[Leica] Voigtlander 12

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 8:57 AM -0500 4/25/07, Harrison McClary wrote:
>Ok...I am thinking about buying this lens.  Do those of you who have 
>it like it?  From what I have read it is a very nice little lens, 
>and I admit the radical POV of a 12 intrigues me.  I have a 16 for 
>my EOS so I am not too interested in the VC 15, if I am going to go 
>wide, I want even wider than what I already have.
>
>Thanks for any input as to the quality/fun of this lens.  If you 
>have some sample photos I'd love to see them also.
>
>--
>Harrison McClary

Hi Harrison,

I've had the 12 since it came out, and I also use the 12-24 Sigma on 
the 5D. Optically, the 12 is better except of course with respect to 
vignetting, but they are both fully useable. I've used the CV lens 
with a center filter at times 
(http://archiphoto.com/Various/RD1vignette/source/12.htm), but 
usually it gets used without. I don't have any pictures posted with 
the CV, but I do have a couple taken with the Sigma:

http://archiphoto.com/Various/China/source/img_3145.htm
http://archiphoto.com/Various/China/source/img_3550.htm

Besides the usual architectural stuff I've also used the 12 CV for 
shooting wildlife. Birds in particular. Who needs those 560's? :-)

In 2000 I was in the Galapagos, shortly after I got the lens. One 
local species, the red-footed booby perches mostly in bushes, and I 
mean 'in'. If you shoot from the outside you sometimes only get 
branches. So I took the camera with 12mm lens, set it on 18" or less, 
stuck the whole thing into the bush and took 'environmental 
portraits'. The birds might have been a bit put off by someone poking 
their hand into their bush, but they didn't move. I'll have to see if 
I can scan one of those shots. I don't remember how well they turned 
out, though.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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