Voigtländer Celebrates 100 Years of Legendary Skopar Series Lenses

Cosina Voigtländer is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Voigtländer’s “Skopar” series lenses with a commemorative model, the Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 100th Model.

The new anniversary edition lens is based on the long-selling Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 P II and features a vintage-inspired style. The “elegant silver” lens ships with a matching slotted metal lens hood and has a special three-piece aluminum rear lens cap.

The referenced Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 P II lens has been available since March 2004 and remains on sale today for $479.

Despite being based on an existing lens, the 100th Model version has a newly designed lens barrel built for even more portability. The 35mm f/2.5 VM-mount lens is just 23 millimeters (0.9 inches) long. It weighs 134 grams (4.7 ounces) and accepts narrow 39mm front filters.

Cosina promises “excellent operability. The manual focus lens has a focusing tab “shaped to fit” the photographer’s finger, a precisely machined metal helicoid unit, and a high-precision rangefinder coupling mechanism. The lens can focus as close as 0.7 meters (2.3 feet), like many other rangefinder-coupled lenses.

Inside, the lens features seven elements arranged in five groups, including one abnormal partial dispersion lens element. The lens has a 10-bladed aperture diaphragm.

Although the VM-mount lens was designed natively for rangefinder cameras, the new Voigtländer 35mm f/2.5 Skopar 100th Model adapts easily to other full-frame cameras, including modern mirrorless models. For example, Voigtländer makes a VM-E Close Focus Adapter II for E-mount that not only shortens an adapted lens’s close focusing distance but also adds very little length to the attached lens.

The new Cosina Voigtländer Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 — Skopar 100th Model will launch in November with a suggested retail price of 75,000 yen ($475 at current exchange rates). There’s no word yet on official global pricing.

Image creditsCosina Voigtländer. Real-world sample photos by Shumpei Ohsugi.