Voigtlander APO LANTHAR SL 180mm F4
Review and Photo example of the Voigtlander APO LANTHAR SL 180mm F4.
Table of contents
Gallery
- The examples were taken with the SIGMA SD9
Review
Voigtlander APO LANTHAR 180mm is a compact telephoto lens.
The focal length of 180mm was the longest focal length among all Cosina Voigtlander lenses, but as of 2024, the Voigtlander lens lineup only has focal lengths up to 90mm. The Zeiss brand only has long focal lengths up to 135mm, and Cosina seems to have completely abandoned the telephoto market.
It has a compact lens barrel for a 180mm lens, and when at infinity, the overall length is shorter than the Macro APO LANTHAR 125mm, making it highly portable.
It is a little difficult to operate, as the focus ring is placed closer to the lens mount than the 125mm, and the heavy lens is placed in front of the lens barrel, so the weight balance during shooting is not good. When focusing, I only had to put my finger on the silver ring at the base, and used it to extend it out across the entire lens barrel.
I owned the M42 mount version of this lens, but sold it before I could use it on a full-frame sensor camera, so I only have the SD9 example, which has a focal length of 1.7x. The image taken with the SD9 was excellent in the center, and there were no problems with backlight resistance. Another strength of this lens is that it allows you to get close to the subject with a minimum focusing distance of 1.2m. Leica’s APO TELYT has a minimum focusing distance of 2.5m, so it was frustrating not being able to get closer to the subject by about two steps with the lens alone.
This lens is manufactured in small numbers, so it maintains a reasonable price level even on the used market. The round hood (LH-75S) and square hood (LH-75) are common to Color Helier 75mm, Apporantor 90mm, and Apporantor 180mm. The LH-75 with the crepe finish has a nice texture and can be found on the used market for around 10,000 yen, so I think the price difference depending on the hood included is large.
The following seven SL lenses were released around the same time as this lens.
- Ultra Wide Helier 12mm (for mirror up only)
- Super Wide Helier 15mm (for mirror up only)
- Ultron 40mm
- COLOR HELIAR 75mm
- APO LANTHAR 90mm
- Macro APO LANTHAR 125mm
- APO LANTHAR 180mm
Specification
- The following is a list of early COSINA / Voigtlander brand lenses for SLR cameras. Two lenses, 15mm and 12mm, are excluded from the table below because they are special lenses that are used with the mirror up.
| Items | ULTRON | COLOR HELIAR | APO LANTHAR | Macro APO LANTHAR | APO LANTHAR |
| Focal length(mm) | 40 | 75 | 90 | 125 | 180 |
| Max aperture | 2 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 4 |
| Min aperture | 16 | 22 | ← | ← | ← |
| Leaf blade | 9 | ← | ← | ← | ← |
| Lens Construction | 5群6枚 | ← | ← | 9群11枚 | 7群9枚 |
| Min distance(m) | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.38 | 1.2 |
| Lens length(mm) | 29.5(Ais) | 40.2(Ais) | 57.6(Ais) | 88.2(Ais) | 79(Ais) |
| Max diameter(mm) | 63.5 | ← | ← | 76 | 65.6 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 52 | 49 | ← | 58 | 49 |
| Weight(g) | 255 | 250 | 390 | 690 | 485 |
| Release date | 2002.05 | 2000.07 | 2002.03 | 2001.06 | 2003.08 |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | ¥45,000 | ¥50,000 | ¥55,000 | ¥95,000 | ¥65,000 |
Reference links
Update history
- 2024.03.28:modified article
- 2023.11.08:firest post
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