Conclusion
Pros
- Extremely compact lens with solid all-metal construction
- Wonderful manual focus feel and a clicky aperture ring
- Very sharp over most of the frame at wide apertures and sharp to the edges stopped down
- Excellent color and contrast
- Good control of chromatic aberration
- Produces pleasing sunstars
- Generally good flare performance
- Price
Cons
- Vignetting is fairly strong at all apertures
- Edges aren’t quite as sharp as stiffest competition
The 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar is another great entry in Voigtländer’s E-mount series of lenses. The lens is exceptionally small, yet is solidly built and has wonderful haptics. Optically, it’s a sharp lens with great color and contrast, good control of lens aberrations and a fairly reasonable price at just $699.
When compared to the Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8, the Voigtländer manages to be nearly as good at half the price and half the size and weight. The Loxia is slightly sharper and has more biting contrast, but with the huge price premium and substantial size increase, I think that for most shooters, the Voigtländer is going to be the better buy between the two lenses.
It’s an excellent lens and has earned a spot in my bag.
Image Samples
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Wow! I only have the Tamron 28-75 mm for my a7III. This lens will be my next one. Thanks!
Outstanding review. If money and size were no object, would you choose the 24MM f1.4 G Master over the Color-Skopar? You’d of course lose a negligible amount of focal length but gain quite a bit of speed and auto focus.
For what I use it for, no. I use the Voigtlander for a very small ultra wide to carry with my A7III when I want to travel light (or just sometimes for the heck of it). While the 24GM is also pretty compact and likely the better lens (I haven’t tested it though), it doesn’t fit the bill for a super small lens to put in a tiny bag with a couple other super small lenses. My ‘small’ FF kit is the 21/3.5, 40/1.2 and Contax G 90/2.8. small, light and all very high quality.
But now I see if ‘size’ we’re no object. That does make it tougher, and would probably push me to the GM. I prefer 21 to 24, but 24 is good too.
Thank you, that makes sense, I may consider having a “small” kit myself. A little off topic but germane given the Color-Skopar is manual focus; I’m finding focus peaking on the A7III and A7RIII to be rather unreliable at close focus distances. AF-C is spot on but the peaking not so much. Is there a tip or trick I’m missing?
When using manual focus, peaking just gets you close. It won’t be good for critical focus at very shallow depth of field. I turn on auto magnify and focus while magnified, which easily allows me to put focus right where I want it.
Thanks for the great review. Ever tried it on A6x00? I am thinking of buying it for my A6300 as a street photography lens. Would be my first time to use manual lens on it. When it comes to focusing, does auto magnification work? Also does the EXIF information gets recorded?
I have one of these and love it.
Thanks for great review. This f3,5/21mm will complete my compact, lightweight and high quality four lens set with Zeiss f2,8/35mm Sonnar, Zeiss f1,8/55mm Sonnar and Sony f1,8/85mm FE.