You have three strong choices for when buying an AE rangefinder these days, which one is best for you?

http://photo.net/equipment/leica/m7-bessa-ikon

SUPER WIDE HELIAR F4.5/15mm VM

Lens should be available April 2009. Retail price not set officially yet, but estimated suggested retail price is $550 USD. Optically is the same as previous version. May not come with finder (this is unconfirmed and is not from Voigtlander supplied information).

15-35mm Zoom Finder

Finder should be available June 2009. Has 15/18/21/25/28/35mm settings, with barrel indications showing settings for 1.3x and 1.5x digital cameras. Retail price not set officially yet, but estimated suggested retail price is $550 USD.

Josh’s Thoughts:

Voigtlander has been working through it’s lens lineup and adding more M-mount lenses (or replacing existing LTM lenses with M-mount versions) in recent years. On the one hand, I’m a fan of this because the newer lenses seem to be nicer designs in terms of handling. I’m thinking specifically of lenses like the new 28/2 which is smaller than the previous 28/1.9 and adds in a nice Summicron style focus tab. Or the 24/4P where the newer version is RF coupled and also adds the focus tab. However, I’m not sure if the excellent 15/4.5 really needed the updating. It does appear that the new version is slightly “better looking”, at least to my eye. To be honest, I always thought that the first version 15/4.5 was a bit lower in construction quality than some other Voigtlander lenses. And while not completely necessary, the RF coupling is probably neat to have. But the decrease in minimum focus distance and increase in weight and cost aren’t the greatest in my eyes. And while it hasn’t been announced, I wouldn’t be surprised if Voigtlander continues with it’s new policy of not including viewfinders with wide angle lenses. I have no doubt that this new lens will be just as sharp and amazing as the previous version, and now M-mount users won’t have to pay for an LTM-M adapter. In my opinion we will have to see what the final tally is for retail price, but for the moment grabbing the older LTM 15/4.5 for $400 is still a really good deal. Especially if you need a 15mm finder and already have a LTM-M ring kicking around.

The 15-35 zoom finder looks like a winner. No, it’s not cheap. But if the quality is up to par (and what Voigtlander product isn’t “up to par”?) it could turn out to be a godsend for RF photographers who use a lot of wide angle lenses. No more switching finders constantly when changing lenses and no more trying to match the right finders to lenses when moving between digital and film RF cameras. I think a lot of people are going to be interested in using one of these for small digital cameras with a hot shoe as well (Panasonic LX3 or Ricoh GX200 for example). Voigtlander has done a great job of creating useful accessories for the RF photography market, this zoom finder is no exception. And while the estimated price of $550 is going to put a dent in your wallet, it becomes a bargain if you are buying 2 finders for each lens to use on digital and film cameras.

15/4.5 lens info:

15-35 Zoom finder info: