Artralab 50mm f/1.2 Nocturne

Artra Lab 50mm f/1.2 Nocturne

The Artra Lab 50mm f/1.2 Nocturne is a fast standard lens built for the Leica M mount by Artra Lab, a Hong Kong maker of manual-focus lenses, adapters and photographic accessories [1]. It pairs a bright f/1.2 aperture with an eight-element, six-group optical layout and an eleven-blade diaphragm, and it focuses down to 0.7 m[2]. Because it is not rangefinder coupled, the focus scale on the barrel does not drive the camera's rangefinder mechanism, so it is intended to be focused by scale, by live view, or on mirrorless bodies through an M adapter rather than through an M camera's coupled rangefinder patch.

The lens is a substantial, all-metal piece, with a barrel measuring 80 mm in length and weighing 784 g, and it uses 52 mm front filters. The high blade count is chosen to keep the aperture opening close to circular as it is stopped down, which influences the shape of out-of-focus highlights. The maximum f/1.2 opening stops down to a minimum of f/16, and the optics cover the standard 46-degree angle of view of a 50 mm lens on full frame. It does not carry six-bit coding, so a digital M body will not read it automatically and the lens must be selected manually if lens profiles are used.

Artra Lab has offered the Nocturne in small numbered runs rather than as a single mass-production item. Documented variants include a Complete Brass edition limited to 19 pieces and a Silver Chrome edition limited to 99 pieces, both for the Leica M mount and both carrying the same NOCTURNE-M optical specification. The two finishes are the main way to distinguish copies, and the engraved limited-edition numbering is the key identification detail when verifying a particular example.

Optical qualities

Rendering Independent published testing of this exact M-mount Nocturne is limited, so detailed rendering claims should be treated with caution. From the design alone, a fast f/1.2 standard lens of this type can be expected to render with a shallow plane of focus and pronounced background blur when used wide open, with the eleven curved blades helping keep stopped-down highlights rounded. Artra Lab markets several of its fast 50 mm designs around a soft, classic look at full aperture, but specific, repeatable measurements of sharpness, contrast, flare, distortion and vignetting for the Nocturne-M are not well documented in the sources reviewed here, and are best confirmed against personal testing.

History

Development and Launch Artra Lab is a Hong Kong brand that produces manual lenses and mount adapters, and it lists the 50mm f/1.2 Nocturne among its Leica M-mount lenses. The Nocturne sits in Artra Lab's family of fast standard optics. It is distinct from the company's later Nocty-NONIKKOR 50mm f/1.2, a separate manual lens announced in 2024 that is styled after classic Nikkor fifties and offered in mirrorless mounts such as Sony E, Nikon Z and Fujifilm X; the two should not be confused despite the similar names and apertures [3].

Special editions The Nocturne has been sold as numbered limited editions rather than an open production run. Confirmed examples are the Complete Brass version, limited to 19 units, and the Silver Chrome version, limited to 99 units, both NOCTURNE-M lenses for the Leica M mount. No other major factory variants of this lens are widely documented.

Collector Notes When evaluating a Nocturne, check the finish and the engraved edition number, since the brass and silver chrome runs are small and the numbering is the clearest proof of which edition a copy belongs to. Buyers should also keep in mind that the lens is not rangefinder coupled and carries no six-bit coding, so it will not focus through an M camera's coupled rangefinder or be auto-identified by a digital M body; these are characteristics of the design rather than faults. Because the lens is recent, originality and conversion concerns are less relevant than for vintage glass, but standard checks for clean optics and smooth focus and aperture action still apply.