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

Ultron 21mm f/1.8 Aspherical

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2012 · 13 elements in 11 groups, one aspherical element

single source, unconfirmed via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Voigtländer Ultron 21mm f/1.8 Aspherical VM · Voigtlander Ultron 21mm F1.8 · ULTRON 21mm F1.8 Aspherical · Voigtlander 21/1.8 Ultron · Cosina Voigtländer 21mm f/1.8 · フォクトレンダー ウルトロン 21mm F1.8 · Voigtlander 21mm f1.8 VM

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
VM (2012–2023) Leica M 2012–2023 — —
  1. Cosina's page says only that the design uses aspherical glass; the count of one aspherical element comes from CameraQuest's specification block and is not confirmed on Cosina's page.
  2. Rangefinder coupling stops at 0.7m; the helicoid continues to 0.5m, which Cosina describes as usable on a mirrorless body through its adapter. Abrahamsson marks 0.5m on his strap and focuses by scale.
  3. Bastian Kratzke's one-line verdict — he never found a well-centred sample and would buy the 21/1.4 instead — is one reviewer's experience and is flagged as such.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Ten aperture blades, f/1.8–f/22
  • Engraved ULTRON 21mm F1.8 Aspherical; the only Ultron ever made at 21mm

VM (2012–2023):

  • Fixed hood machined into the barrel: it does not come off, and no square hood fits
  • Straight, untapered barrel φ69 × 78.4mm, 412g, 58mm filter — about the size of the Nokton 35mm f/1.2
  • Aperture ring at the front of the barrel, ahead of the focusing ring
  • Black only

Specifications

Formula
13 elements in 11 groups, one aspherical element
Construction
13 elements / 11 groups
Aperture range
f/1.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
69 × 78.4 mm
Weight
412 g
Filter
58 mm
Years manufactured
2012–2023
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated
Original price
¥118,000 excluding tax (2012); $1,150 in the United States (today ¥135,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Vignetting
gone by f/2.8
Distortion
well controlled
Optical formula — 13 elements in 11 groups, one aspherical element

History

The Ultron 21mm f/1.8 Aspherical was Cosina’s answer to the Leica Summilux-M 21mm f/1.4 of 2008 at a fifth of the price. Released on 19 December 2012 at ¥118,000 excluding tax, it completed the run of fast VM lenses that had begun with the Nokton 35mm f/1.2 — 21/1.8, 28/2, 35/1.2, 50/1.1, 75/1.8, as Tom Abrahamsson listed them on CameraQuest’s page, where he also says the lens was fifteen months in the making and that he had a hand in it. Thirteen elements in eleven groups with aspherical glass, ten blades, f/1.8 to f/22, close focus of 0.5m with rangefinder coupling to 0.7m; a 58mm filter; 412g in a straight barrel 69mm across and 78.4mm long, with the hood machined into it. Nothing about it is small, but it was the fastest 21 in the Voigtländer line by two and a half stops, and CameraQuest sold it at $1,150 — about a fifth of the Summilux. It ran ten years: Cosina’s notice of 19 January 2023 ended production, and the Nokton 21mm f/1.4 of 2020 had already taken its place at the top of the line.

The barrel is the thing to know before buying. The hood is fixed, which means the front cap goes over the hood and no square hood or filter-plus-hood arrangement is possible; the aperture ring sits at the front, ahead of the focusing ring, which Abrahamsson took a couple of rolls to get used to; and the lens blocks the lower right of the 21mm frame in a Bessa R4’s finder and rather more of a Leica’s, so most owners keep a 21mm brightline in the shoe. The 0.5m close focus is a scale-focus zone: the rangefinder disengages at 0.7m, and Abrahamsson’s method was a piece of tape on his strap for the half-metre mark. Cosina’s own page makes the same point about mirrorless bodies on an adapter, where the last twenty centimetres become usable through the screen.

Reception ran from very warm to one pointed dissent. Steve Huff, on the M9, M-E and Monochrom with no lens coding, found it as sharp as anything he had tested, with slight vignetting at f/1.8 gone by f/2.8, no troublesome colour shift, minimal distortion and silky bokeh — ninety percent of the Summilux and highly recommended. Abrahamsson on film found distortion and edge falloff very well controlled and the lens surprisingly comfortable to hold. A Japanese owner, writing after it was discontinued, calls the f/1.8 bokeh genuinely enjoyable for a 21 and the resolution solid stopped down. The dissent is Bastian Kratzke’s: in his one-sentence Voigtländer roundup he says he never found a well-centred sample and would buy the Nokton 21mm f/1.4 instead, and in his full review of that lens he found the f/1.4 vignetting less by f/2 and sharper across the frame. That is one tester’s experience, but it is a specific one, and the practical advice follows from it: test a used Ultron’s corners on both sides at f/1.8 before paying for it, and know that the 21/1.4 exists.

Against the alternatives, the Ultron now occupies a middle seat. The Color-Skopar 21mm f/3.5 is a fraction of the size and better corrected in the corners; the Nokton 21mm f/1.4 is bigger again, sharper and dearer. What the Ultron still has is the price of a discontinued lens with a fixed hood and a removable reputation — and the fact that on film, where the corners of a 21 at f/1.8 are rarely the point, none of the digital-era objections were ever raised.

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

Sample photo taken with the Ultron 21mm f/1.8 Aspherical
Goslar at night, Leica M9 with the Ultron 21mm, January 2020 (Matthias Ripp) — Matthias Ripp, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Ultron 21mm f/1.8 Aspherical? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $900 across 10 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $780–$980). First day tracked.

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

Show 3 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: Color-Skopar Vintage Line 21mm f/3.5 Aspherical · Color-Skopar 21mm f/4 · Nokton 21mm f/1.4 Aspherical · Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1.1 · Nokton Vintage Line 75mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Ultron 28mm f/2

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.