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Technical Details
- Extremely compact design produces fantastic combination of size, speed, and price
- M-mount lens perfect for Leica M8
- Edge-to-edge sharpness remarkable
- Available in multi-coated and single-coated versions
- Does not include lens shade
Product Details
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Product Description
The newest offering from Voigtlander is truly something: the 35mm f/1.4 Nokton. Designed similarly to the 40mm f/1.4 Nokton, this is tiny, fast, and affordable. Despite this amazing set of attributes, Voigtlander did not skimp on the production quality: tests have shown this lens to be remarkably sharp even at its wide-open aperture. This is the multi-coated version (basically this means if you shoot color you can expect highly saturated colors, and if you shoot b/w you can expect high contrast).
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 48 people found the following review helpful
The Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.4 is the most interesting budget alternative to the famous Leica 35mm LUX, for a little more than 10% of the price, you probably get something like 90% of the performance. Considering what you pay for this lens, there is simply no interesting alternative. You can make life simple and skip to the bottom line, or you can read the details below.
Please, don't think of this as a inexpensive lens. ALL 1.4 lenses are in a rarefied territory of exotic ultra fast lenses.
Lets talk about what you get and what you do not get for the money in the Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 lens.
The defining character of this lens is "FAST". This is a 1.4 lens, you can shoot this lens handheld in dark bars. As far as I am concerned, the number one reason to purchase a 1.4 lens is photographing after sunset, also known as "available darkness" photography. The number two reason is environmental portraits with incredible shallow focus on the subject and a delightfully blurred background. Maybe there is a third reason, 35mm is one of the classical rangefinder lenses, popular for street photography.
The Nokton 35mm 1.4 does "wide open" excellently, it is a fantastic lens for wide open photography, with a nice out of focus look.
There is no such thing as a "free lunch", you can say that about this lens also. While the Nokton 35mm 1.4 excels at its main job, photographing wide open, the lens does have a small problem, it is one of those you need to know about, once you know and understand it is not a problem. The lens have a pretty dramatic focus shift when stopped down to 2.0 and 4.0 - what does that really mean.? simply, imagine you photograph a portrait at about 3 feet, if you photograph at f. 1.4 the focus will be on the eye of the person (assuming you focused on the eye) however, once you stop down to 2.0 the focus plane have moved almost 3 inches backwards and is now on the ear.. roughly the same is true at f. 4.0 - things get better at 5.6 because the depth of field catches up with the focus shift.. so basically at 5.6 the depth of field have covered the area you originally focused on.
What does this mean for you as a photographer.? The 35mm 1.4 is a very competent lens, when used inside its comfort zone. So, buy this lens for wide-open night, street and portrait photography. Use the lens wide open at f 1.4 or stop it down to f. 5.6 or below for landscape.
This description of the 35mm 1.4 is based on owning one and playing with another, both of these had the same profile, I have heard that some users claim to not have the focus-shift issue, I have not personally seen a lens without the focus-shift. As I said above, there is nothing wrong with this lens, but you need to understand the strong sides of the lens. While you think about this, it might be worth knowing that the famous Leica 35mm 1.4 display a similar focus shift issue, so part of shooting a 35mm 1.4 ultra fast lens, involves focus-shift, get over it and go take some pictures. The Leica lens also apears to come with a bit of varity, some users claim huge focus-shift issues, others claim no such thing, I don't own the lens and don't intend to purchase it as long as my $600 Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 does the trick so incredibly well.
The physical appearance of the lens is classical 35mm. It is very compact and well build. Sorry I can't give you a mechanical reason not to buy this lens. I recommend getting the matching lens-hood.
Crop-Factor. If you are a user of the Leica M8 or the Epson RD1 you will be aware of the related crop factor issues, this was the original reason I purchased the 35mm 1.4, to act as a "50mm" on my M8. This is a lovely fast lens on the M8, naturally, again it must be used within its comfort-zone.
How do I know this lens..? I have use two of them, own one and love it. The last year I have used this on my M6 film rangefinder, and also on my M8, and finally now in Dec 2009 on my new M9, the lens perform well on all of these cameras. I should add that the lens have a grove in the lens mount, you can code the lens with a sharpie by making marks in the grove, this will let your M8 or M9 camera record the lens and focal length which can be very convenient for sorting images in Lightroom.
ALL 1.4 lenses are exotic lenses. there are some compromises, these are well worth living with in return for ultra-fast exotic glass rendering and low-light photography.
Bottom line - For my money, this lens is Highly Recommended, there is no other similar small fast lens, for this kind of money.
Please, don't think of this as a inexpensive lens. ALL 1.4 lenses are in a rarefied territory of exotic ultra fast lenses.
Lets talk about what you get and what you do not get for the money in the Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 lens.
The defining character of this lens is "FAST". This is a 1.4 lens, you can shoot this lens handheld in dark bars. As far as I am concerned, the number one reason to purchase a 1.4 lens is photographing after sunset, also known as "available darkness" photography. The number two reason is environmental portraits with incredible shallow focus on the subject and a delightfully blurred background. Maybe there is a third reason, 35mm is one of the classical rangefinder lenses, popular for street photography.
The Nokton 35mm 1.4 does "wide open" excellently, it is a fantastic lens for wide open photography, with a nice out of focus look.
There is no such thing as a "free lunch", you can say that about this lens also. While the Nokton 35mm 1.4 excels at its main job, photographing wide open, the lens does have a small problem, it is one of those you need to know about, once you know and understand it is not a problem. The lens have a pretty dramatic focus shift when stopped down to 2.0 and 4.0 - what does that really mean.? simply, imagine you photograph a portrait at about 3 feet, if you photograph at f. 1.4 the focus will be on the eye of the person (assuming you focused on the eye) however, once you stop down to 2.0 the focus plane have moved almost 3 inches backwards and is now on the ear.. roughly the same is true at f. 4.0 - things get better at 5.6 because the depth of field catches up with the focus shift.. so basically at 5.6 the depth of field have covered the area you originally focused on.
What does this mean for you as a photographer.? The 35mm 1.4 is a very competent lens, when used inside its comfort zone. So, buy this lens for wide-open night, street and portrait photography. Use the lens wide open at f 1.4 or stop it down to f. 5.6 or below for landscape.
This description of the 35mm 1.4 is based on owning one and playing with another, both of these had the same profile, I have heard that some users claim to not have the focus-shift issue, I have not personally seen a lens without the focus-shift. As I said above, there is nothing wrong with this lens, but you need to understand the strong sides of the lens. While you think about this, it might be worth knowing that the famous Leica 35mm 1.4 display a similar focus shift issue, so part of shooting a 35mm 1.4 ultra fast lens, involves focus-shift, get over it and go take some pictures. The Leica lens also apears to come with a bit of varity, some users claim huge focus-shift issues, others claim no such thing, I don't own the lens and don't intend to purchase it as long as my $600 Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 does the trick so incredibly well.
The physical appearance of the lens is classical 35mm. It is very compact and well build. Sorry I can't give you a mechanical reason not to buy this lens. I recommend getting the matching lens-hood.
Crop-Factor. If you are a user of the Leica M8 or the Epson RD1 you will be aware of the related crop factor issues, this was the original reason I purchased the 35mm 1.4, to act as a "50mm" on my M8. This is a lovely fast lens on the M8, naturally, again it must be used within its comfort-zone.
How do I know this lens..? I have use two of them, own one and love it. The last year I have used this on my M6 film rangefinder, and also on my M8, and finally now in Dec 2009 on my new M9, the lens perform well on all of these cameras. I should add that the lens have a grove in the lens mount, you can code the lens with a sharpie by making marks in the grove, this will let your M8 or M9 camera record the lens and focal length which can be very convenient for sorting images in Lightroom.
ALL 1.4 lenses are exotic lenses. there are some compromises, these are well worth living with in return for ultra-fast exotic glass rendering and low-light photography.
Bottom line - For my money, this lens is Highly Recommended, there is no other similar small fast lens, for this kind of money.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
The Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.4 is a great bargain in fast M lenses (especially if you can find one used -- they depreciate significantly in my experience). I have been happy with the results I get from it, both on my M8 and my M2. The other reviewer that mentions focus shift is correct: you'll most likely experience it. I tested for it (with a yardstick and tripod) and found it in my copy. However, I don't worry about it much in regular shooting. Another great benefit of this lens is its compactness. It's pretty amazingly small.
As far as other options, you could also consider the Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2 (1 stop slower) for somewhat less than twice the price of the Nokton. I prefer the handling of the Zeiss, but I could live with the Voigtlander as my only 35mm.
As far as other options, you could also consider the Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2 (1 stop slower) for somewhat less than twice the price of the Nokton. I prefer the handling of the Zeiss, but I could live with the Voigtlander as my only 35mm.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
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I use this lens on my NEX-5. It's a wonderfully small combination. Mechanical construction is really good. Everything operates very smoothly. As other reviewers have said, this lens is not razor sharp wide open but ask yourself the question: does any other lens give you f1.4 with good performance in this small size at this price point? All the other better 35mm f1.4 primes are either more expensive (a Leica summilux costs a few grands) or bigger in size (SLR lenses) that makes the NEX look like a monster. I'm very pleased with this lens' performance wide open so far although I have to say you do not get the full 1 stop from f2 to f1.4. It's more like 0.7 stop (I measured it). Field curvature is also an issue although I think you won't be concerned too much with corner performance at large apertures. The f1.4 aperture, good high ISO of the NEX (3200 ISO is very good and 6400 usable) makes it possible to shoot in very very low light. the NEX also has another trick up its sleeve called the "handheld twilight mode" that takes six photos and then stack and align them to give you a pretty noise free photo (even at 6400ISO) that would not have been possible if you only take 1 photo the traditional way. I've been astounded many times how clean photos I can get in very dark conditions. The small form factor of this lens also helps in blending in with the environment instead of intimidating people with a big DSLR.
The NEX and CV 35 1.4 make for a small but winning combination for low light shooting on a budget. If you don't have the money to shell out for a Leica summilux but still want a small but very fast lens this is the one to get. Don't let the bashing of this lens from Leica owners discourage you.
The NEX and CV 35 1.4 make for a small but winning combination for low light shooting on a budget. If you don't have the money to shell out for a Leica summilux but still want a small but very fast lens this is the one to get. Don't let the bashing of this lens from Leica owners discourage you.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Four stars for bargain price
I shoot a Nex-5N. The more I use the Nokton, the less I like it (although I still see it as a decent lens). I think with this lens you get what you pay for. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rawbreed
Amazing bokeh, focal length, colours, and sharpness
I use this with an m-to-e-mount adapter mounted on my NEX-5. I do not have experience with original Leica lens. So I do not know how it compares with Leica. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Manish S. Vanjara
Voigtlander giving Leica a run for the money
While there is no debate that all the Leica 1.4 lenses are the best in the world Voigtlander comes so close that it's splitting hairs to compare for anyone other than the most... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Carbonadam
Bokkeh Voigtlander
I couldn't be happier with this lens. If you're looking for an extremely shallow depth-of-field then this is your lens. Read more
Published 19 months ago by A. GENTILE
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