Voigtländer Nokton 50 1.0 (now with samples)

[Paul Spinnler]

Hi guys

I just got this lens and was able to compare it in the Leica store with a Noct 0.95; and as established already by Fred Miranda in his lengthy publicly available review it is an absolutely fantastic lens. Wide open CA is very well controlled and it is very sharp. In fact, at 1/8 of the price of the Leica equivalent I am shocked.

I compared sharpness, aberration, edge performance, etc. and it beat the Noct on all accounts.

At 1.4 it also is seemingly outperforming the venerable 50 1.4 (no scientific test here). Just remarkable.

Although heresy in view of some, I am really happy with this purchase.

Just as a pointer for those interested in that super dreamy Noctilux look ...

Best
Paul

 

[dave.gt]

Hi guys

I just got this lens and was able to compare it in the Leica store with a Noct 0.95; and as established already by Fred Miranda in his lengthy publicly available review it is an absolutely fantastic lens. Wide open CA is very well controlled and it is very sharp. In fact, at 1/8 of the price of the Leica equivalent I am shocked.

I compared sharpness, aberration, edge performance, etc. and it beat the Noct on all accounts.

At 1.4 it also is seemingly outperforming the venerable 50 1.4 (no scientific test here). Just remarkable.

Although heresy in view of some, I am really happy with this purchase.

Just as a pointer for those interested in that super dreamy Noctilux look ...

Best
Paul

Hi, Paul, it sounds extremely cool…and it would be very interesting to see some images you have made with this lens!

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Sure, this is a shot wide open - tack sharp lashes ... can tell you that with the Noct it was not like this ...

 

[dave.gt]

Yeah, that is very nice! What camera did you shoot this with?

 

[Paul Spinnler]

SL2 and then post-production C1; I think the SL2 is a must for this lens or the M with a Visoflex. It is a quite contrasty lens too, ie it creates a colour explosion on a sunny day ...

 

[anyone]

Really interesting lens. I wonder how well it works adapted to Canon RF… or the GFX.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

I am a die-hard Leica fan and three years ago traded away my Noct 0.95 for Leica S stuff; since then I was missing the look, but the reason why I traded it away was because of the very strong chromatic aberrations it exhibited. This lens supersedes the Noct - I really didn't want to buy it - and even the Leica store manager wasn't able to tell a difference side-by-side at full-screen magnification except that the Voigtlaender looked sharper and had less aberrations.

I think what we are seeing here is a lens manufacturer catching up after a decade of lens production innovations ... it is the only non-Leica lens I own and on top of that it is very compact and looks great on the SL.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

One of many test shots I did; first the scene and then at the exact the same distance the focus on the Summilux 24; first Noct, then Voigtlaender. On the edges the performance of the Noct deteriorates significantly while Voigtlaender just has more vignetting but stays a quite a bit sharper comparatively. Impressive given the price difference and on top of that it is lighter and more compact. I was baffled and the Leica store manager agreed that it is difficult to make a case for the Leica ...

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Look at this shot. Wide open. Default sharpening in C1, no CA correction. I had the Noct 0.95 for many years and this shot would have resulted in really bad CA. Like big, thick magenta lines around the highlights to the point that correcting it looks not so nice ... and also note the sharpness wide open. No vignetting correction here. If this is the worst CA I get on a sub 2k Noct replacement @1.0 ... difficult to ignore. It is a really nice tool in one's kit ...

 

[Paul Spinnler]

evfNow a comparison how the Noct and Voigt behave off-centre. Quick fall-off of quality / sharpness in the case of the Noct vs. Voigt. I was careful to focus with SL2 via EVF and at the almost same distance. The worse quality is that off the Noct 0.95.

I think Voigtlaender produced their best lens yet with this one. Waiting list at this dealer is at least 4-6 months ... think this thread will get a bit more feedback than without pics, I suppose.

 

[dave.gt]

Very impressive!!!!!!!

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Agree, wasn't expecting that ...

 

[PeterA]

It seems Voigtlander are coming out with some excellent lenses for M these days .