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Jim King | profile | all galleries >> Galleries >> Voigtländer Macro Apo-Lanthar 125mm f2.5 and Pentax SMC-A* 135mm f1.8 Lens Comparison tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Voigtländer Macro Apo-Lanthar 125mm f2.5 and Pentax SMC-A* 135mm f1.8 Lens Comparison

The images in this comparison are 300x300 pixel 100% crops from photos taken with my *ist-D. The USAF chart was about 2m from the camera; this distance was adjusted to provide about equal magnification. The brick wall was about 40m away; no adjustment was made for magnification.
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IMGP4786 V125M@f2.5.jpg
IMGP4786 V125M@f2.5.jpg		 IMGP4787 V125M@f2.8.jpg
IMGP4787 V125M@f2.8.jpg		 IMGP4788 V125M@f4.jpg
IMGP4788 V125M@f4.jpg		 IMGP4789 V125M@f5.6.jpg
IMGP4789 V125M@f5.6.jpg
IMGP4790 V125M@f8.jpg
IMGP4790 V125M@f8.jpg		 IMGP4799 A*135@f1.8.jpg
IMGP4799 A*135@f1.8.jpg		 IMGP4800 A*135@f2.jpg
IMGP4800 A*135@f2.jpg		 IMGP4801 A*135@f2.4.jpg
IMGP4801 A*135@f2.4.jpg
IMGP4802 A*135@f2.8.jpg
IMGP4802 A*135@f2.8.jpg		 IMGP4803 A*135@f4.jpg
IMGP4803 A*135@f4.jpg		 IMGP4804 A*135@f5.6.jpg
IMGP4804 A*135@f5.6.jpg		 IMGP4805 A*135@f8.jpg
IMGP4805 A*135@f8.jpg
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Guest 27-Oct-2009 09:08
Very interesting test Jim. Going by the test chart the Voigtländer appears to be the better lens, however it's the opposite with the brickwall test - here, the Voigtländer clearly trails behind the A*135, even at f8. I'm actually a bit surprised by how poorly (relatively speaking) the Voigtländer fares here.

A few things to note:

1) The lack of PF/CA with the Voigtländer. The A* suffers here on the test chart wide-open, though it's not too bad at the common apertures with the Voigtländer. Also, this PF might be less when used with more recent bodies (K20D and newer).

2) The A*135 is impressively sharp at f1.8 and f2.0. Sure, it's not quite as sharp as compared to f2.4 and up, but it's not what I would call soft. The main issue here is the reduced contrast, however that can be fixed in PP (and maybe using a lens hood would help too).

Anyways, thanks for doing this test of what are probably the two finest K-mount 135mm lenses ever produced!
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