Voigtländer’s Portrait Heliar 75mm For RF And Z Mount

credits: Cosina

The Voigtländer Portrait Heliar 75mm f/1.8, which first launched last May for Sony E-mount, is now also available for Canon RF and Nikon Z mirrorless cameras. Like most Cosina-made Voigtländer lenses, it is fully manual focus and has a traditional aperture ring. What sets this lens apart, though, is the additional spherical aberration control ring, which lets you directly influence the character of the bokeh and overall rendering.

That third ring adjusts how the lens handles spherical aberration. When set toward undercorrection, photos take on a softer look with more glow in highlights and smoother, creamier background blur. When dialled toward overcorrection, the lens becomes clearer and more contrasty, and the bokeh changes toward a more defined, ‘bubble’-like appearance. Cosina notes that changing the aberration setting also shifts focus slightly, so you will need to refocus after making adjustments. It can also affect the effective f-stop and increase vignetting in certain settings, meaning exposure and post-processing corrections may be necessary depending on how far you push the effect.

Optically, all three mounts share the same design, six elements in three groups and a nine-blade aperture diaphragm. Minimum focus distance is 0.7 meters, with a maximum magnification of 1:7.4. The lens is about 90mm long and takes 62mm filters. Weight comes in at roughly 570g for RF, 580g for Z, and slightly less for E-mount. The suggested retail price is $999.