Notkon lens test by Steve Huff.
The new Nokton 42,5mm is finally shipping in USA too at BHphoto (Click here). And there are new reviews to check out if you want to know more about the lens performance. On top I have embedded the video from Steve HUff. But there is also a review at Henrysnote (Click here), Mapcamera (Japanese) and Xitek (Chinese).
A great lens…what’s coming next from Voigtlander? A 75mm f/0.95? 🙂
75 Responses
Hope 12mm f/1.2 🙂
9mm 2.0?
+1
A prime close to 7mm.
yes please !!
+1
Beautiful lens, still I prefer to wait for the Nocticron this time.
I wonder what the price of that thing would be.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say $1199. If the image quality is there (which I’m sure it will be), I’ll definitely be getting one. It will fit nicely between my 20mm and my 75mm.
Vlad, I “fear” Uberzone is right: that means 1199 € for us in Europe..
And here we go again…Do you people throw those kind of prices around for the sake of speculation or do you secretly WISH for those prices ? Before it was the 12-40mm at $1500-2000 and now it’s $1200 for prime that’s only barely faster than Oly’s 45 ? wth? yes 1.2 is great and all but I don’t see how it could be priced beyond $1000 when this 0.95 voightlander is cheaper (lower production run and higher F stop balance out AF the price).
When Oly and Pany come here to read user’s opinions (and they do, why else would they leak info) these kind of comments only serve to project a skewed and unrealistic view of the market. Pany and Oly have other means of market research as well, of course, but comments like these are no help at all for trying to expand the system, they’ll just assume people are willing to pay $300 for a lens hood. Do not underestimate the convenience that internet research means for corporations.
Reason for high price is red dot.
good comment
AMVR honestly I don’t think OLY/PANA take note of all our comments here: a rangefinder styled PEN with EVF has never seen the light and is praised by every PEN lover for example.
And nobody ever guessed the high price of EP5.
I look around at other products, I suspect the build quality of this Nocticron is better than Pana/Leica25mm, it has aperture ring, and AF.
Add the red dot brand.
Add the fact that this will be the fastest AF lens for the system.
In my opinion the result is the price before mentioned.
And of course I’d prefer a lower price, who wouldn’t?
(I bought the Voigtländer lmtd version 50mm T1.5 M mount, IMO it’s on par with Summilux f1.4 ASPH, moreover it looks nicer: I paid it 1/4th of the Leica and perhaps only a longtime Leica user can look at two identical photos and tell which one has been taken with the ‘lux. Better glass? Ok, but I don’t see that difference. Bigger price? Yes, because of brand. Same brand we’ll see on Nocticron.)
I wish I’m wrong about this price.
Pricing is subject to the (devaluations of) world currencies and manufacturing/packaging locations. Since there is a currency war going on it is more and more difficult to say what will the price be.
And I find it personally rediculous that $ is the same in euro´s, making the euro much more expensive.
A low Yen should result in cheaper prices, when bought in a country with stronger currency. Yet Olympus charges even more, possibly trying to offset their own debt. Japan is incredible amount of debt. Like the UK and the USA.
I expect the upcoming f/1.2 42.5mm having the same price as the Nikkor 1 series 35mm f/1.2
If it is around 1200 euros, as you say, it is not that bad. Expensive, but probably worth it.
Wow!.. Based on Henry’s review I’m an ancient photographer..
Damn , $900 for the .95/42.5mm VC ,. Its sure will make Mr Ree happy,. I hope the focus peaking on the new E-M1 is better than the E-P5,
..yeah, where’s Jeff? This post is for him!
I bet he received his 42.5mm and is having fun wih it! 🙂 i hope mr. Reeee will link some photos taken with it.
Here I am!
Yep, got mine on Saturday morning and shot a bunch over the weekend. It’s nice, really nice! The close focus is great. The stepless aperture ring is a nice touch, too. It’s pretty big and heavy, but it really doesn’t bother me.
Image quality is possibly better than the 25mm, but that will require more shooting. It seems to let in a bit more light than the 25mm. Shutter speeds seemed to be a bit faster than the 25mm in similar light.… or maybe I’m just imagining things. 😉 I’ll probably go out and try the two together, just for the heck of it.
Colors seem very rich. It does have that funny glowy quality wide open shooting close objects, as in the “review”, but that disappears when shooting further away. It’s just incredibly nice to shoot with!
Maybe I’ll finally break down and post some stuff on my Flickr account.
Yeah it would be nice if you could post the comparison between both lens an other shots 🙂
It’s been on the back burner for a while and Marco keeps encouraging me to do it. 😉 So, yeah, I guess I could upload a bunch of shots using my Voigtländers… 25mm, 35mm f1.4, 42.5mm and 75mm f2.5.
Hey mr ree! How does it compare in image quality/size to the 17.5?
I don’t have a 17.5mm…
YET.
😉
Thanks allot 🙂
If you are going to shoot manual focus at f2, I think $20 for a 45mm rokkor would be an interesting alternative. Lighter too.
There is a lot of competition in the manual focus portrait lens market. With the 42.5mm looking a bit mushy (in early reviews) at f0.95 I would be interested to see it up against a 50mm Jupiter-3 f1.5 The advantage you get with the Noktons being modern lenses is the coatings which boost contrast, and the resolving power to match high megapixel small photo site cameras, but that costs dollars.
I have the 17.5mm Nokton it’s amazing and is not at all mushy at f0.95, it’s completely usable. But it has a much greater depth of field than a 42.5mm.
More samples shot wide open please, and not at close range.
For some reason reviewers are enthralled with the 42.5mm’s close-up abilities and like to show that. It’s impressively cool that it focuses at 9″ (.23m)!
At .95 close-up, it’s weirdly glowy, like images of sunspots, but back up 3 or 4 feet and the image tightens up tremendously. Shoot close-up at f4 and it’s a whole ‘nother thing. I shoot macro at f8 or f11, f0.95.
Yesterday I took a bunch of shots at f.95 at various distances and there’s little glow. It really is a tremendous lens… and not just the size.
Hi Reeee! Have you uploaded some of your test-shots? 🙂 (I have just found the old Fujica ST801 of my dad, in perfect condition, along with a Fujinon 55mm f1.8 EBC lens: can you suggest a good m42 to micro43 adapter?)
Wow. Great find!
I got a few lenses from my grandfather and an ex-girlfriend’s dad. All in perfect condition!
For my Pentax SMC Takumars, with M42, I used Rainbow Imaging adaptors. Cheap, work great. Infinity focus. Sometimes people have an issue with that. Otherwise I’ve used Fotodiox adaptors for some of my Nikon AI-S lenses.
Are they solid? I mean, do they block the lens firmly enough to use the aperture ring? Thanks again!
Yep, not problem at all. Good, firm connection.
They’re cheap enough that I just buy one adaptor for each lens and leave it.
It seems I can’t find hem on ebay.. I’ll check better later: venice movie awards start today! Hank you again!
How’s this? All for the low, low price $7.29!
http://www.rainbowimaging.biz/shop/product.php?id_product=69
They speak Klingon in the comments at Henry’s note’s review. They must be the ancients talking to each other.
need 12mm f1.4
Very soft and kind of “flat” rendering. I know the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but that hazy rendering is not for me. I think f1.2 is the best compromise between speed and micro-contrast.
That’s not my experience. Images really have a kind of pop, that’s very nice. I did a bunch of street shooting, close-ups and interiors… it’s pretty great.
And certainly not for everyone’s taste.
0.95 is great for moodful model/portrait photography, the “soft” looks mostly appears at standard test shootings, but a dedicated photographer will make full use of it characteristics while giving tack sharp point of focus area. If you shoot mainly at stepped down apertures, then better spent the money on a lower speed lens. At least thats my opinion.
It’s just a shame it does not have any basic communication with camera in order to save exif. What would be compromises by adding such a thing, or what’s the reason behind this?
It does kind of suck about the lack of EXIF info.
My solution is to use a free Lightroom plug-in called LensTagger. It requires installing EXIF Tool. It allows me to make profiles… name, focal length, maximum aperture (and equivalents)… for all my manual and adapted manual lenses and add the info to images’ metadata. If I remember f-stops, which is pretty rare, I can add those too. It does batch processing, too.
It’s a bit of a pain, but I just got into the habit of tagging all my images after importing into Lightroom. It’s pretty easy to remember which lens I used for each shot.
http://www.essl.de/wp/software/lenstagger-lightroom-plugin/
It is too bad that Voigtlander cannot make the lenses like Zeiss does for my Canon…with electrical contacts, auto aperture, and focus confirmation. I guess that would really raise the price though.
does zeiss make f.95 lenses for your canon?
Why….YES…..they do!
Really? Id like to see that. I expect no reply…
I just checked.
The widest aperture Zeiss lens, currently listed, is f1.4. The majority are f2 or f2.8.
Maybe there’s an older one?
The E-M5 allows you to record a brief audio track with a still shot which I have always thought is a great way of adding shooting notes when using a manual lens.
Ricoh GXR allows for manual exif input and save as preset. great option for MF shooters.
Is it possible to put the dandelion chip on the Voigtländers?
Soo mr. Henry uses this at f2.0 and up because it’s not good enough at lower apertures… wich makes this lens useless and pretty stupid?!?!?
Ken Burg sums it up quite nicely: ”
If 0.95 is too soft and you normally shoot at 2.0 why not just buy the Olympus 45mm 1.8, shoot it wide open, have auto focus and save yourself a bunch of dollars and weight?”
Does anyone know how this lens meters, or if it does. Can you put the camera in aperture priority and just adjust the aperture on the lens, or do you have to shoot full manual? Thanks
I shoot with my Nokton 17.5mm in Aperture priority, the camera meters fine.
In fact, you can’t use “full manual” with manual lenses, since the camera cannot control the aperture.
I mean, you can still set the shutter speed in “full manual”, and in “shutter priority”, but the aperture needs to be set on the lens.
Sorry. I’m having trouble making sense today.
There’s really no point using A mode, because with manual lenses it’s really the same as using M mode. You just adjusting shutter speed.
I always shoot in M with my GH2. In M mode it has Constant Preview, which does what it says without having to activate a Preview before shooting, like the GX1. The GH3 and GX7 have it, too. It’s one of the GH2’s best features!
i think you might be confusing S mode with A. In A mode the camera will set the shutter speed for you, so its VERY worth using for some situations, compared to M 🙂
Thanks to all the reviewers. Somehow, I feel disappointed from the comments so far. I am so tired of hearing about the beautiful construction, how smoothly it turns, how wonderful it is in the hands, … However these lenses are still photographic instrument to me, even though they may be show-off pieces or jewelry to others. In terms of image quality for still photo taking, I am not convinced it is worth the weight, cost and inconvenience. It’s more like a mechanical Rolex to me at a time when most $20 watches can tell time even more accurately without the winding, monthly date adjustment,… It will no doubt last and keep its value, but I am a photographer, not a collector.
Hold on, you’re tired of people liking something on the internet? Man, I want your internet experience.
I am interested in comparing this to the imminent (?) Panny 42.5mm. But I think a lot (for me) will depend on the colors from the Panny (as well as sharpness and bokeh). The Voigtlander 42.5 looks surprisingly good to me, and recent Panny lenses (even sharp ones) leave me a little cold because of the grayish colors. I assume its the coating Panny uses on some (or just their more recent) lenses.
yes, that must be it, the coating on the lenses is messing with your white balance
LOL
True homer: It’s not the white balance, but saturation. What occam is complaining about is flare, which lowers contrast and saturation.
Occam: It’s probably not bad coating, but inherent to the optical design. I didn’t know this was a common problem with Pannies? I have a 100-300, and it has low contrast/resolution, but pretty solid colors.
These are skylight-corrected, but otherwise default-setting from RAW. The lens seems to handle the snow-glow just fine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leicaapostate/8738707180/sizes/o
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leicaapostate/8737581231/sizes/o
Of course, it works OK only if it’s in focus. 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leicaapostate/8626681770/
Still, note the saturation in the leaves that are in focus.
Could you post some of your “gray” photos?
J Shin, first of all, I am not sure how to describe the ‘off’ color I see on the Pannys. However, if you can see it in the sample pics on Amazon for the Panny MFTs, e.g.: 20mm f/1.7, 7-14mm f/4, or the PanaLeica 25mm f/1.4. It’s not Amazon and it hasn’t always been the case, because you can also peek at the pics for the _FT_ PanaLeica 25mm f/1.4 or the Olympus _FT_ 7-14 f/4 and the colors are fine.
I noticed the problem after I bought the ‘must-buy’ Panny 20mm f/1.7 and just didn’t enjoy the results. Now I avoid that ‘off’ color I can see in the examples. Not sure what it is, but I suspect its the coatings Panny uses on their glass.
I think it may be that blue/green are weak (filtered) which is ironic because the Panny point and shoot that my wife has oversaturates the blue/green spectrum (e.g., Universal Studios’ Incredible Hulk huge ‘life-size’ model looks awesome). So now I look to avoid that graying color effect from newer Panny glass.
Time for Olympus to release a weatherproof PRO version of its 45mm. Just spice it up with a snap ring and metal barrel but using the same elements, and sell it for $600. And still beat any of these clumsy expensive lenses, except for super thin DOF effects.
+1
Entering exif data by hand? Constantly Stopping Down? No AF? Costing a dentist-worth month of savings? Bulky like a brick? Ah, but it has the red dot!
Why stopping there? There is more Money to be saved! Wonderful combo: GF3 + oly 15/8 all new for 100$ or so. Loads of artistic experimentation with that lens!
+1
I don’t give a… about DOF, it is there when I NEED SPEED and I have to deal wit that.
So guys what should I do? Take my ZUIKO 45 and set iso to 6400 or take my tank and enjoy:
– noise free photos
– MF experience, new for me; kinda like it
– wait and buy PL 42/1.2 OIS and deal with slow/er AF in movie mode
Or maybe 35-100X will save a day, it has OIS, right?
+1000 Exactly! Speed, indeed!
Wide apertures for faster shutter speeds and lower ISOs, like the Voigtländer Noktons f0.95 apertures, are what it’s all about.
For me, their gorgeous rendering factors in tremendously, as well!
I think the real surprise would be if Olympus breaks its own f/2.0 or f/1.8 barrier in FT or MFT lenses. Either to keep up with Panasonic or just to be able to deliver critical performance wideopen. I could dig a PRO 50 mm f/1.4
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52053181
Great great link.
BTW. I love mine, first CV glass will definately look for next (hope for 12mm or wider) since this lens is built to last.
MFD turns this lens into a some kind of macro lens.
In upcoming years MF will not be an issue since we’re going to see more resolution in EVF, this is the main feature – the best; hi-rez EVF on the market, I will look for in GH5.
BTW 2. SMagic 25T.95 is sharper, still I love CV better for very smooth focus ring.
What a bargain an equivalent to an 85mm F1.9 lens and it costs only £350 oh wait that is the Nikon 85mm F1.8g with weather sealing and excellent AF and image quality . This is a manual focus , heavy expensive oversized lens for a system where no one cares about shallow DOF lol
This is clearly a beautiful lens, but can someone tell me why they would drop an extra $500 on this nokton over the already beautiful olympus 45mm f1.8? I understand it lets more light in, but is the image quality really worth the twice as expensive price tag?
@chris, purpose balances expense. This lens is not only twice as fast, but also has the additional bokeh (out of focus blur) which goes along with bigger aperture. So for portraiture at more of a distance, or for any shot which dictates subject isolation (or any art shot desiring isolation) or blurry background, this lens offers many more options than the f/1.8. As one (negative) poster insinuates (but fails to mention), it’s roughly equivalent to a Nikkor FF 85mm f/1.8. So it puts MFT in FF territory for bokeh. If bokeh’s what you need, this lens’ special qualities may justify the price.