Voigtlander Snap Shot Skopar L 25mm F4

Review and Photo example of the Voigtlander Snap-Shot-Skopar 25mm with the EPSON R-D1.

Gallery

Photo with EPSON R-D1

Review

The Snap Shot Scoper 25mm F4 is an L39 screw mount wide-angle lens released by Cosina Voigtlander in 1999.

This lens is the only visual measurement lens among the Voigtlander L39 screw mount lenses that does not have a rangefinder linkage mechanism, and is unique because all lenses in the same series, including the wider-angle Color Scoper 21mm, are linked to a rangefinder.
Since it is an L39 screw mount lens, you will need an L-M mount adapter to use it with M mount. When using the LEICA M8’s 6-bit lens recognition function, it was necessary to select a compatible claw mount adapter. I remember that a 28-90 L-M adapter was needed to output the 24mm recognition code, which is close to 25mm, but that’s a long time ago, so I might be wrong.
Starting with the M9, you can manually enter the lens focal length, so you don’t have to do that with anything other than the LEICA M8.

However, since the focal length is 25mm, I didn’t find it too inconvenient in practical use when using a film camera. With the advent of digital technology, it became possible to enlarge the photographic results on a monitor, and sometimes it became clear that the focus was slightly out of focus. It is certain that this was due to a problem with the photographer’s visual comprehension ability.

Because the lens does not need to be linked to a rangefinder, both the list price and used price were low. If you use the viewfinder of a rangefinder camera, you will be confused because the central double-image focusing part will not move even if you operate the focus lever. The drawback of omitting the distance linkage mechanism is not a problem at all with mirrorless cameras, so some users may be using it without realizing it.

The EPSON R-D1, which was used as the base material for this lens, has a focal length of 37.5mm, which is 1.5 times the 35mm equivalent, and has a shooting range close to that of a 35mm lens, as the periphery is cropped due to the sensor size.
When I looked through the R-D1’s viewfinder, the full viewfinder frame roughly matched the shooting range of the lens, so I used it without using an external viewfinder.

I’ve seen reports that there are problems with peripheral images with full-frame lenses, but with the 1.5x R-D1, there were almost no concerns. I started becoming a lens gourmet when I bought the EPSON R-D1, and since I had the impression that LEICA was expensive, whether it was a lens or a camera (just an impression, it’s actually not that good), I started my interest in interchangeable lenses with this Voigtlander.

In April 2007, this lens was made into an M mount with a rangefinder linkage mechanism and was renewed as the Color Skoper 25mm F4P. This is better if you use it with a rangefinder camera.

Specification

Items	Snap-Shot-Skopar-L
Focal length(mm)	25
Max aperture	4
Min aperture	22
Leaf blade	10
Lens Construction	5群7枚
Min distance(m)	0.7(Distance meter not interlocked)
Lens length(mm)	29.5(L39)
Max diameter(mm)	49.5
Filter Size(mm)	39mm
Weight(g)	90
Release date	1999/2
Price(Yen/No-tax)	45,000(Silver) / 45,000(Black)