Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR L 75mm F2.5

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Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR L 75mm F2.5

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

Table of contents

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Gallery

  • Photo example with EPSON R-D1

Review

  1. Overview
  2. Usability
  3. Summary
Before imageAfter image

1．Overview

The Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR L 75mm f/2.5 is a Voigtlander-branded L39 screw-mount medium telephoto lens released by Cosina in 1999.

Main specifications are as follows, with details listed in the specifications section.

  • Aperture: F2.5
  • Lens Construction: 6 elements in 5 groups
  • Aperture Blades: 10
  • Minimum Focus: 1.0m
  • Leica M Rangefinder Camera Rangefinder Coupling: 1.0m
  • Hood: Dedicated screw-on hood
  • Filter Diameter: 43mm
  • Lens Color Options: Silver and Black

2．Usability

The Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR L 75mm F2.5 is not particularly bright with a maximum aperture of f/2.5, so image quality is stable even at full aperture, as evidenced by the depiction of the cat’s fur and the foreground and background bokeh.

The sample image was taken with an Epson R-D1 with an APS-C sensor, and the peripheral edges have been cropped. The actual focal length of 75mm is equivalent to 112.5mm in 35mm format.

When the Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR SL 75mm F2.5, which has the same lens configuration and is designed for SLR cameras, was used with a camera with a 35mm full-frame sensor, there was not much distortion at the edges, suggesting the same is true for the rangefinder version of this lens.

Medium telephoto lenses for rangefinder cameras are generally unpopular, and the used price of this lens is low. Medium telephoto lenses for rangefinder cameras have a minimum focusing distance of 1m, making them inferior to their close-up counterparts. However, some mount adapters for mirrorless cameras are equipped with auxiliary helicoids, which can be used to compensate for the lack of a minimum focusing distance.

3．Summary

In conclusion, to sum up the Voigtlander COLOR HELIAR L 75mm F2.5 is a lens that produces stable images even at wide open apertures, and there are generally no issues with focusing when using the Epson R-D1’s 1:1 viewfinder. The focal length is 112.5mm in 35mm format, which makes close-up photography difficult due to the significant effects of parallax.

When using with a mirrorless camera, the shortcomings of the minimum focusing distance can be overcome by using a mount adapter equipped with an auxiliary helicoid.

Specifications, considerations, etc.

The Color Heliar name was used for the Color Heliar 105mm f/3.5, one of the lenses included with the Bessa II 6×9 film camera released by the former Voigtländer. However, its focal length is 46mm in 35mm format, which doesn’t seem related to 75mm, nor are its maximum aperture values ​​close enough.

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

The Voigtländer COLOR HELIAR SL 75mm f/2.5, which uses the same lens construction and is designed for SLR cameras, has a minimum focusing distance of 0.7m, which is closer than the 1m of this lens.

In addition to the Color Heliar introduced above, Cosina’s Voigtländer series includes three other 75mm lenses. The Portrait HELIAR 75mm was added in 2025. This lens has the same lens construction as the HELIAR Classic 75mm, but adds a spherical aberration control ring. This mechanism is similar to the aberration control feature introduced in the VARIO PETZ, released by Ms-Optics around 2018, and allows for the control of blur by adjusting aberrations. Ms-Optics offers this feature on the following lenses:

The HELIAR Classic has a lens construction of six elements in three groups, retaining the resemblance to the HELIAR, an advanced triplet lens. The old Voigtländer Heliar had 5 elements in 3 groups with a single middle lens.

The names of the two newer lenses are unrelated to their lens construction, and appear to be named after their similar or identical maximum apertures, revealing that Cosina is using the names as brand names, ignoring the focal length.

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

Looking at Cosina/Voigtländer lenses as a whole, the Ultron is used with maximum apertures between F1.7 and F2, and the Nokton with maximum apertures between F1.5 and F1.

ItemsCOLOR HELIARHELIAR ClasicULTRONNOKTON
ManufacturerVoigtlanderVoigtlanderVoigtlanderVoigtlander
Focal length(mm)75←←←
Max aperture2.41.81.91.5
Min aperture16←←←
Aperture blade10←←12
Lens Construction6elements in 5groups6elements in 3groups7elements in 5groups7elements in 6groups
Min distance(m)1.00.90.50.7
Lens length(mm)64.5
(Include hood)		7456.863.3
Lens Max diameter(mm)55.55854.162.8
Filter Size(mm)43524958
Lens MountL39VM←←
Weight(g)230427290350
Production numbers?←←←
Release date199920102023.1.162019.7
Price(Yen/No-tax)¥50,000(Sv)
¥53,000(Bl)		¥75,000-¥100,000-¥125,000-
*1:数値はLEICA WIKIより転載

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Update history

  • 2025.8.24
  • 2024.12.13

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