Voigtlander 75mm Color-Heliar f/2.5

An excellent lens: very sharp indeed, and very easy to use. The focus is smooth, apertures feel definite across the half-stop detents, and it seems well-built. The lens cap fits over the lens hood, which means that the latter can always be on the lens. It also means that you have to unscrew the lens hood if you want to change filters, which may be awkward if you are always changing filters. I rarely do, so it's not an issue for me. It's an ideal lens for details rather than the grand picture, and suits portraiture very well.

At f2.5, it seems fast enough for most purposes, especially given that it is used on a rangefinder and therefore not subject to the vibrations of mirror slap. Exposures at 1/15 seem OK: this would never be the case with an SLR lens of comparable focal length.

I use this on the Bessa-T, which means that the lens needs an M-mount converter and a separate viewfinder. The M-mount converter seems to work perfectly well, and the viewfinder is superb: very clear, with a parallax guideline for close focusing and 1:1 viewing. This means that you can look through the viewfinder and keep both eyes open, although this is easier if you don't wear spectacles.

Very high optical quality
Ease of use
Lens cap fits directly over lens hood
Price

Changing filters is a little slow due to the design of the lens hood

Nothing comparable in rangefinders; a Minolta 85mm f/1.4 AF for SLRs

Not used

another lense from voigtlander that can amaze in its perfomance. my philosophy is around the 50mm lense. the 75mm is not too long as the 90mm and not as flat in its perspective. for me the 75mm is a lense that make me concentrate on the main object of interest while still keeping some space for the surrounding of the main interest. before having it i felt that the 90mm was a bit long while on the 50mm i made sometimes cropps (which reduces the image quality in the big enlargement. the 75 works just perfect for the cases when u do want to give at about a normal perspective but more concentrated. the optical perfomance is outstanding even with wide open. wide open, there is differance in perfomance from the centre to the out field, but it is not to say that the differance is big. with 75 u centralize the main interest any way. from f4 the perfomance over the whole field is simply outstanding with more confidance in fast focusing and at f5.6 it is spectacular. now it is one of the most importent lenses for me especially with people. the out of focus range is great as well. this lense is just a perfect balance in every term for concentrated natural point of view. appllaying the care in focusing that is expirienced with the 90mm lense this one give a great confidance.

spectacular optical perfomance (u can read other reviews of voigtlander lenses that i have posted - 25, 50, 35 and 90). usefulness of the focal lenght in concentrated kind of photograhy.

not leica, but the price is great.

85mm from ziess and niikon

I wanted this lens to complete a system I was building around a couple of Zeiss battleships (SL 706 & Icarex). At a glance it could pass for one of the Zeiss lenses for the Contarex-a real beauty. It has a Zeiss-like image quality as well-extraordinary levels of contrast, yet a superb tonal range. It's equally suited for color or b&w. As you may have guessed, my lens is the SL version, rather than the rangefinder coupled one, but the optics are identical.

If you can focus accurately at f/2.5, this lens will reward you with critically sharp results. I examined shots I made on Velvia at 22x, and there is no difference in sharpness from f/2.5 through f/8. After that diffraction takes over. Flare is nearly undetectable. Images at near focus show no loss compared to shots at infinity. A masterpiece.

None in the lens itself. The problem is trying to find one. Neither the original US distributor THK, nor the present one, Schneider, import the SLR lenses. I found mine in the UK at Robert White. They had to special order it, but were very accomodating-I recommend them highly.

Carl Zeiss Planar 85/1.4 Zuiko 100/2.0 Nikkor 105/2.5 It's as good as the Zeiss and the Zuiko and BETTER than the Nikkor. Take that, Nikon weenies.

Not required

An outstanding portrait lens that is also fine for close cropped landscapes. If you are a Leica or Bessa user, you cannot go wrong with this one. If you use a MF-SLR get the SLR version.

Extremely sharp, contrasty, light, fast, well built. Outstanding resolution power.

Cannot find any.

Leitz 80/1.5 Summarex (LTM).

Not required.