CV Nokton 35mm F1.2 Review
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.
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.
For my money the Nokton 40mm f1.4 fills the bill. tiny and competent.
I’ve always been curious about the 40mm f1.4. The size is intriguing, but I think I’d need to mount it on a camera that had 40mm framelines.
The 40 Nokton, I have the SC version, gives me wonderful results starting from f/2.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/446577449_3e174d5782.jpg (f/2)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/248/457086223_1669f1f895_o.jpg (f/1.8 with very little light. the lamp was dim)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/215/452416545_147abb3414_o.jpg (f/2.8 It really starts shining here)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1280/548424470_d68d4c9cb0_b.jpg (Larger File. f/8 I have 8×10 print of this with superb resolution. Iford Delta 100 in Rodinal 1+50)
Forgot to mention that I use it on the Bessa R2 with the 50mm framelines. It works nicely for me, but others prefer the 35mm lines.
Ditto on the Nokton 40 f1.4. Tiny with good build quality. I have used both 50mm and 35mm framelines, preferring the 35. Also, I find the bokeh to be pleasing despite other negative reports seen on the internet.
Ditto on the Nokton 40 f1.4. Tiny with good build quality. I have used both 50mm and 35mm framelines, preferring the 35. Also, I find the bokeh to be pleasing despite other negative reports seen on the internet.
what do you mean 1.0 at the centre?? do you know that aperture is a ratio between the diameter of the opening and the focal length of the lens?
i’m guessing you’re having metering issues @ 1.2 if you are doing TTL – either compensate or try a handheld meter…
“do you know that aperture is a ratio between the diameter of the opening and the focal length of the lens?”
Well, that would depend on if the manufacturer is stating the mathematical aperture or effective aperture. The two are often quite different because how much light the glass actually transmits. Usually lenses have a slower effective aperture than their mathematical aperture. I have no idea if Cosina marks their lenses with their effective aperture (like T stops on cine lens) or with their mathematical apertures, but I do know that mine seemed genuinely faster that 1.2 in the center. Given that I haven’t owned the lens for two years now, I wouldn’t swear to it, though.
a lense’s printed aperture is the physical diameter calculated when focused at infinity. at infinity, it is the same as the effective aperture. “effective aperture” can be calculated when the lens is focused closer than infinity (due to the physical focal length changing as the near plane element moves in. it would be no where close to 1.0 on a 35mm lens. even if it did, you would still experience the same ‘speed’ out the the sides, except where obsucured by part of the lens (start of vignetting). if you are talking about the gathering of rays at the centre of an elliptical lens, this does not affect the effective aperture. this is actually measurable using circle of confusion criterion calculation. although the overall outcome is somewhat objectional, the overall behaviour is the same at the same exact focal length and physical aperture.
put another way, a fisheye lens tends to be brighter in the middle, but the DoF is exactly the same as a non fisheye of the same focal length and aperture.
no one marks their lenses exactly at the aperture – they are rounded up to the nearest aperture. the Nokton is closer to f/1.3 but rounded up instead of rounded down to f/1.4
“no one marks their lenses exactly at the aperture”
So you agree with me that the calculated number may be different from the number marked on the lens?
“the Nokton is closer to f/1.3 but rounded up instead of rounded down to f/1.4″
What’s your basis for this assertion? Might not the lens actually be 1.0, but be marked 1.2?
If I still owned the lens, I’d be happy to solve this debate empirically, but I don’t, so I can’t. My memory though is that going from 1.4 to 1.2 got you another full click on the shutter speed dial.
of course they don’t label it exactly – the same reason the focal length isn’t exactly 35mm. they certainly would want to label the lens as F/1.25467865467 or whatever it is. the basis for my assertion is it *appears* that the aperture’s diameter is close to 27mm (can’t measure with element there). i’m way too lazy to measure the exact focal length so i’m using the loose claim of 35mm.
you wouldn’t be able to solve it empirically without taking the elements out and then sticking a pair of dividers down in to measure the diameter – and then measure the exact focal length at infinity.
“you wouldn’t be able to solve it empirically without taking the elements out and then sticking a pair of dividers down in to measure the diameter – and then measure the exact focal length at infinity.”
Well, if you’ve got the lens, make the measurements, show me the results and I’ll happily amend the review. It would make an interesting addition to information available on this lens.
[...] It’s all over the strange web backwater that is the rangefinder crowd; Cosina has a new 35 F1.4. It’s not clear if it’s M or LTM mount or even if it be available outside Japan. If google translate is to be believed it will offer ‘width of expression,’ ‘throttle opening blur taste,’ and a ‘Food dedicated’. If nothing else it looks like a good compact alternative to the brilliant but giant CV 35 F1.2. Get your fix of wild speculation here and here. Posted by matt Filed in Optics, Photos [...]
I must admit that my Nokton 1.4 40 mm is a very good lens on my Leica M8. It challenges both the Summicrons
50 and 35 mm (as a matter of fact I think it keeps step at 2,0 with both of them and in everday use outperforms them by having the extra 1,4 and a very good contrast). It is also smaller,handier, lighter and much cheaper than the Summilux. The Nokton is a 2008 species.My Summicron 50 mm is from 1989 and my Summicron 35 mm from 1972. I also use an uncoated Zeiss Sonnar 50 mm 2,0 from 1934 with good result and an extra bokeh!