Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5

Cosina Voigtländer · LTM · 1999 · 6 elements in 5 groups

Also known as: Voigtländer Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5 · Voigtlander Color Heliar 75mm f/2.5 · COLOR-HELIAR 75mm F2.5 · Color-Heliar 75/2.5 · Voigtlander 75mm f2.5 Color-Heliar MC · Cosina Voigtlander Color Heliar 75/2.5 LTM · Voigtlander 75/2.5 L39 · フォクトレンダー COLOR-HELIAR 75mm F2.5 · フォクトレンダー カラーヘリアー 75mm F2.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Silver, Leica screw mount (1999–2008) LTM 1999–2008 — —
Black paint, Leica screw mount (1999–2010) LTM 1999–2010 — —
  1. Release month, discontinuation months and pre-tax yen prices come from Cosina's own discontinued-product pages (Japanese), one per finish; Wikipedia's Cosina Voigtländer lens table repeats the September 1999 to September 2010 span.
  2. Cosina quotes the φ55.5 × 64.5mm dimensions with the dedicated hood fitted; KJ Vogelius measured about 50mm and 225g without it.
  3. Sold in Leica screw mount only. The COLOR-HELIAR 75mm F2.5 SL of the same optics is a separate SLR-mount product (Nikon F, Pentax K, M42 and others) with no rangefinder coupling, and is not in this catalog.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved COLOR-HELIAR 75mm F2.5 on the front ring; 39mm Leica screw thread, rangefinder coupled from infinity to 1.0m
  • 43mm filter thread and a dedicated screw-in hood in the box
  • Ten aperture blades, f/2.5 to f/16 in half-stop clicks
  • About the size of a 50mm f/2: 64.5mm long with the hood on and 230g

Silver, Leica screw mount (1999–2008):

  • Silver barrel and hood; engraved COLOR-HELIAR 75mm F2.5 with the 39mm Leica screw thread behind
  • ¥50,000 pre-tax against ¥53,000 for the black paint version

Black paint, Leica screw mount (1999–2010):

  • Black paint barrel and hood; same engraving, same 39mm screw thread

Specifications

Formula
6 elements in 5 groups
Construction
6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2.5–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
55.5 × 64.5 mm
Weight
230 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
1999–2010
Country
Japan
Original price
¥50,000 silver or ¥53,000 black, pre-tax, at the September 1999 launch (today ¥55,000–¥59,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
slight, wide open
Vignetting
gone by f/5.6
Flare & ghosting
well controlled
Distortion
slight pincushion
Optical formula — 6 elements in 5 groups

History

The Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5 was the first telephoto of Cosina’s revived Voigtländer line, released in September 1999 in Leica screw mount, in the first year of Cosina’s revived Voigtländer line and a year before the Bessa R gave the system a body with a finder to frame it in. It arrived in two finishes at once, silver at ¥50,000 and black paint at ¥53,000 before tax, and in a size that was the whole argument: six elements in five groups behind a 43mm filter thread, 230g, 64.5mm long with the dedicated hood screwed on — the bulk of a 50mm f/2 for a rangefinder short telephoto. It is rangefinder coupled from infinity to 1.0m, has ten aperture blades and stops down to f/16. The same optics were later sold for SLRs as the COLOR-HELIAR 75mm F2.5 SL, which shares the glass but not the mount, and that lens is the trap for buyers: the screw-mount original is the one with rangefinder coupling.

The two finishes are the two variants, and they did not end together. Cosina’s discontinued-product pages put the silver lens out of production in March 2008 and the black in September 2010, the month Cosina’s pages give for the arrival of the Heliar Classic 75mm f/1.8 in VM mount, which took its place. No production figures were published for either. A 75 was an odd length for 1999: the Bessa R of March 2000 was the first Cosina body with a finder at all, and it showed a 75 frame, while the finderless Bessa L wants an external finder; on a Leica the frame is small enough that KJ Vogelius warns the M4-P’s lines are subtle and easy to lose. On an M body the lens needs the screw-to-bayonet adapter, and the adapter chosen decides whether the 50/75 or the 90 frame comes up.

Reviewers converge on the same picture. Vogelius gives it an unreserved recommendation as just about the perfect short tele: high resolution across the frame wide open, near perfection by f/5.6, exceptionally well controlled flare, very slight pincushion, axial colour only where contrast is extreme, and a rendering he rates as balanced rather than spectacular — better than the heavier Summarit 75, whose rubber focus rings age badly, and easier to carry than the Summicron 75. Peter at Prosophos, cropping M9 files, found it amazingly sharp from f/2.5 with a little correctable colour fringing. Paul Amyes on a Sony A7R measured the same virtues and listed the faults: minor lateral colour at every stop, slight pincushion, vignetting at f/2.5 that clears by f/5.6, and focus shift as the lens is stopped down. Johnny Martyr, shooting it on an M6 TTL and a Bessa R2, liked the balance and the discretion and then had the aperture blades fail on his sample, which is the one reliability report in the record and worth a look before buying: work the aperture ring through its range and watch the diaphragm.

Two things to check beyond that. The 1.0m minimum focus is a real limit for head-and-shoulders portraits, as Amyes notes, and cannot be worked around on a rangefinder. And the hood is part of the lens as Cosina measured it — the 64.5mm length includes it, and Vogelius’s 50mm and 225g are the lens alone — so a listing without the hood is missing a piece that was in every box. The optics later reappeared in the Vintage Line era’s fast 75s only in the sense of the focal length; the Nokton 75mm f/1.5 of 2019 and the Ultron 75mm f/1.9 of 2023 are new designs, and Vogelius’s view is that the Nokton adds speed without matching the Heliar’s balance.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 13 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $250–$320). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 8 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: APO-Lanthar 90mm f/3.5 · APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8 · Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 · Nokton Vintage Line 75mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Ultron 75mm f/1.9

Sources (9)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.