Voigtlander only used the Color Heliar name for two lenses with a focal length of 75mm.

In addition to the Color Heliar introduced above, Cosina’s Voigtlander series has released three lenses with a focal length of 75mm.

The Heliar Classic has a lens configuration of 6 elements in 3 groups, and retains the appearance of the Heliar, which is an advanced version of the triplet. The old Voigtlander Heliar had 5 elements in 3 groups with one lens in the middle.

The two new lenses have no relation to their lens construction and names, but they seem to be named after their similar or identical maximum aperture values, and it is clear that Cosina is ignoring the focal length and using it as a brand name.

In this case, the Ultron 75mm F1.9 has a similar maximum aperture F-value to the original Ultron 50mm F2, and the Nokton 75mm F1.5 has the same maximum aperture F-value as the original Nokton 50mm F1.5.

Looking at Cosina/Voigtlander lenses as a whole, the Ultron is used with an aperture value of F1.7 to F2, and the Nokton with an aperture value of F1.5 to F1.

Specification

Items	COLOR HELIAR	HELIAR Clasic	ULTRON	NOKTON
Manufacturer	Voigtlander	Voigtlander	Voigtlander	Voigtlander
Focal length(mm)	75	←	←	←
Max aperture	2.4	1.8	1.9	1.5
Min aperture	16	←	←	←
Aperture blade	10	←	←	12
Lens Construction	6elements in 5groups	6elements in 3groups	7elements in 5groups	7elements in 6groups
Min distance(m)	1.0	0.9	0.5	0.7
Lens length(mm)	64.5 (Include hood)	74	56.8	63.3
Lens Max diameter(mm)	55.5	58	54.1	62.8
Filter Size(mm)	43	52	49	58
Lens Mount	L39	VM	←	←
Weight(g)	230	427	290	350
Production numbers	?	←	←	←
Release date	1999	2010	2023.1.16	2019.7
Price(Yen/No-tax)	¥50,000(Sv) ¥53,000(Bl)	¥75,000-	¥100,000-	¥125,000-