Cosina’s Voigtländer line has always had a soft spot for photographers who value discretion over sheer aperture bragging rights, and the new APO-Lanthar 90mm f/4 Close Focus is exactly that kind of lens. First shown as an early prototype at CP+ 2026 in Yokohama back in February, the little telephoto has since been fully detailed — and its headline trait is just how small it manages to be.
At φ53 × 54.8mm and a featherweight 235g, this is a 90mm you can genuinely forget is on your camera. For a manual Leica M-mount rig, that matters: the whole appeal of the system is travelling light, and a chunky short tele undermines the point. Voigtländer clearly gets that, keeping the barrel compact enough to slip into a jacket pocket alongside the body.
Optically, the APO-Lanthar designation is Cosina’s badge for apochromatic correction — the promise of tightly controlled chromatic aberration across the frame. The formula runs 8 elements in 7 groups, paired with a rounded 10-blade aperture that should render out-of-focus highlights smoothly rather than in polygonal blobs. That’s a sensible combination for a lens likely destined for portraits and detail work.
The Close Focus part of the name is the other headline. A minimum focus distance of 0.5m yields a maximum magnification of 0.28x, which is unusually intimate for a rangefinder-mount 90mm. Traditional M-mount teles often stop focusing well short of that, so being able to move in on smaller subjects — flowers, food, fine textures — without an accessory tube is a genuinely useful trick.
Rounding out the practical details:
- Mount: Leica M
- Filter size: 43mm
- Hood: supplied dome-style screw-in design
- Weight: 235g
The 43mm filter thread keeps costs down for anyone building a matched kit, and the bundled screw-in dome hood is a nice touch given how often lens hoods end up as an extra-cost afterthought elsewhere.
There’s a caveat worth flagging: the units displayed at CP+ 2026 were still prototypes, and Cosina hasn’t yet confirmed pricing or a firm on-sale date. So while the specifications are now locked in, the crucial question of what it’ll cost — and when you can actually buy one — remains open.
Still, for Leica M shooters and adapter-happy mirrorless users chasing a compact, apochromatic short tele that focuses closer than most, the 90mm f/4 Close Focus looks like a thoughtfully judged addition to the Voigtländer stable. It’s the kind of lens that trades outright speed for portability and correction — a bargain plenty of photographers are happy to make.
