The Voigtlander Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL-II is an ultra-compact, sturdy manual focus lens featuring traditional high-quality Japanese construction and classic styling.  The Color Skopar's a perfect choice as a moderately wide angle lens for those wanting high performance in a fixed all-manual lens.

Made in Japan by Cosina (a small optics company who also manufactures Zeiss-branded lenses), the Color Skopar uses the most modern optical lens technology and supports all of your Nikon SLR's metering functions.  The only limitation being that it is manually focused.  You can use any of your camera's exposure modes and you can control the aperture from your camera's command dial.  In practice, you'll find the manual focusing movement of the Color Skopar satisfying to operate and worlds apart in action from doing the same with autofocus lenses.

This lens offers a f/3.5 maximum aperture, but unlike most zoom lenses it will perform nearly as brilliantly at f/3.5 as it will at friendlier apertures of f/5.6-11.0.  An optional dedicated hood's available, but on DX format Nikons SLRs you'd be hard pressed to induce flare even if you deliberately tried.  The focusing helicoid can extend far from the body on the Color Skopar to allow a minimum focusing distance of just ~8&quot (20cm).

An ideal wide angle fixed lens upon digital SLR cameras

Sophisticated 9-element aspherical lens formula

Sturdy metal outer barrel

Compact dimensions; barely more than 1&quot long

An ideal performer at larger apertures

9-Bladed aperture diaphragm

Silky smooth and rubber-rimmed focusing helicoid

Full multicoatings upon every optical surface

Made in Japan