Cosina announced a new pancake lens exclusively for the Fujifilm X-mount: The Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm F/2.8. A direct alternative to Fujifilm’s own wide-angle pancake lens – the Fujifilm 18mm F/2.0 ($599).

The Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm F/2.8 is the first Color-Skopar lens coming to the Fujifilm X-mount. It will be joining the already available Voigtlander Nokton and Voigtlander Ultron lines of lenses.

The Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm F/2.8

The Color-Skopar 18mm is constructed of five groups and seven elements. When you take in the 1.5 crop factor on Fujifilm cameras, it is equivalent to a 27mm lens on a full-frame camera. This makes it a wide angle with a 75.4-degree field of view. Aperture-wise, it goes from a wide F/2.8 to F/22.

Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm F/2.8 physical features

The lens is only 2.3 cm long. This is smaller than most lenses for the Fujifilm X-mount, including the aforementioned Fujifilm 18mm F/2.0, which is still a compact 4.1cm. The only smaller 18mm I can think of is the 7Artisans 18mm F/6.3 Mark II UFO ($59). The UFO lens is only 1.8cm long, but it’s dramatically slower than the Color-Skopar.

The Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm f/2.8 communicates with the camera

Like all other Voigtlander lenses, the Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm f/2.8 is purely mechanical. This means that you can only change focus and aperture manually. That said, the Skopar still has electronic contacts for transferring Exif information, focus checking, and providing support for the camera’s IBIS system.

Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm f/2.8 – specifications

Focal length:	18mm
Aperture ratio:	1:2.8
Minimum aperture:	F22
Lens configuration:	7 elements in 5 groups
Angle of view:	75.4°
Number of aperture blades:	10
Shortest shooting distance:	0.17m
Maximum shooting magnification:	1:6.6
Maximum diameter x total length (excluding accessories and protrusions):	φ59.3 x 23.5mm
Filter size:	φ43mm
Weight:	115g
Lens hood:	Dedicated hood included
Aperture ring:	Yes
Electronic contacts:	Yes
Exif information:	Supported
Focus check:	Supported
Support for In-body camera shake:	Supported
Shooting distance linked display:	Supported

Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm f/2.8 – sample photos

Cosina provided a number of early samples of the Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm f/2.8 on the Cosina website. The photos were taken by the photographer Kobayashi Kaworu.

Price and availability

The Voigtlander Color-Skopar 18mm f/2.8 will come in both a Black version and a silver version. And Cosina has yet to reveal the official MSRP or release date of either. But, an early listing on the Japanese shop “MapCamera” website listed the lens at about 70,000 yen, so I assume it will sell for about $470, and ship pretty soon.