First test Panasonic AF-100 & Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 Lens

My Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 lens arrived last week after much anticipation, and I immediately shot some test footage. And, it did not disappoint! I was amazed at the footage. Very clean lens and very sharp.

Here’s a short clip of the footage I shot on my Panasonic AF-100 camera:

The above footage was shot in 1080p 24fps, film gamma (F6) and slightly color corrected.

Here’s my “first look” review of the Voigtlander lens:

1. The lens movement as you focus is incredibly smooth and tight. Very nice movement! It spins cleanly and consistently. Feels very solid.
2. I was a bit surprised at how small the lens was. For some reason, I expected a bigger lens, but the smallness is actually quite nice.
3. The focus range is interesting. From close up to about 3 feet, there’s lot of room for focus. The lens seems to slide so far around. But, once you get past 3 or 4 feet, you have very little range, it seems. For close shots on video, rack focus is pretty easy to hit, but for longer shots, the focus is a bit harder to hit. I know it’s not a cinema lens, but it’s something to keep in mind when using this lens for video.
4. The depth of field is super, super shallow at f/0.95, but that’s what you’d expect. And, I love the bokeh! It’s a beautiful soft blurring effect. Very nice!
5. The f-stop ring works well. It has lots of notches and sub-notches so there’s a good range of stops you can hit.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the lens! I’m planning to use it this weekend on a big production project where we’ll be shooting a live concert in the evening. I’m looking forward to see how the lens performs.

I do have one complaint about the lens: it’s the only one they have for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount! That stinks! I want a whole family of these lenses. How about a 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 135mm and a 200mm?

Maybe some day!

In the meantime, I came across this video on how the lens is manufactured. Very cool.