The Voigtländer 25mm ƒ/4 "Snapshot" Sopar lens is a little gem of an optic for Leica thread mount (ltm) cameras. It is zone focus only and does not couple to the rangefinder. But estimating the distance is not a problem with a lens this wide. This lens is modern and multi-coated, in contrast to the many mid-century ltm lenses that are on the market. Many of them have haze, fungus, scratches, and damaged coatings, and were made before lens designers had access to computer optics programs to optimize performance.
Here are some examples from May of 2025 in and around Olympia, Washington.
Olympia Outskirts
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| Woodard Bay Conservation Area, view north (ƒ/11) |
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| Rainbow Rails and West Bay, view north from 4th Avenue Bridge (ƒ/8.0½) |
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| Guard shack at former wood mill, West Bay Drive (1/100 ƒ/11½) |
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| Unused wood chip conveyor belt, West Bay Drive |
Downtown Olympia
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| Alley parallel to Washington Street (1/40 ƒ/8) |
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| Railroad bridge over Capitol Lake |
About once a week, a train trundles over this bridge and heads west to an industrial area in Tumwater.
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| Slightly redecorated 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper near Capitol Mall (1/60 ƒ/5.6½) |
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| "Oly Girl" at her best |
Summary: This is a handy little lens with good optical output. The plane of focus curved in towards the photographer, so you need to be aware of this curvature when composing. Being multi-coated, it creates bright and contrasty color, at least on Kodak Ektar 100 film. The lens appears to resist veiling flare. It has a more contrasty and modern look than my Summitar and Jupiter-8 lenses, both of which are much older and have more primitive coatings. All in all, recommended if you are comfortable with estimating the focus and the ƒ/4 aperture.
With the use of a Leica M to ltm adapter, I can use this SnapShot Skopar on my Leica M2 camera.
(Standby for more examples in the future.)
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