This elusive "macro" design, made by Cosina of Japan, is a rare gem indeed. The beautiful workmanship and external appearance bear a close resemblance to the Zeiss ZF series that appeared about one year later, also made by Cosina. Probably the lens was only produced for a short while (one year?). A real pity since it is worth every penny you have to pay for a sample of it.
The optics are superbly corrected, renders vividly satured colours and high-contrast images all the way from infinity to the close limit at 1:1. Focusing is by a quite narrow collar, but the focusing itself is remarkably silky-smooth. The Voigtländer is equipped with an aperture ring and thus easily can be combined with extension tubes or a bellows unit. The click-stops on the aperture ring are very precise unlike most Nikkors.
The lens barrel does extend signficantly when the lens is focused closer, but since the rear element stays put, some kind of focal-length change in conjunction with CRC wizardry must be in play. Still, the free working distance at 1:1 is 19 cm, which is much better than with most 105 mm close-focusing lenses. Flare is well controlled but you can provoke it to give some ghosting. The filter thread is 58 mm and the lens came with an unusual quadratic lens hood that bayonets to the front.
This is the lens that has replaced the 105 VR as my all-round lens for close-ups on DX and FX cameras