Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II Review

Focusing Characteristics

The Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II is – as I’m sure you’re aware – a manual focus lens. It takes about 150 degrees to rotate the focusing ring from close focus to infinity, and the mechanism feels smooth and secure. There is no hard stop at infinity; the lens can focus a little past that point. Engraved on the barrel is a focus distance scale both in feet and meters, as well as a depth of field gauge showing every full f-stop from f/4 to f/16.

Although it can be more difficult to focus manually compared to automatically, today’s tools make it easier than ever. For example, you can use the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 with focus peaking with ease. On top of that, I personally enjoyed using the feature on my Nikon camera (the older Z7) where the focus box turns green upon recognizing an in-focus subject. And for critical sharpness, magnifying the image in the electronic viewfinder essentially guarantees sharp results. All of this works with manual focus lenses, including the Voigtlander 50mm f/2.

One thing to note, especially if you’re planning to use this lens for video, is that there is some visible focus breathing with the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II. The image gets noticeably larger/more zoomed in as you focus more closely. It’s on the higher end of the focus breathing that I’ve seen in a 50mm lens, and while photographers probably won’t care, some video shooters might.

Finally, I’d also point out that this lens doesn’t have the best close focus capabilities. That was a little bit of a shame considering how much I was enjoyed photographing plants close up with this lens! The maximum magnification is a mediocre 0.15×, with a minimum focus distance of 45 cm / 17.7 inches.

Distortion

Like most 50mm lenses, the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 has minimal distortion, measuring just 0.42% pincushion distortion in the lab. Although this isn’t a major surprise, it’s still a welcome sight, especially for a lens that doesn’t yet have correction profiles in all post-processing software.

Here’s a simulation of 0.42% pincushion distortion:

Vignetting

In uncorrected images, the Voigtlander 50mm f/2 has moderate levels of vignetting wide open, around two stops when focused at a distance. It improves as you focus more closely or stop down. Here’s a full chart of vignetting levels:

This isn’t the most impressive vignetting performance we’ve seen, but it’s also not enough to cause concern most of the time. For reference, the Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S maxes out at 1.65 stops of vignetting. Anything under 2 stops is usually possible to minimize in post-processing without major artifacts.

Lateral Chromatic Aberration

There is a low amount of lateral chromatic aberration on the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 throughout the aperture range. Here’s the chart:

Anything under about one pixel is almost impossible to notice in real-world images, even with chromatic aberration corrections turned off. This lens is under that threshold wide open, but I measure a little more lateral chromatic aberration upon stopping down. It’s always well within what can be corrected, but it is possible that for very high contrast subjects, like tree branches against the sky, you’ll see a hair of chromatic aberration in the far corners. Correcting it will be easy at these levels and should not leave behind any artifacts.

Some photographers may be wondering how an “APO” lens has chromatic aberration at all. The reality is that the APO designation usually says more about longitudinal chromatic aberration rather than lateral – in other words, color fringing in out of focus areas. You’ll see in the section on bokeh that this lens performs exceptionally well in that regard.

Sharpness

The Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II is an extremely sharp lens. Here’s how it performs in our lab tests:

This is some of the best sharpness that we’ve ever measured across the board! The lens is already excellent at f/2, where it reaches higher sharpness numbers than many lenses ever achieve, even stopped down. It improves a little bit in the midframes and corners as you go to f/2.8 and f/4. After that point, the unavoidable effects of diffraction are strong enough to kick in, although I still wouldn’t hesitate to use this lens through f/16 if I needed more depth of field.

All in all, it’s an extremely sharp lens, and that will be even clearer on the next page of this review.

Bokeh

Bokeh is another word for the qualities of the background blur in a photo. “Good” bokeh is completely subjective, since different photographers have their own preferences for how the background blur looks. That said, photographers commonly want their background blur to be soft, not distracting. Out-of-focus highlights that are round, uniform, and soft-edged are usually considered favorable.

The Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 excels where bokeh is concerned, at least in my opinion. It generates beautiful, soft backgrounds where out-of-focus specular highlights are unobtrusive. The “APO” in the lens name signifies, accurately, that there is no meaningful level of color fringing in blurry foregrounds and backgrounds. And the lens has one other trick up its sleeve…

How often have you seen a lens with a fully round aperture, not just wide open, but also when stopped down?! To be specific, the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II has a totally round aperture at f/2 and f/2.8, and very close at f/16. This is all thanks to an unusual curved shape to the aperture blades, which you can see in the f/2.2 and f/2.5 images above. (A Leica version of the lens – confusingly, with the same name but different optics – also has a circular aperture at f/5.6, but the APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 that I’m testing today does not.)

What does all this look like in photos? It’s quite beautiful, in my opinion.

I didn’t find that the circular shape at f/2.8 led much cleaner results than what can be achieved at f/2.5 or f/3.2, for example, but it does make a difference at the margins. Especially if you have a very bright and well-defined specular highlight somewhere in the background.

As a slight potential negative, the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II’s background blur can take on a noticeable cat’s-eye shape in the corners. I’ve said before, and I’ll say again today, that this particular aspect of bokeh does not really bother me, as I see it more as a stylistic look rather than something to be avoided. But just know that it is present on this lens when shooting wide open. By f/2.8, it’s mostly gone.

Sunstars and Flare

A basic 50mm prime lens is usually going to be among the better lenses on the market for controlling flare, but even with that in mind, the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II really impressed me in this department. There is practically no flare even when shooting at f/16 with the bare sun in the frame, and the lens maintains a high level of contrast throughout the photo:

Well done to Voigtlander here! This is a fantastic result – only a tiny blob of magenta flare, barely visible. (Meanwhile, the red patterned dots in the corner are not really the fault of the lens, as described in our article on red dot flare.)

Combined with the excellent sharpness results, this makes the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 II a very attractive lens for landscape photography. That said, the sunstar effect diminishes a little at f/16 due to the nearly circular aperture, so if you want good sunstars with this lens, it’s better to shoot it at one of the intermediate apertures like f/13.

The next page of this review dives into the sharpness numbers a bit more, with some comparisons against other lenses that you may be considering. So, click the menu below to go to “Lens Comparisons”: