The Voigtländer Talon Lens
A short while ago, I acquired the Voigtländer Talon 85mm lens. It is a projector lens housed in a helicoid with an M42 mount. It has no aperture blades, so all you get is an f-stop of 2.8, which is both limiting and liberating. I didn’t have much to go on regarding the images this lens can generate. Why did I buy it? I wanted to get my feet wet with a projector lens, and this one ticked enough boxes. The Voigtländer name was one of them. Silly? Sure, but why not?
You can find several projector lenses named Talon that have the same focal length and f-stop. I don’t know if they are the same lens branded under a different name or entirely different lenses.
This is not a scientific review with measurements of everything that can be measured. This is a review of my experience with this lens. Not more, not less.
Photographed with Helios 44 (13 blades) | 58mm (87mm) | 1/240 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 400
The Optics
The lens features a simpler design, probably a triplet (three elements in three groups). There is nothing wrong with a triplet. Triplets are nice lenses that can produce the lovely soap bubble bokeh, like the expensive Meyer-Optik Görlitz Trioplan. For the rest of this section, I only refer to my lens.
Let’s look at the sharpnes. Cornersharpness is not one of the strengths, but I don’t think this is a big deal. It is not particularly bad by any means. How sharp is the lens, you might wonder? Well, not extremely. It is not unsharp, but it is a bit soft. Quite a bit can be remedied with post-processing, but there will always be a bit of softness, and since it doesn’t have any aperture blades, you cannot stop down to get better sharpness. Why not make some aperture “blades” yourself? You can create disks with cutouts that will fit into the front of the lens, similar to the early Lensbaby lenses. I have not tried that yet. I have to look for my older Lensbaby lenses; maybe the aperture rings will fit.
Your experience might differ, but I did not notice strong chromatic aberrations. There is some, but it did not bother me.
(3 elements in 3 groups)
The handling of the lens
Unlike most lenses, the Voigtländer Talon 85 does not have aperture blades, which removes one point of decision-making. Great. I like to use lenses wide open or stopped down one step, especially my vintage ones. While photographing the blossoms, leaves, and whatnot, every now and then, I found myself wishing that I had an aperture to change. I guess I do this more or less automatically as the scene in front of me requires it. That was an interesting observation. It’s not that I am complaining; I knew what I was buying.
Other than the missing apertures, the lens handles like other fully manual lenses, which I enjoy very much.
X-T5 | Voigtländer Talon 85mm f2.8 | 85mm (128mm) | 1/320 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 125
The daily use
Using the lens is fun. My version sits more or less loosely in its helicoid adapter—loose in the sense that it can be easily unscrewed when focusing close. I need to be careful here. On the other hand, the minimum focusing distance can be reduced a bit, but it only goes so far. After all, it was not made for close-up photography. Its real purpose is to project images onto a wall or screen.
It also allows for some free lensing experience while the lens is still in the helicoid but not attached anymore. It’s enjoyable to play with, I have to say. Since the helicoid has only one entry point, putting everything back together is not a problem.
If I could only have one lens, this one wouldn’t be it. Don’t get this wrong; it is a lovely lens, and I will keep using it to create images in the realm you can see on this page. I haven’t tried it as a portrait lens yet, but it should also work nicely for this type of photography.
X-T5 | Voigtländer Talon 85mm f2.8 | 85mm (128mm) | 1/1000 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 125
What to shoot with this thing?
Generally speaking, whatever you want. I think it excels in some areas, while falling short in others. Since you cannot stop down, you will only have a relatively narrow depth of field. Landscape and architecture in the traditional sense are definitely out of the question. Everything that requires sharpness across the frame was also a no-go. This Voigtländer projector lens is likely not your everyday carry. If you care less about these things, but want to enjoy what the lens can offer you, you will have a wonderful time.
I find this lens to be great for photographing flowers, plants, leaves, and smaller objects, both close up and/or with a lot of background in the picture. The lens can create bokeh like the best of them. Lovely bubbles, sweet smoothness, wild and crazy stuff. You dream it, find the right environment, and you will get it. Oh dear, those bokeh bubbles. So lovely, so addictive.
X-T5 | Voigtländer Talon 85mm f2.8 | 85mm (128mm) | 1/240 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 125
To sum it up
There might be a day when you wonder what it would be like to use a projector lens. That day came for me, and I bought the Voigtländer Talon 85mm f2.8 from Adaptarian @ eBay. It was already adapted to a M42 mount and was not expensive. I remember that I had an eye on a Leitz Hector, but the price was much higher. So the Talon was the one. It turned out to be a very nice lens. Easy to use with enough good qualities to make me happy. While it will not be a lens I would want to use all the time, it will be one that will see regular use.
Should you get one? I don’t know. Are you bothered by softness and not-so-sharp edges? If yes, then don’t get one. If, however, you love these imperfections a vintage lens can give you, its charm and “soul”, this lens might be for you.
The lens was photographed with the Helios-44 (13 blades) attached to the X-E3.
X-T5 | Voigtländer Talon 85mm f2.8 | 85mm (128mm) | 1/800 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 125
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