First Voigtlander 1.4/35 FE review by Phillip Reeve: “this lens is in no way competitive to modern designs”

Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 FE lens is in Stock for the very first time via BHphoto.

Phillip Reeve is the first review testing the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 FE lens. And his findings so far are very disappointing:

“With the “classic” in the name and based on what I have seen from the M-mount version my expectations were rather low. As it seems so far for good reasons: this lens is in no way competitive to modern designs. Sharpness is anything but great, corners never reach the quality of most other primes and many aberrations like Coma or Astigmatism are not well corrected.
So for now I think this is a lens mostly for people who just like the look of the harsh and nervous bokeh, but still want to enjoy some modern features like Exif data and decent coatings or do not want to get into adapting legacy lenses.”

I do own the older 35mm f/1.4 M-mount lens and indeed it doesn’t perform that well. But still, if you need speed and a compact lens this new 35mm FE will do the job.