Voigtlander ULTRON VM 28mm F2
Review of the Voigtlander Ultron 28mm f/2 used with a Leica M digital camera.
Table of contents
Gallery
- Photo with LEICA M9
Review
1．Overview
The Ultron 28mm F2 is a VM mount wide-angle lens released by Cosina Voigtlander in 2008.
The lens is made up of 10 elements in 8 groups, and the minimum shooting distance is 0.7m.
The lens mount is a Leica M-compatible VM mount, and it works with the rangefinder of a rangefinder camera up to 0.7m. The filter diameter is 46mm, and is screwed onto the front of the lens.
2．Usability
The second Ultron has completely changed the lens configuration, abandoning the aspherical lens used in the first model and adopting a spherical lens + anomalous dispersion glass. The maximum aperture is now a nice round number at F2, and compared to the first model, it has a more compact lens barrel.
When attached to the LEICA M9, it is just the right size, and there are no problems with carrying it around or taking pictures.
The focus knob has a large, bifurcated shape, and the focus ring rotates smoothly, so there were no problems with usability.
When I used it with the M9, I was bothered by the noisy front and back blur when taking close-up shots with the aperture open. The noisiness of the blur is reduced when narrowing the aperture, but I’m not happy about this because it diminishes the meaning of the bright lens.
As for the image quality, the impression may have been different when using the LEICA M8 with an APS-H size sensor, where the peripheral areas are cropped, or the EPSON R-D1 with an APS-C size sensor.
3．Summary
In conclusion, to sum up the ULTRON 28mm F2, it is a lens whose existence has been diminished by the ULTRON 28mm F2 Vintage Line released in 2021. The lens released in 2021 uses an aspherical lens and has a short and compact lens length of 36mm without the hood. The image quality is not inferior to the old lens, so there is little point in buying the old ULTRON 28mm.
Specification and Competitor
- The lens construction diagrams are quoted from each company’s materials, and the sizes have been adjusted by us, so they are not exact.
The second-generation ULTRON, released in 2008, is a relatively large lens with a total length of 50mm, lens diameter of 55mm, and filter diameter of 46mm when the hood is attached.
The LEICA SUMMICRON 28mm F2 ASPH., which has the same specifications, uses an aspherical lens and has a relatively compact lens barrel. The comparison diagram shows the ULTRO with a hood and the SUMMICRON without a hood, so when the SUMMICRON is equipped with a large square hood, it becomes larger than the ULTRON.
The lens manual is available on the Cosina website, but as of 2024, the lens introduction page, including the lens configuration diagram, is no longer available. The Internet Archive has past Voigtlander pages, where you can see official product information.
In addition, three lenses have been released in the Voigtlander ULTRON 28mm series, the first of which used an aspherical lens, the second generation of this lens returned to a spherical lens, and the third generation uses an aspherical lens, making it an interesting lens series that incorporates many of Cosina’s experimental elements.
| Items | 2nd Ultron | Summicron 28mm ASPH. |
| Aspherical lens | No use | Use |
| Focal length(mm) | 28 | 28 |
| Max aperture | 2 | 2 |
| Min aperture | 16 | 16 |
| Leaf blade | 10 | 10 |
| Lens Construction | 10elements 8groups | 9elements 6groups |
| Min distance(m) (distance meter linked) | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Lens length(mm) | 51.2(with hood) | 40.8(without hood) |
| Max diameter(mm) | 55 | 53 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 46 | 46 |
| Weight(g) | 244 | 270 |
| Release date | 2008.8.5 | 2000. |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | 75,000(Black) | – |
Reference links
- Cosina official website, Lens Manual
- Cosina Lens Catalog 2023
- Leica Lenses of the World Part4 There is an introductory article on p. 70 in the Japanese book.
Update history
- 2024.04.22
- 2023.09.24
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