Dan Kerin

 Voigtlander 21mm F/3.5 Color Skopar ASPH II

Voigtlander have always offered, in my opinion the best value for money third party Leica lenses. In recent years I have moved to Leica glass however, Voigtlander always has a special place in my heart, as it was with these lenses I began my journey with Leica. Since adding the Leica 21mm f3.4 Super Angulon to my personal collection, when I had the opportunity to use this modern 21mm I took the chance. While Voigtlander has had a 21mm f4 for some time this 21mm f3.5 is part of a new range of lenses released in 2021. The lens is available in both chrome and black (type 2) and also a ‘classic’ design (type 1). While the lens I am testing is the type 2 optically they are the same and I think that this is a great choice Voigtlander has made giving customers flexibility in how the lens looks on their camera.

Being a modern lens it is a fairly complicated design having 9 elements in 8 groups, one of which is an aspherical lens and the other a abnormal partial dispersion lens. This in theory should yield perfectly corrected results which older lenses struggled with. This is why historically wide angel lenses would cost more to produce. The lens measures 52mm x 30mm and only weighs 180g, making it a great everyday carry lens. In addition to this the lens has a 39mm filter thread which is great, as I have a large collection of 39mm filters. It’s great that Voigtlander has chosen to use the ‘standard’ Leica filter thread where possible. This may be important especially if you are looking to incorporate these lenses into your Leica collection and already have a bunch of filters.

After shooting with this lens for a little while it’s a great little performer. The lens balances nicely on the Leica M camera and doesn’t make the camera feel unbalanced or overly heavy. Although this lens is only has a maximum aperture of f3.5 I didn’t really find myself having any problems with this. When shooting I went out knowing the limitations of the lens and working around them. Even at f3.5 I found the lens to be sharp and perform nicely. This should be a given as it’s a modern aspherical lens design so I wouldn’t expect to see any of the ‘Leica glow’ found when shooting wide open on older Leica lenses. Overall I would say this lens is a great value for money ultra-wide angle lens. While there are other options from Leica and Zeiss and even the older Voigtlander 21mm f1.4 Nokton, unless you are shooting 21mm a lot or need the extra couple of shots for low light shooting I would say go for the f3.5 Color Skopar ASPH.