Cosina Voigtlander 35mm F1.2 Nokton

There really isn’t much out there on the net about the CV 35 f1.2. There’s a review by Irwin Puts here, and there are some scattered things on photo.net, but none of it does the lens justice, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Build Quality

Man, is this thing heavy? It reminds me a lot of the Nikon 105 2.5 AI, and it’s about the same size; the Nokton is just a bit shorter with hood attached. The focus is smooth and well damped, but still fairly quick. Just about right for a lens with such shallow DOF. The aperture ring clicks positively, and the shade hooks on solidly (leave it on). At least on my Hexars, the lens doesn’t mount quite as solidly as my leica and konica lenses do. It’s not sloppy, but you can tell that the camera and lens are 2 seperate things. I suspect that the finish is the weak link in terms of build; after a month of use the paint is already starting to go.

Peformance

I’ll consider wide open performance below. Stopped down smaller than 2.8, peformance is as good as you or I are ever likely to need. Are there sharper 35’s out there? Probably. Will you notice? Probably not.

Contrast seems pretty neutral with this lens. For apparent sharpness freaks this may not be ideal, but it makes for much easier scanning as highlights tend to be better controlled. The neutral contrast also renders skin pleasingly.

Color rendition like contrast is also neutral. Combine this with the neutral contrast and you have a lens that will take on the character of the film you put through it more so than some lenses with a more defined optical signature.

Bokeh-smokeh

The Bokeh of this lens is very similar to that of Hexanon 50 f2, although some Nokton shots exhibit slight doubling of some OOF elements. It’s nothing as extreme as say a Nikon 50 1.4 AIS, but it’s there at times.


But this one goes to 1.2

This is of course the main reason to buy the Nokton; it’s the fastest 35 ever (I think). Puts says it’s “in practice close to a third stop” faster than “a good 1.4/35″. My sample at least seems to actually be faster than 1.2 in the center; I might even go so far as to say it’s a 1.2 on the edges and closer to 1.0 in the center. Of course it follows from this that there is detectable light fall off on the edges; there is. If you want to use the extreme edges of the frame wide open, you might want to over expose by half to one full stop.

Are images at 1.2 sharp? Sharp enough. Really, really sharp? Don’t be stupid. If you want maximum sharpness, you aren’t likely to be shooting in environments were 1.2 would be necessary. But in the really dark places, the Nokton shines. There’s really nothing quite like being able to shoot a portrait up close at 1.2 and 1/4 sec on 400 speed film. Faces float up out of the shadows (the vignetting helps here, kind of like a built in edge burn). If there’s any light - moon light, candle light, cell phone light - you can get the shot.

In comparison to . . .

Author’s Note: Keep in mind that I’m talking theoreticals here; I haven’t used any of the lenses below. I can’t afford them.

The Noctilux: The Noctilux might be a half stop faster (see above), but at 50 mm it’s also going to be a bit harder to hold steady. You might have to go to an 1/8th or 1/15th instead of 1/4 of a second. The Noctilux also doesn’t focus as close, and it can create even shallower DOF (+ or - depending on your POV). Oh, and comparing new prices, the Nokton is a 1/3 of the price. Used it’s probably 1/4 the price of the Noctilux.

The Summilux: The latest summilux is probably a better perofrmer than the Nokton; it better be since it costs $2800 new. Occasionaly you see a bargain grade Summilux going for less than $1200. A pre ashperical Summilux might be a pretty good competitor for the Nokton as far as value goes, although I supspect the Nokton is a better performer. In any event, neither Summilux goes to 1.2.

Canon/Nikon LTM Fast 35’s: Both Canon and Nikon made fast 35’s in LTM. In good shape, these are likely to be more expensive than the Nokton, and they won’t focus closer than 1m.

Conclusions

Is the Nokton the perfect 35? No. It’s heavy. It’s huge for an rf lens; after living with it for a month, I think this is my main complaint. The Nokton takes up more room in my bag than my 28 and 50 combined.

Why buy it? For what it is, it’s the only game in town. In practical terms, it’s the fastest lens available; it’s nominally 1/2 stop slower than the Noctilux, but at 35mm it’s also possible to handhold it a stop lower. Nokton = at least a .5 stop gain over the Noctilux. In my sample I suspect that in the center it’s closer to 1.0 than it is to 1.2, so its lead might be even larger. And we can’t forget that with a new price around $850, the Noctilux is a much better buy than any other fast RF lens available. If you can get one used - likely since like the Nokton it’s a big lens that’s heavy and hard to use effectively - it’s an even better buy.

Update

I ended up selling this lens after using it for a couple of months. There wasn’t anything wrong with the lens, although the weight of it was always a drag on the shoulder. After close examination of a number large prints I did for a friend’s wedding, I decided that I couldn’t accurately focus this lens on the Hexar RF bodies that I use. I could get close, but close isn’t really good enough for 1.2. I don’t know the underlying cause of the focus problems. It was only noticeable uder 2 meters with the lens close to wide open. This is tough territory for an RF under the best of conditions, and it’s just as likely an indication of my own inabilities as it is of some problem with the lens or camera.