The Voigtländer 12mm 5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar is actually one of the lenses I bought a camera from the A7 series for in the first place. It is worth to mention though, I am reviewing the old M39 version here. The newer Leica M version is optically the same, although there are other differences – apart from the lens mount – which I will talk about at the end of this review.
Continue reading Review: Voigtländer 12mm 5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar
The Canon nFD 2.8/35 offers really good image quality for very little money. I think it is a very good solution for most budget oriented Sony Alpha 7 users.
This is a collection of good manual lenses which are available for less than $100, it is meant as a resource for photographers who own a Sony a7/ a7r/ a7ii/ a7rII and want to discover the world of manual lenses without breaking the bank.
To learn more about a lens please check one of my reviews or follow the linked test. You will find the average price for a copy in good condition in the description for each lens.
All links market with a * are affiliate links. If you use them I will receive a small commission on your purchase without any additional cost to you. So if you found this article helpful using them is a great way to show your support. Thanks!
You can find this article in German on phillipreeve.de.
This would be my suggestion for someone looking for a small, sharp and affordable wideangle lens to take landscape images.
Weaknesses are mustache distortion and mediocre built quality.
240g | $85 | my Review | sample images
buy from ebay* | adapters on amazon*
There are many manual lenses above 28mm which work quite well on modern cameras like the Alpha 7 but not that many wide angle lenses perform good enough on modern cameras.
The Canon nFD 2.8/24 is one of the sharpest, affordable wide angle lenses and I think it can be a good solution for budget-oriented Sony Alpha 7 users.
A German version of this review can be found on phillipreeve.de.
Classic 50mm lenses are rather small, affordable and not very good wide open. The new Zeiss Milvus 1.4/50 is very big, very expensive and very good from f/1.4.
For this review I used the Milvus on my Sony a7.
All images in this review are processed from raw unless I mention otherwise. I did nothing fancy, just a little contrast and some sharpening.
Disclosure: This copy was loaned from Zeiss at no charge.
