First Impressions: Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL II

I had been fighting this for a long time. I’m a big fan of the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f2.0 SL II, but often need a lens that’s wider. I carefully weighed the differences between the Nikkor 20mm and this lens, and settled on the Nikkor due to it’s additional speed and auto focus capability. The Nikon was also a tad sharper. But I’ve been seeing a lot of great sample images from the Color Skopar, and started to give it some thought.

The sample images show that wide open, the Voigtländer is sharper in the corners than the Nikon, although not quite as sharp in the center. This makes for a lens with better edge-to-edge consistency overall, great for panoramas. The vignetting however is another story. It’s quite high on a full-frame sensor, with a drop-off of about 2 EV. But this is much less pronounced on an APS-C sensor.

But the bottom line is that this lens takes a nice picture, is incredibly compact, and meters on the D90. True, it’s not significantly faster than my Zoom Nikkor 16-85mm (the variable aperture makes it f/3.8 at 20mm) but it’s significantly smaller in size and has that silky manual-focus goodness that make it less redundant than I thought at first. The closest size comparison with a Nikkor lens would be a second-hand Nikkor 20mm f/4 AI-S. But that lens won’t meter on the D90, and frankly doesn’t come close to the Voigtländer in image quality.

So, I broke down and ordered one in lieu of a new Voigtländer Bessa R. Like the AF Nikkor, it makes the D90 30mm, a tad wider than 35mm, the classic focal length of street/reportage. However, it also has a lot in common with the M-Mount Voigtländer Color-Skopar 21mm f/4.0, another “pancake” lens with similar edge-to-edge sharpness that’s not quite as fast as this one.

There are so few truly compact prime lens options out there for Nikon DLSRs that the Color Skopar seems too good to pass up, even though it isn’t exactly a speed demon.

It’s only 7 oz. (198g) but because of its small size, it feels a lot heavier. It’s just a tad longer in physical length than the Ultron 40mm. It shares it’s 52mm filter threads with that lens as well, and when used on an APS-C DSLR, can use the Ultron’s compact domed hood, even with a filter without vignetting.

At first, I thought the lens wasn’t focusing at infinity, because the focus confirmation indicator would not light when focusing on a distant object. But sure enough, a few test shots reveal the true nature of this lens. The center was ever-so-slightly softer than the tack-sharp Nikon 20mm f2.8D. But the border revealed significantly more detail than the Nikon. When I changed the focus point from dead center to slightly off-center, the focus indicator does indeed work. And the color is just spectacular, the borders being much more open than the Nikon. Which is not to say that the Nikon is inherently bad; but this lens was definitely worth my consideration.

I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces.