Voigtländer Nokton preview at Luminous Landscape
Image courtesy: Leonard Goh/CNET Asia
Luminous Landscape(LL) had the chance to play a little bit with the Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95. That is what LL says about the Build Quality: “Simply put, this is a $900 lens that could easily go to a masked ball as a $3,000 Leica product, at least when it comes to visible and tactile fit and finish.” And LL doesn’t have any problem with the fact that the Nokton has no AF: “Because it takes about the same amount of time and effort to focus the Nokton on an MFT camera as it does to use AF technology properly“.
About the image quality: “Indeed in every shot that I took with the Nokton wide open I unfailing was impressed with its ability to not let me down and turn into glowing mush.” And there is also room for a surprise. At f/1.4 aperture the Nokton has slightly more contrast and is slightly more shaper than the Panasonic/Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens!
The only minor issue is: “If your shots have any light sources, like all ultra-fast lenses the Nokton will show some considerable glow.”
Conclusion: “If you’ve gotten the impression that I really like the Voigtlander Nokton f/0.95, you’re right. It creates a quite unique way of viewing and recording the world that can really get one’s creative juices going.”
You can get the Nokton at Cameraquest or on eBay (via german and asian resellers).
Thanks Luminous Landscape for your nice work!
Ulli
3 years ago |this 25 nokton seems to have less glow then my 1.1 nokton. prob because of the m43 fit lens design. i want to add a baffle or deeper hood to reduce the glowing in my lens.
Voldenuit
3 years ago |Dang. I thought it was supposed to be $700-800, not $900?
I’m saving up for the Nokton 50/1.1 myself.
@Ulli, some of the glow is probably due to spherical aberration (the 1.1 has no aspheric elements), so it may not completely go away with baffle and/or hood. I quite like the visual effect of this lens, and if I want less glow, I’ll stop it down or use a different lens. If anything, the 1.1 has less glow and better contrast at f/1.1 on my GF1 than my Pentax 50/1.4 wide open.
Chris K.
3 years ago |Voldenuit, from what I remember, the 50/f0.95 is not really slated for “retail” release in the states so I’m unsure where you got the $700-800 price range. E-Bay sells out of ‘em regularly (one HK seller listed here sold 10+ units at ~$1,100), and I’ve never seen one listed for less than $900+s/h; Cameraquest is throwing in free shipping (although I live in California so I might make a road trip to the shop to pick it up and to drool over other hardcore camera equipment.)
The original 43rumors post states, “Expected price $1000 and availabilty [sic] by October/November.”
Mike
3 years ago |I don’t believe the focus is right at the crop of the comparsion – both lenses are not sharp here
Ulli
3 years ago |@Voldenuit, you might be right but i read about several old legacy lenses, of whish i assume they have no asph elements either, which benefit from added baffles. on the other hand, there is alot of pro/contra discussion about the effect of baffles. nevertheless i want to give it a try.
Voldenuit
3 years ago |PS If you really want to fight glow, you might be interested at the results of the Nikon Ai Noct 58/1.2, which was designed to fight coma.
At $3,000 second hand (it’s out of production), it’s a bit of a stretch, though
.
http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/technology/nikkor/n16_e.htm
I haven’t seen any coma problems with the Nokton 50/1.1 in the limited time I’ve had to test it, and the Noct has its own issues as well. But it’s an interesting lens, to say the least.
deniz
3 years ago |Admin,
may i ask, how hard is it to find a nokton 25mm on ebay? i want to invest in a normal prime and i would really like to have the nokton but if it’s really rare maybe i would just get the pana 20mm.
i would much prefere the nokton :/
Tobias W.
3 years ago |I really think the 20mm is a must buy for MFT owners. I plan to get mine in January.
deniz
3 years ago |it looks like a great lens yes but for two reasons its my second pick
1. dof not shallow enough for me
2. 40mm feels a bit too wide for a normal
a magnificent lens though. no question
Stupig
3 years ago |Under-spec the sensor, and one has to seriously over-engineer the lens to compensate for that.
Ulli
3 years ago |4/3 sensor is more demanding, so the lenses need to be better. over engineering is if you actually don’t need all the extra quality
Cteve
3 years ago |can’t wait to try the video with that.
I just found a couple of nice pics taken with the GF2 + Nokton 25mm:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minami/5234394974/in/photostream/
amazing colors and bokeh.