Shootout Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III vs Sony Zeiss FE 16-35mm f/4 - Part 2

[Amin Sabet]

This is Part 2 of an f/8 battle between the Voigtlander Super-Wide Heliar at 15mm and Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar at 16mm.

In Part 1 of this shootout, I focused on a relatively far target, thus causing the foreground corners to be less than sharp. Today I set out to repeat the test with a nearer target.

Test scene, resized, Voigtlander:

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_DSC3201 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr


Test scene, resized, Sony Zeiss:

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_DSC3203 by Amin Sabet, on Flickr


In all of the crops below, the Voigtlander is on the left, the Sony Zeiss on the right.

Here is the point of focus:

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Additional crops:

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Raw files for download: 15-16-2.zip


With a nearer target, both lenses show similarly sharp foreground corners, whereas the Voigtlander shows greater sharpness in the distance, particularly at the edges/corners.

Keeping in mind that these are 100% crops from a 42MP sensor and that both files could use additional sharpening, I'd say the Sony has put in a solid performance here, but the Voigtlander prime is a notch above at least when it comes to sharpness.

 

[Bimjo]

No surprise I guess, but I still wouldn't throw the Sony out the window. And honestly, with that performance I'd take the Sony on vacation over the Voigtlander if I had both.