Review on Enhance Your Macro Photography with the Voigtlander Macro APO-LANTHAR 110mm F/2.5 Lens for Sony E-Mount by Katie Chambers

For me the most important aspect of any lens is its optical performance and up to F4.0 this lens falls a bit short of my expectations. Field curvature is noticeable at F2.5 even at infinity (which means either the center or the corners of the image can be in critical focus, but not both at the same time). Color fringes aren't too bad either, but they are quite noticeable in many common shooting conditions. That's easily corrected in post-processing, of course, but that's unacceptable for a lens that claims to be APO correction. To make up for both of these shortcomings, the lens needs to be stopped down to F4.0, where it achieves top notch performance - a bit late for my liking. The bokeh is barely average and the cat's eye effect, among other things, is quite noticeable, so this won't be the first lens I'll use for portraiture or other fine focus applications. Note, however, that bokeh is a very subjective criterion and others may like it in this case. This lens's lightfastness is fairly unremarkable, and it will flicker slightly if left uncovered. Luckily, Voigtländer includes a nice metal lens hood, and when you buy a lens, it's better to always use that lens hood. The lens hood cannot be folded onto the lens for portability as it is too narrow - which is necessary as a larger diameter lens hood of the same length has proven ineffective at preventing flare on this lens. Of course, the built-in lens hood also increases the volume of the lens. The fairly average flare resistance is somewhat mitigated by this lens' fairly high contrast. However, this comes at the cost of mediocre micro-contrast, which I think is a crucial attribute for any macro, let alone portrait lens. While contrast can easily be increased in post-processing if needed, I find it much more difficult, if not impossible, to reduce the initially high contrast in post-processing. While the lens is well built and built to tight tolerances, the materials, particularly the exterior finish, aren't as good as they should be for the asking price. The outer surface of the focus ring is easily scratched even with the most careful use. At the same time, the lens tends to be quite slippery, and given the sheer mass of this behemoth, I had a couple of very close shots in the field where the lens almost slipped out of my hands. Speaking of bulk, this lens is huge! It feels like it weighs more than the Sony A7RII camera I've used it on (no, I haven't weighed it - I have more important things to do in my free time). The combination is very heavy in the front and very uncomfortable from the start. The discomfort only worsened over time, especially since the lens is extended significantly for close-up focusing and macro photography. It's not something you want to hang around your neck for more than 30 minutes. Sharpen. I felt tired in the neck after wearing it for 30 minutes. I love manual focus lenses, but it's 2019 and I'm pretty intolerant of manual focus macro lenses and non-internally focused telephoto lenses, especially when that downside gets big. and bulky packaging. Let's face it, this lens is at least as heavy as the old Pentax 645 120mm F4 Macro 1:1 lens, and when it's extended to the 1:1 macro position, it gets just as big. This is totally unacceptable as this lens is designed for FE mount Sony miniature cameras. Sorry, did I mention the lens is HUGE and HEAVY? So once you've put up with the bulk and volume, the barely average lightfastness and the mediocre micro-contrast, you'll have to put up with the fact that this is indeed an F4.0 lens. If critical focus across the frame is desired, learn to hold the lens tightly so it doesn't slip out of your hands, and start lifting weights regularly to balance bulk and bulk - we have a winner! From F4 to F16, the optical performance of the lens leaves a lot to be desired (except for micro-contrast, of course). So here it is. I then sent the lens back because I couldn't come to terms with all of its shortcomings.