Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL-II Aspherical

Introduction

The Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5 SL-II Aspherical is the smallest ultra-wide full-frame F-mount lens – but how good is it?

I rarely use lenses wider than 28mm, but for indoor events and reportage photography, a 20mm lens is sometimes necessary. I’ve purchased the Voigtländer 20mm because I wanted the most compact lens to fill that role.

Design and Build Quality

Fitted with a CPU-chip, Ai and an aperture ring, the manual focus Voigtländer is compatible with all Nikon F-mount cameras.

With a size of around 63 by 29mm, the Voigtländer 20mm SL-II is incredibly small. I am not aware of a smaller FF 20mm lens on the market right now.

Combined with a weight of only 201g, the lens is very portable.

Portability is the name of the game - Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5 SL-II

Mounted on the D800, the 20mm appears to be almost like a body cap lens. On older Nikon film bodies, its proportions are more fitting. It also pairs nicely with an adapter on mirrorless full frame cameras.

Quality-wise, the all-metal construction is very impressive.

The focus throw is about 180 degrees. With the focus ring being well dampened, smooth, precise operation is guaranteed.

Optical Properties

Inside the ultra-compact lens barrel of the Voigtländer 20mm are 9 elements in 6 groups and 9 aperture blades.

Sharpness

From f/3.5 to f/4, the Color Skopar has a slightly soft and glowy look. This becomes very apparent in backlit scenes, and all in all I consider the lens too soft for my taste in this aperture range.

If you aim for a soft, retro look, this characteristic can be desirable, though.

At f/5.6, a significant improvement is visible, the lens then achieves moderate levels of sharpness.

At f/8, the lens reaches maximum sharpness and delivers what I’d consider to be an acceptable, modern rendering.

Even smaller apertures only lead to softer results due to diffraction.

Vignetting

The lens exhibits a very pronounced vignetting, to the degree that it might present a problem if you want to remove it in post production. At f/8, the vignetting is acceptable.

Bokeh & Distortion

The Bokeh is very tame and pleasant.

Moderate barrel distortion is present, but for reportage and general purpose photography I would not consider this trait to be an issue.

Voigtländer 20mm SL-II @f/3.5 - barrel distortion

In Use

With a maximum aperture of f/3.5, focusing in low-light scenarios can be a bit tricky.

On the other hand, due to its optical characteristics I almost always use the lens at f/8 or smaller anyways.

In general, I advise against using the lens on crop sensor cameras, even at f/8.

Being able to focus as close as 0.2m, the Voigtländer Color Skopar can be used to create unique perspectives.

Verdict

Compared to my other 20mm lens, the AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8D, the Voigtländer is inferior in terms of optical performance, which is very visible at apertures wider than f/8.

Be that as it may, the Voigtländer is about half the size of the already very compact AF Nikkor. This is very impressive.

The already compacted AF Nikkor next to the ultra-compact Voigtländer

Does the 20mm Color Skopar still fulfill its intended role of a small, ultra-wide backup lens? When f/8 is the aperture I want to shoot at, then definitely yes.

On YouTube

Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL-II Aspherical