Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II Review

Introduction

The Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II is a full-frame, manual focus lens designed with an emphasis on build quality and image quality. The sleek, all-metal barrel gives the lens a high-end feel and helps justify the $900 price tag. Meanwhile, the “APO” in the name refers to “apochromatic” – in other words, a lens that is highly corrected for aberrations, including color fringing. On paper, all of this is very interesting, and I was excited to put the lens to the test earlier this year!

Note that, at this time of this review’s publication, the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II is only available for the Nikon Z system. However, the previous generation – which is available for Nikon Z and Sony E – has identical optics and is functionally the same lens. The main difference is that the “II” simply has a different exterior design for the barrel. Though both are fully constructed of metal, the new version is a hair lighter (370 grams vs 387 grams in Nikon Z mount) and allows the lens hood to be reversed. Otherwise, everything else that I will discuss in this review applies to both versions of the lens. Feel free to buy either; they are essentially interchangeable.

As a manual focus lens, the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II is better suited to some subjects than others. For example, some street photographers will feel at home with a 50mm manual focus lens. I also see it as a good choice for controlled portrait photography – as opposed to more candid wedding or event photography, which can be shot with manual focus, but usually isn’t.

Given the light weight and portability of this lens, combined with excellent image quality (more on that later), I also found it to be a great fit for landscape photography. While autofocus is sometimes useful for landscapes, manual focus works just fine when you’re shooting from a tripod at a slow pace, which is my preferred approach anyway. I carried this lens with me on a nine-day landscape photography hike earlier this year, and it more than justified its place in my bag even though I was counting ounces.

What really solidified my excitement for testing this lens is that it is the first Voigtlander that I’ve ever reviewed. I’ve certainly heard good things about the brand, but would the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II live up to the hype? How would it perform in practice – both in the field and in a strict lab environment? This hands-on review of the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II will answer those questions and more!

Build Quality

Voigtlander’s lenses are beautiful all-metal instruments, and the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 is no exception. There’s an all-metal construction with engraved markings for focus distances and apertures. The lens certainly looks snazzy! Maybe that’s not something that should matter, but if it brings you some extra joy to use a beautiful lens, I don’t think it’s irrelevant.

One of my favorite things about the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II is its portability. Even though Voigtlander clearly prioritized image quality with this lens, they’ve managed to keep it on the small side: 6.4 cm long and 270 grams (2.5 inches and 0.82 pounds). By comparison, Nikon’s version of an ultra-sharp, moderate-aperture 50mm lens – the Z 50mm f/1.8 S – is meaningfully larger at 8.7 cm long and 415 grams (3.4 inches and 0.91 pounds). This makes the Voigtlander 50mm f/2 a great choice when you need to travel light but don’t want to sacrifice quality.

A small potential downside is that the black paint on the metal of the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 does wear over time. After a couple of weeks, there were some thin spots in the paint on my copy of the lens, most likely due to bumping against some other equipment in my bag (even though I was trying to be careful and avoid that). Of course, this has no effect on the function of the 50mm f/2. You may even see it as a nice sign of a well-loved lens. But I point it out because it may harm the lens’s resale value or your ability to return it in like-new condition if you ever decide that it’s not the right lens for you.

As for other build quality considerations, the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 is built like a Swiss watch. I felt no concerns using it in the rain and other harsh conditions, even though it’s not technically weather-sealed, because the build tolerances are so strict. Amazingly, it took me a week of using the lens before I realized that the barrel does extend a bit as you focus more closely – it’s just built so well that it’s hard to notice. That said, there is no rubber gasket at the lens mount to help prevent moisture from reaching the camera’s interior, so you probably shouldn’t use it in a monsoon.

Handling

The Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II handles well. The focusing ring is large and well-damped, with a smooth focusing motion. As expected for a manual focus lens, there are not a lot of controls on the Voigtlander 50mm f/2, but there is at least an aperture ring (clicked) on the front of the lens. This is a real aperture ring, not an electronic aperture control, meaning that you can also change the aperture when the lens is disconnected from the camera.

Thankfully, today’s Voigtlander lenses are chipped, meaning that you will get full EXIF data with every photo you take. You’ll also see your chosen aperture in the camera’s viewfinder or LCD, which I find useful when shooting quickly – you don’t need to constantly be glancing at your aperture ring while taking pictures.

That said, there is one drawback where this lens’s handling is concerned, at least for how I like to work: When using the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II, it is not possible to change the aperture setting via the command dials on your camera. You can only change the aperture by rotating the ring on the front of the lens. (Likewise, it isn’t really possible to  use this lens in shutter-priority or automatic mode, since the camera has no way of adjusting the aperture.)

I wish that Voigtlander had followed the lead of other lens companies by adding an “A” setting on the lens’s aperture ring. By turning the aperture ring to this setting, it would give control over the aperture back to the camera. But for whatever reason, the lens lacks such a setting.

Of course, it isn’t the end of the world. You just need to rotate the aperture ring to change the aperture. But if you have the muscle memory of changing aperture via a command dial on your camera, the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II could take a little time to get used to before the lens completely “gets out of your way” like good equipment usually should.

Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II Specifications

• Full Name: Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II
• Mount Type: Nikon Z Mount (and an optically identical version with a different barrel design, and no “II” in the name, is also available for Nikon Z and Sony E)
• Focal Length: 50mm prime
• Angle of View (FX): 45°36′
• Maximum Aperture: f/2
• Minimum Aperture: f/16
• Aperture Blades: 12
• Filter Size: 58mm
• Lens Elements: 10
• Lens Groups: 8
• Special Elements: 2 aspherical, 5 partial dispersion
• Electronic Diaphragm: No
• Vibration Reduction: No
• Internal Focusing: No
• Control Rings: Aperture and focus
• Function Button: No
• Focus Motor: No
• Minimum Focus Distance: 45 cm (17.7 inches)
• Maximum Magnification: 0.15× (1:6.4)
• Mount Material: Metal
• Weather/Dust Sealing: No
• Dimensions (Length × Diameter): 2.5 × 2.7 inches (64 × 69 mm)
• Weight: 370 g (0.82 lbs)
• MSRP: $899
• Lowest Sale Seen: $899 (check current price)

The next page of this review covers the optical characteristics of the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II, including focusing performance and sharpness tests in the lab. So, click the menu below to go to “Optical Performance”: