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Review: Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar (Sony E-mount)

Posted on March 4, 2019August 29, 2019 by Jordan Steele

Contents

  • 1Construction and Handling
  • 2Image Quality
  • 3Conclusion
  • 4Image Samples

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

Click on an image to enlarge.

Columbus before Sunrise – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/9, 20s, ISO 100
Roses for the Remembered, Hayden Run Falls – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/16, 0.8s, ISO 100
Ohio Senate – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/9, 1/15s, ISO 1600
Snowy Dawn – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/11, 6s, ISO 100
Ohio Statehouse Light – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/3.5, f/15s, ISO 800
Columbus Railroad – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/11, 1/80s, ISO 100
Columbus, OH – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/11, 1/25s, ISO 100
Morning Flags – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/8, 15s, ISO 100
Cold Morning – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/13, 1/2s, ISO 100
Winter Sunrise (note the lack of flare compared to the similar composition on the previous page) – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/14, 1/1250s, ISO 100
Snow on the Rocks – Sony A7 III with Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar @ f/16, 8s, ISO 100
If you enjoyed this review, please check out my other reviews in the Review Index
Pages: 1 2 3

11 thoughts on “Review: Voigtländer 21mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar (Sony E-mount)”

  1. Øyvind Holmstad says:
    March 5, 2019 at 8:32 am

    Wow! I only have the Tamron 28-75 mm for my a7III. This lens will be my next one. Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Scott says:
    March 6, 2019 at 5:52 am

    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.

    Reply
    1. Jordan Steele says:
      March 6, 2019 at 6:05 am

      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.

      Reply
    2. Jordan Steele says:
      March 6, 2019 at 6:06 am

      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.

      Reply
      1. Anonymous says:
        March 7, 2019 at 6:04 am

        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?

        Reply
        1. Jordan Steele says:
          March 7, 2019 at 7:37 am

          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.

          Reply
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  5. Yu says:
    May 9, 2019 at 10:37 pm

    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?

    Reply
  6. Rich says:
    October 22, 2019 at 2:33 pm

    I have one of these and love it.

    Reply
  7. Ernst says:
    November 5, 2019 at 10:11 am

    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.

    Reply

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