{"id":9535,"date":"2019-10-20T14:31:22","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T19:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=9535"},"modified":"2024-09-05T16:31:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T21:31:50","slug":"review-voigtlander-12mm-f-5-6-ultra-wide-heliar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-voigtlander-12mm-f-5-6-ultra-wide-heliar\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cosina, the manufacturer behind the modern Voigtl\u00e4nder brand, has been producing outstanding optics for the Sony E-mount for the last several years. I’ve reviewed several of these lenses, and have been regularly impressed.  Voigtl\u00e4nder has managed to produce high-end manual focus lenses that rival the very well received Zeiss Loxia line in many ways for far less money, while providing some unique options as well.  Among those unique lenses are their extreme wide-angle lenses, such as the 10mm f\/5.6<\/a>, which I reviewed two years ago, and today’s reviewed lens, the 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra-Wide Heliar III on the Sony A7 III<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you can tell from the Mark III designation, Voigtl\u00e4nder has been making a version of the 12mm lens for quite some time, and the Mark III version was created for the sensor glass characteristics of the Sony E-Mount cameras.  While I think the 12mm focal length is a fantastic option, falling between the absolutely extreme 10mm lens and their more typical 15mm ultra-wide, for some reason Voigtl\u00e4nder has recently discontinued this lens.  Some may say that there’s little point in reviewing a lens that is discontinued, but I disagree.  This lens will still be available used for some time, and I think it’s a great option for those looking to get an extreme ultra-wide without the size and cost of something like Sony’s 12-24mm f\/4<\/a>.  I picked up this copy of the 12mm f\/5.6 when it was on clearance for $750 new. It originally retailed for $999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 is, like all the Voigtl\u00e4nder lenses, a tightly constructed lens that is entirely metal and glass.  The lens is very compact for an extreme ultra-wide lens, but carries a fair bit of heft for its size.  At 283 grams, it’s not a heavy lens by any means, but it is dense, and feels extremely solid in the hand.  If you’ve handled the wider Voigtl\u00e4nder 10mm f\/5.6, the 12mm looks almost identical, but is slightly shorter in length and slightly lighter. The lens is roughly the same diameter as the Sony lens mount, so it doesn’t impinge on your fingers while shooting. The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm is too wide to be able to take standard screw-in filters, and the front element protrudes a fair bit.  As a result, the 12mm f\/5.6 has a permanent lens hood that is part of the lens barrel.  The metal petals of the hood are thick and well constructed, and provide some minor shading of the front element and some physical protection as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The front of the Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lens has the standard Voigtl\u00e4nder scalloped focus ring, which is nicely damped and takes approximately 90 degrees to move from the closest focusing distance of 0.3m to infinity.  The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm is an all-manual affair, but for landscape or architectural use, I found that leaving the focus set to around 1.5m and stopping down to f\/8 or f\/11 yielded images that were well in focus from near to far and provides optimal sharpness for most situations, even on objects at infinity.  Only when focusing on particularly close objects is there any need to really fiddle with the focus.  Even wide open at f\/5.6, the lens hyperfocal distance is around 1m, so reasonable sharpness is available at that setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 with its push-on lens cap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The front aperture ring is finely ribbed on about 80% of the ring, allowing for easy turning.  The aperture ring is heavily damped, with small detents every 1\/3 stop.  The detents aren’t particularly stiff, but the heavy damping prevents accidental changing of the diaphragm.  Like many other Voigtl\u00e4nder lenses, the 12mm f\/5.6 has the ability to turn off the aperture detents entirely if desired by pulling the click control ring (located between the focus ring and aperture ring) towards the front of the lens, and rotating it 180 degrees clockwise.  This ring can stick a bit if you haven’t used it for some time, but then rotates smoothly once unlocked.  The lens comes with a metal push-on lens cap that is felt lined.  The cap fits over the metal lens hood petals and has stayed in place nicely in the several months I’ve owned the lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using an Extreme Ultra-Wide Lens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I reviewed the Voigtl\u00e4nder 10mm lens, I noted how the extreme width can tend to pose compositional challenges, and many of the challenges in using that lens are evident with a 12mm lens as well, though to a lesser degree.  12mm is still quite an extreme focal length, and indeed was the widest that rectilinear lenses went until very recently, when Canon first pushed things to 11mm in 2015, and Voigtl\u00e4nder followed at 10mm about a year later.  So while wider options exist, 12mm is still an insanely wide lens.  Converging verticals can appear with just the slightest tilt of the lens, and you must be careful about the framing of your shot to ensure that unwanted elements are not intruding into the frame at the edges.  It takes a careful eye and some compositional patience to work with a lens this wide.  However, I’ve found that 12mm to fill a wonderful gap between the true crazy width of the 10mm Voigtl\u00e4nder and the starting point of most ultra-wide angle zoom lenses at 16 or 17mm.   Despite the numerical focal length falling closer to 10mm than to 16mm, you’ll see in the image below that the Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm falls almost squarely between 10mm and 16mm in angle of view. As a result, the 12mm focal length is still notably wider than most ultra-wide zoom lenses, but is easier to work with than something as wide as a 10mm lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wide-angle Fields of View, 10mm through 28mm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Extreme ultra-wide lenses can be difficult to design for, and generally there are compromises to be made.  This is especially true in a lens as compact as the 12mm f\/5.6.  However, I think Voigtl\u00e4nder has done a great job balancing image quality with this lens, and overall image quality is on a high level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Extremely wide-angle lenses tend to have some difficulty maintaining strong sharpness to the corners, and the Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm also fails to be truly sharp corner to corner.  However, I think that the 12mm f\/5.6 does a very good job, especially considering the compact size.  The lens is very sharp across about 80% of the image frame from f\/5.6.  Wide open, the edges and corners are soft.  Stopping down to f\/8 or f\/11 brings the edges into good territory, and even the corners can be OK here, though there is some residual softness.  In some circumstances, the corners can have a bit of a smeared look as well, but I have found this to not be particularly problematic for my shooting.  There seems to be some field curvature as well, so I’ve noticed corners tend to be notably sharper when shooting interiors than shooting sweeping landscapes. Still, the 12mm does get sharper than its 10mm brother in the corners, and provides plenty of resolution for my use across the frame.  The shot below was taken at f\/8.  Click here<\/a> for a full size image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Huntington Building – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 @ f\/8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Wait, bokeh on a 12mm f\/5.6 lens?  Yeah, there really isn’t much to talk about here.  While there is the ability to slightly blur distant backgrounds when shooting at or near the 12mm’s minimum focus distance, there isn’t much blur to speak of, and certainly not enough to really discuss to quality of that blur in-depth.  Out of focus areas look fine, I suppose, but no one is going to buy this lens for bokeh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One of Voigtl\u00e4nder’s strengths is creating lenses with beautiful color and a lovely contrast profile that features relatively high macro contrast, with lower microcontrast, providing lots of pop without being overbearing.  The result is a lovely look that features smooth tonal transitions without compromising overall image contrast.  The 12mm follows these characteristics to a tee.  I simply love the way my Voigtl\u00e4nder lenses draw for landscape and city shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Side Falls, Hocking Hills – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra-Wide Heliar @ f\/13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lateral chromatic aberration is surprisingly well controlled.  There is a slight touch of it visible at the edges without correction, but it’s barely field relevant.  A surprisingly good performance here.  There isn’t much longitudinal CA to speak of because the depth of field is so deep.  However, bright edges have a small amount of purple fringing in very high contrast situations.  Overall, the control of color aberrations with the lens is very good for a lens this wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Here we reach some of the weaker points with the lens.  The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm shows moderately strong barrel distortion that is slightly complex, so application of the lens profile in Lightroom or Capture one will be necessary for architecture shooting.  The lens also has very pronounced vignetting as a result of the compact nature of the lens.  I generally like a bit of vignetting with my lenses, but the Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm even causes me to click that ‘apply profile’ button and remove much of it in post processing.  As a result, the corners will have a bit more noise due to the shadows being lifted.  The shot below shows both of these aberrations in their uncorrected state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Huntington Bank Building – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra-Wide Heliar @ f\/8 (distortion and vignetting uncorrected)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After applying the distortion and vignetting profile in Lightroom, both of these are largely corrected, as can be seen below.  The only difference between the shot above and below is the checking of the ‘apply lens profile’ box in Lightroom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Huntington Bank Building – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra-Wide Heliar @ f\/8 (distortion and vignetting corrected)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 does perform quite well against bright light, however, with minimal ghosting and very good contrast.  This is good since with such a wide-angle lens, the sun will often make its way into compositions, as can be seen in several of the sample images on the next page.  The shot below, of course, features the sun quite prominently.  Also worth noting is that like most Voigtl\u00e4nder lenses, the straight bladed diaphragm creates prominent 10 pointed sun stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Log in the Forest – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 Ultra-Wide Heliar @ f\/11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In all, the Voigtl\u00e4nder 12mm f\/5.6 is an imperfect lens, as most extreme ultra-wide lenses are.  However, given the compact size, generally good sharpness, excellent contrast and color and good flare performance, I’ve been overall quite pleased with the image quality of the lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/h4>\n\n\n\n