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Voigtländer Nokton 35mm f/1.4 II MC Review - Little lens, big personality
The Lens
My first Leica M lens was the TTArtisan 50 mm f/1.4. After a year of use I began to find the focal length a little tight, especially in narrow streets, and I wanted images that felt more open and spacious. I prefer smaller lenses, because I do a lot of travel photography. So I can slip the camera into my bag or carry it all day without effort.
Many photographers start with a 35 mm on their Leica M, then add either a 28 mm or 50 mm as a second lens. That approach helps you discover your preferred focal length. In my case, I realised I wanted the wider perspective of a 35 mm. It allows me to build more layered, storytelling images.
Since I mostly shoot film, the medium already adds its own character, but I still enjoy lenses with distinctive rendering. I began looking for a 35 mm that could deliver both versatility and personality.
My dream 35 is the Summilux 35mm f1.4 Steel Rim Reissue. The one Reddit post where someone only shot an entire trip in China on f/1.4 ignited my love for the Steel Rim. Unfortunately, my wallet is not that thick, so I went to look for alternatives. Quickly I found a Fred Miranda topic that compared four lenses (Summilux Steel Rim, MS-Optics Apollon, the Nokton, and the Light Lens Lab 8-element). It was very clear that the Nokton’s rendering was very close to the Steel Rim Re-Issue.
There is also the 35mm f/2.5 and f/3.5 Color-Skopar that is being offered by Voigtländer. Great lenses, but a bit more clinical in rendering. Knowing this, I decided to place an order for the Nokton 35mm f/1.4 II MC. This lens is slightly more expensive than the 35mm f/2.2 Color Skopar at $599 (€649), but you get around two stops extra. The Nokton is a very popular pick for Leica M photographers that start out with the Leica M system, to get a good feel for building out their kit. And for many of those photographers, it is their one and only lens.
To start right away, here is a list of pros and cons:
Pros
- Sharp lens at f/2 and above
- Bonus f/1.4 speed setting
- Easy to focus, very smooth and dampened. Focus tab helps with muscle memory on zone focusing. Ergonomics are fantastic.
- Brass barrel design, light weight and very well balanced on any M body.
Cons
- Glow can decrease perceived sharpness
- Spherical aberration (swirly bokeh) at f/1.4. Can be a pro, depending on what is important to you.
- Barrel distortion
- Insane amounts of coma at night (street lights and car head lights)
- Corner performance is not great
The Nokton Name
Voigtlander has a couple of lens line ups, for example the Heliar, Ultron, Nokton, Color-Skopar and the APO-Lanthar. All those names correspond a specific lens design. To read more about all Voigtlander lens designs, go to this page.
This lens is a Nokton “Classic” design, which means a fast, large-aperture lens with a classic rangefinder lens, all-metal barrel design. Right now there are only three “Classic” lens body designs, namely this lens, the 40mm F/1.4 Nokton as well as the 50mm f/1.5 Heliar Classic, although I find the Heliar Classic looking more like a “Vintage” series barrel. Voigtlander is known for its inconsistency between lens barrel designs, but I think the last few years they have been improving greatly, making their design language more refined.
The build and weight
With the lens having a brass construction, it is a solid chunk. The center of gravity is very much in the middle of the lens, which I appreciate. This makes handling the camera with the lens feel like a dream compared to bigger 35 and 50mm lenses, as the body balances very nicely with the lens on. I think that’s the nature of having a brass barrel design, which I really appreciate.
At 189 gram it is the fourth lightest 35mm f1.4 lens, being superseded by the MS-Optics Apoqualia 35mm f/1.3 (61g) and f/1.4 (85g), Funleader Artizlab Classic 35mm f/1.4 (157g), and it is even lighter than the 1960s Leica Summilux 35mm f/1.4 V2 (200g).
Even when the lens is small with a length of 28mm, the aperture ring is easy to reach due to the two tabs sticking out. Your fingers get plenty of grip, making it easy to change the aperture, but you will never accidentally knock it out of place. Aperture clicks every half stop, making it easy to change without looking.
When mounting it on my Leica M2, the mounting feels rather tight and I have to put in a bit of force to get it in the desired clicked position. The build quality feels very good due to the brass construction, tight tolerances and I’m really happy using this lens. It honestly feels like a dream to control it, focus it and to shoot with it, from my relatively limited experience with the amount of lenses I have used so far.
Barrel design
As mentioned before, it’s a Voigtlander “Classic” barrel design. There’s something about this 35mm f/1.4 lens design, the super convex/bulbous front element that really screams “I let in a lot of light!“. I do not mind the chrome nose for this specific lens, as I have a chrome Leica M2. I can imagine if you have a black M body, the Summilux Steel Rim or the v2 Pre-Aspherical Lux is going to look better.
This lens has a scalloped focusing tab, which is reminiscent of the older Leica M mount lenses. Focusing tabs are so underrated and in my opinion every Leica M mount lens should have one. It helps you to zone-focus, as there are fixed positions you can learn yourself, e.g. 1 meter, 2 meter and 3-5 meter on f/8. Depth of field will cover the slight inaccuracy, but it means you will capture the image as you see it, as you don’t need time to align the rangefinder patch.
This is mainly about the Black version of the Nokton. There is also a silver limited edition available by Map Camera, but that is the first version that is known for its focus shift issues.
If I had to give some feedback on the barrel design is that the typography of the aperture, distance and depth of field markers feel slightly off compared to the rest of the Leica design language.
The rendering
I mainly shoot film. Most of my images I shoot between f/5.6 and f/8. This will make this lens look like any other 35mm lens.
Recently I shot a birthday party late at night in a bar on 1600 ISO (HP5 pushed two stops), and I kept the lens wide open at f/1.4. The depth of field was thin, but with the 35mm focal length it works well since it is not as shallow as with a 50mm at f/1.4. At a distance of two meters the 35mm gives about 27 centimeters of depth of field, compared to only 13 centimeters with the 50mm. This creates a nicer focus falloff that is less abrupt, while still giving you the light gathering capability of f/1.4. That was the moment I felt I had made the right choice in picking up this Nokton lens, as the 50mm focal length would have felt too tight shooting this birthday party.
At f/1.4 there is quite some vignetting, and will be mostly gone around f/4. There is also spherical aberration, which is optical vignetting (swirly bokeh) at f/1.4 and is pretty much gone at f/2. This is visible in the next image.
Wide open this lens has a very painterly look and the contrast is a bit lower compared to at f/2. If the subject is close you can certainly get bubble bokeh. This lens is actually very sharp in the center, and quite sharp in the corners. The only difference is that there can be some glow in the highlights, decreasing the perceived sharpness. Either way, “Sharpness is a bourgeois concept” according to Henri-Cartier Bresson ;-).
If you’re striving for something more close to technical perfection, go have a look at the 35mm Voigtlander APO-Lanthar, the newest 35mm Summilux aspherical “FLE” or the 35mm APO-Summicron.
Ming tombs hall, taken at f/1.4. Compared to f/8, lots of spherical aberration and vignetting!
Ming tombs hall, taken at f/8. Far more controlled!
If there’s one real drawback, that is this lens exhibits barrel distortion. I have not considered it a problem in daily use, but if you like to shoot architecture, real estate or have specific wishes, get another lens.
There is a little bit of purple fringing, but honestly I haven’t considered it as a real drawback. It adds to the character in this case.
This lens is actually not that usable in the street at night at f/1.4. It flares quite a bit and has a lot of glow and coma. It can work, just take it into account before going out and shooting. It is just where the “classical” design iis shown a bit more.
Tulips taken at f/1.4, Fujicolor 200. See the field curvature!
Focus shift
The first version of this lens is known for focus shift issues. This version has improved those issues but they have not been fully solved, for that you’re going to need floating lens elements. I can tell; in real world use I have not suffered from the focus shift. I could go in depth but Flavio Bosi already covered this in great detail on his blog. To quote Flavio:
Focus shift: Spot on wide open, very slight shift at F2, definitely there at F4, depth of field more than makes up for it at F8. In thousands of pictures shot with this lens I have yet to see it: the only way to see it is a controlled setting like this for me! In my opinion it’s a non-issue with this lens. It’s another matter with its older sibling, the first version of the Nokton 35mm 1.4: focus shifting was visible in real life shooting in some situations.
For paid work
I have done paid assignments in the past with all kinds of lenses. Shot nightclubs, events and parties on film. I started my analog journey with a Praktica MTL5 with a 28mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8, 50mm f/2 and a 135mm f/2.8. Shot really nice images with it. At this point it was just F/5.6, put the flash on and shoot well-exposed images. At some point a client requested that I shot an event without a flash. Due to the light coming through the lens, at f/2.8 it was really dark. It really hurt my ability to focus using a SLR. The images did come out fine, but I liked the flash images better. If I were to upgrade this SLR kit for such occasions, I had to look for a Nikon, Canon, Pentax or Minolta system with high-speed lenses, which are really heavy on SLR systems.
Instead, I decided to build out a Leica M kit, as I feel like for this type of photography an rangefinder is more suitable. Just look for a contrasty spot, align the RF patch and let the DoF do the work for you. Most of your subjects are between one and five meters. Put your index finger on the focus tab and zone-focus straight away. This also goes for smaller bodies, smaller lenses and a compact flash fits very well on it.
I do think this Nokton lens is not the most suitable lens for client work, especially nightclubs, events and parties. It’s good to communicate with the client what kind of look they’re going for. For this type of photography I’d look more for a clinically rendering lens like the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.5 Nokton Vintage, or the Voigtlander 35mm f/2 Ultron Vintage.
It might work for weddings though, as it’s a really dreamy lens at f/1.4 and f/2! This all depends on what look the client is going for. Again, make sure to communicate and ask what they want!
Takeaways
- You really need to play to its strengths. Know what aperture you have to use in order to get your desired result.
- It’s a f/2 lens with a bonus f/1.4 turbo setting. Film users will absolutely appreciate this.
- Light weight and balanced on camera
- Very smooth focusing experience
- There is quite a bit of vignetting, but this is only really noticeable at higher apertures. Do not get this lens if you only shoot landscapes or architecture.
- Corner performance is not that great
Tile ceiling of Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/4. Corner performance is not that great here.
Royal consorts, Forbidden City, Beijing, China, f/8.
Compared to other lenses
Leica Summilux 35mm pre-aspherical & “Steel Rim Re-issue”
Those two lenses are very similar. The Nokton is sharper with less flare, and the Summilux has more glow and less barrel distortion. Minimum focus distance of the Nokton is 0.7 meter, which is better than the Summilux’s 1 meter.
Subjectively, the Summilux looks better on a Leica M camera.
Villagers from Zhangjiajie having a grand time, Zhangjiajie, China, f/8.
Light Lens Lab 35mm f/2 8-element
This lens is a very interesting contender if you’re looking for a 35mm lens. The rendering is relatively similar to the Nokton but exhibits less barrel distortion and highlights are more controlled. I feel the character is a little bit more balanced across the frame compared to the Nokton as it’s slightly more corrected, but still vintage looking.
It does have a infinity lock, which makes sense as it’s a recreation of the original. I still think they should make a new version without it.
Interested? Have a look at their store. I’ll most certainly be picking up this lens some day and review it. I feel like as I want to go into wedding photography on film, this will be a really good addition to my kit.
Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.5 Vintage
The Nokton 35mm f/1.5 is much more clinical. You could consider this lens as a Ultron on steroids, as their optical performance seems to be much more similar. There’s no floating lens element so there might be very slight focus shift. There are four aspherical lenses, giving a high performance in such a tiny package.
Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 II
A new brand has emerged and they released a 35mm f/1.4 lens for the Leica M mount. Those lenses are optically based on the Cinema line of the Simera, with the body rehoused making it compatible for the Leica M, Nikon Z, Sony E and even Canon RF mount.
This lens design has floating lens elements, solving the focus shift problem. This makes the image quality very similar to the Summilux FLE. In my opinion this lens has one of the most beautiful focus falloff I’ve ever seen. This lens is heavier than the Nokton at 272g, but lighter than the FLE’s 338g. The newest version got rid of the infinity lock, which means Thypoch does listen to its customers!
Interested? Have a look at their store.
Looking for other Voigtlander lens reviews?
Film images
Tractor tire, f/2, Fujicolor 200.
Cosmetic products at a shop, f/2, Fujicolor 200.
My bunnies, f/1.4, Fujicolor 200.
Street shop, Xi'an, China. f/4, Ektar 100.
Street shop, Xi'an, China. f/8, Ektar 100.
Digital images
Tibetan style, Summer Palace, Beijing, China. f/8.
Breakfast at a Hutong courtyard hotel, Beijing, China. f/1.4.
Guide telling a story about the emperors' burial gown at Ming Tombs, Beijing, China. f/1.4.
Emperors' burial gown at Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/1.4.
Red ribbons, Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/4.
Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/1.4. See the vignetting at f/1.4!
Red ribbons, Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/4.
The emperor Wanli's coffin, Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/1.4.
Buddhist style tapestry, Ming Tombs, Beijing, China, f/1.4.
Chinese tourists, Forbidden City, Beijing, China, f/8.
Hall of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City, Beijing, China, f/8.
Dressed as royal concubines, Forbidden City, Beijing, China, f/8.
Forbidden City, Beijing, China, f/8.
Empress dowager (shot from the hip), Forbidden City, Beijing, China, f/8.
Mao's Tian'anmen Gate Tower, Beijing, China, f/8.
Tian'anmen square, Beijing, China, f/8.
The Droste Effect, (I believe) near Shijuazhuang, China, f/4.
Man journaling, Xi'an, China, f/8.
Little boy in town, Xi'an, China, f/8.
Painter at work, Xi'an, China, f/2. Notice the halo in the highlights.
Xi'an City Wall, Xi'an, China, f/8.
Xi'an City East Gate, Xi'an, China, f/8.
Xi'an City East Gate, Xi'an, China, f/4. Nice sunstars! Notice the green halo in the highlights
Ribbons, Zhangjiajie, China, f/8.
Ferns, Zhangjiajie, China, f/1.4.
Buddha's Palm Peak, Zhangjiajie, China, f/8.
Rapeseed field, Zhangjiajie, China, f/8.
Still interested in the lens?
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