Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.5 II

Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.5 II

Part of Cosina's NOKTON Vintage Line, this lens is a ground-up redesign of an earlier Voigtländer 50mm f/1.5, swapping the older six-element formula for a more complex eight-element layout while shrinking the barrel further [1]. The "Vintage" in its name refers to the styling rather than the rendering: it does not deliberately mimic an old lens, and buyers looking for a softer classic look are pointed toward Voigtländer's "Classic" lenses instead [2]. The result is a fast standard lens that pairs a modern aspherical design with a deliberately retro exterior.

Optically the lens uses eight elements in seven groups and a 12-blade diaphragm with straight blades, giving distinct half-stop click stops; the focus ring turns roughly 100 degrees from the 0.7 m minimum focus distance to infinity and is engraved with paint-filled markings on an all-metal body. It is a true rangefinder-coupled M-mount lens, compatible with M-mount and Bessa cameras (Cosina notes the Bessa L and R as exceptions), and it takes 43 mm filters. Despite combining a 50mm focal length with an f/1.5 aperture, the lens is notably small and light, a trait reviewers tie directly to its high wide-open vignetting.

Cosina offered the lens in two coating versions: a multi-coated (MC) variant aimed at reproducing colors as neutrally as possible, and a single-coated (SC) variant intended to render more classical color. Finishes include black and silver aluminum models plus a premium nickel-plated and black-painted brass version, and a two-tone "bicolor" finish was also produced. Weights differ accordingly between the lighter aluminum builds and the heavier brass and bicolor versions. The coating and finish combination is the main thing to identify when distinguishing examples.

Optical qualities

Rendering The lens delivers smooth background blur but shows clear optical vignetting wide open, and reviewers report a tendency toward a swirly background, particularly with foliage, owing to the small size of the optical unit. Overall it is described as hitting a good balance of sharpness and bokeh in a compact package, with a few expected compromises for a small, fast 50mm.

Sharpness Central performance is good from wide open, while corners are soft at the widest apertures; on high-resolution sensors the frame cleans up by around f/8, and on the lower-resolution Leica M10 good across-frame results appear closer to f/4.

Distortion and vignetting The lens shows a small amount of pincushion distortion, easily corrected in software, and heavy wide-open vignetting measured at roughly 3.5 EV at f/1.5, decreasing as the lens is stopped down.

Aberrations Noticeable coma is present at f/1.5 and f/2, improving by f/2.8 and largely clearing between f/4 and f/5.6; correction of chromatic aberration is rated as average, and a slight focus shift is present on stopping down.

Flare resistance Flare resistance is considered a relative weak point, falling behind some of the better modern Voigtländer designs.

Digital use Because the lens was designed for the thinner M-mount filter stack, it still performs respectably when adapted to mirrorless cameras such as the Sony A7 series, though edge performance is best on native rangefinder bodies.

History

Development and Launch Cosina announced the lens in 2020 as a successor to a previous-generation 50mm f/1.5 that had been released in 2013, presenting it as an entirely redesigned optical system in a more compact body. The Japanese launch was set for October 2020, with aluminum models priced lower than the brass version. It joined a crowded field of Voigtländer 50mm rangefinder lenses, sitting alongside the f/1.2 Nokton and the Heliar Classic as another take on the fast standard.

Special editions No major factory military, export, or commemorative variants are widely documented; the meaningful variations are the MC and SC coatings and the aluminum, brass, and bicolor finishes rather than limited editions.

Collector Notes The most important things to verify are the coating type (MC versus SC) and the finish, since these affect both color rendering and weight and are the primary points of confusion between otherwise identical lenses. As a current-production lens it is not subject to the originality and conversion concerns of vintage glass, but the bicolor styling is unusual within Cosina's lineup and resembles older Voigtländer barrels, which can cause it to be misidentified.