Voigtlander Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 – Micro four thirds lens – Low light samples

by barnaby 2014-01-05

written by barnaby 2014-01-05 2 minutes read

Intro

After a fair bit of dithering i picked up the manual focus Voigtlander Nokton 42.5mm F/0.95 in Hong Kong (Wing Shing Camera had the best price – HKD 7,200).

I deliberated for a while as I already have the excellent Olympus 45mm F/1.8, which is significantly smaller, lighter and has autofocus. At the same time the Leica Nokticron 42.5mm f/1.2 is due early 2014.

What swung things is a desire for shooting in low light, handheld, NO flash at low ISO. If you simplistically compare the apertures of the three m4/3 lenses in question:

Nokton: 42.5/0.95 = 44.7mm
Nokticron: 42.5/1.2 = 35.4mm
Olympus: 45/1.8 = 25mm

…you can see that that the Nokton has a significant advantage in terms of light gathering ability over the peers. It was this which made me buy the lens – the ability to shoot in the night. Also, i made the mistake of having a play with one in Singapore – amazingly to the touch.

Quick thoughts having used the lens for a week:

Pros

Amazingly sharp across the frame when stopped down – (see the first pic below under ‘> f/0.95’)
Excellent handling and build. Makes you want to pick it up.
Pleasant Bokeh – especially close up. Gets a little busy at my normal shooting distance (c. 5m)

Cons

Purple fringing is quite extreme – though fixable in Lightroom
Vignettes (though you would expect this from such a fast lens, and i think it add character)
The aperture ring has a habit of sliding from f/0.95 to f/1.2 – this is where the first ‘click’ comes into play.
Really heavy – i’m really only comfortable carrying the Nokton 42.5mm + one other.
Focus ring:
(a) turns forever from 0.23m to 1m and then limited turn (millimetres) from 2 – 5m. Given i’m mostly going to be shooting in this range, this is not ideal.
(b) when i twist the focus ring to infinity – i.e. all the way to the end, infinity isn’t actually in focus, you need to twist it back a little.

The list of cons is longer than the pros, but i’m actually really happy with the lens, save for the matters noted re the focus ring.

For more info there are a number of excellent and very positive reviews for the Nokton at ‘admiring light’, ‘ephotozine’ and ‘pekkapotka’. None of the reviews showed images compelling enough for me to really really want to buy the lens. Or else they were not in the style that i’d want to shoot – i.e. in the dark.

So, see below for what will probably turn into a rolling sequence of shots – click on the photos for larger sizes. ISO #s are in the bottom right corners.