Voigtlander CV 50mm f/1 with Leica M10

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If I focus on the vase, the flowers will be OOF. If I focus on the flowers, the vase will be OOF. This is especially seen when standing close to the vase/flowers. The max aperture 1 gives a very shallow DOF. Else, it allows you to bring out some parts of the image and leave the rest OOF.
 
The resolution at f/1 seems to be incredible. The focus fall-off is very pleasing, as well.

Also, geometric distortion appears very low…especially for a fast 50 (seems a lot of designers have allowed for a decent amount of barrel distortion in legacy fast 50’s).
 
I am very happy with my lens, Jim. It opens up many possibilities in photography. I would once in a while take photos at smaller apertures too. This is a very sharp lens.
 
Sorry if asked already but did you use evf and or focusing aid when focusing @ f1.
​​​​​​How does shooting portraits fair with the lens. Easy to dial in focus?
 
I did not use any focus assistance at all. No eye glasses or contacts. No EVF.
No LiveView. I find is easy to focus on eye lashes for example (at 1.0).
I would take portraits at apertures 1~4 and then pick the best looking ones.
 
I set the lens to wide open and then I try to focus on the hair or any part of the face that a rangefinder clearly places in focus. The I change focus to be spot on the eyes. Once I feel that I have it done correctly, I take 3-5 shots quickly.
 
I am curious of how other users of this lens view its qualities. I wonder how many such lenses have been sold to RFF members so far.
 
Only done a few test shots on film with this lens. It ticks my boxes, Great fast lens.

re rubbish fast lenses: I think back to my Tamron 135mm f2 5, Good build, lovely handling, great balance on my Pentax, focused to less than 6ft. At f5.6 just adequate results, opened wider it was rubbish.
 
We know the saying for Leica lenses: "Leica lenses are designed to be used wide open".
Will we next see a similar statement by CV?
 
Peter Karbe (Wetzlar) told us that Leica lenses should be used wide open unless it is not possible to do.
 
I used again the CV 50/1 a few days ago for some quickly taken informal portraits of my daughter Dana, and then of our cat Jenny.

link: https://raid.smugmug.com/Leica-M10-CV-50mm-1/


I have been trying to use this lens only wide open. This works well in dark scenes and in shade but not when the sun is shining full force in Florida.
Below are all ten portrait shots taken of Dana. I did not do any editing. Each image was taken wide open without an EVF or any focus assist device. No eye glasses or contacts were worn either.
The closer your main subject is to your camera, the more dramatic the OOF will be.



1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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7.
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8.
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9.
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10.
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Jenny has two or three favorite spots in our home, and this one is her daytime spot at which she relaxes at the window and she observes the outside world that she is not interested or willing to explore. She sometimes moves her head suddenly, and I get OOF shots of her. Here, I deleted 2 or 2 totally OOF images.

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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7.
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sleeping? 8.
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This morning at the Pensacola Farmers Market. I arrived 20 minutes before they opened to customers. The sellers were still setting up things.


1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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7.
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In my RFF thread on CV 50mm lenses (poll), so far only very few RFF members have claimed they own a CV 50/1.
 
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