-
This is the
first Voigtlander M43 lens, a very notable SUPER SPEED 25mm f/0.95 !
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f/.95 to f16 aperture range
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11 lens elements in 8 optical groups
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10 aperture blades
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Filter size
52mm
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Close focus .17 meter or 1:3.9
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Size: length 70mm, diameter 58.4mm,
weight 14.5 oz
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Lens hood included with lens
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TWO lens caps are
included: a 52mm lens cap for front filter ring, and a 67mm lens cap
which covers the lens hood. Manual focus
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Aperture control is by the lens aperture
ring, not the camera.
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Manual Focus using the lens
barrel focusing helical
My
Take on the Voigtländer 25mm f0.95 Nokton
by
Andrew Fildes
My first 25/.95 gallery is
here –
https://www.pbase.com/afildes/voigtlander_095
When Cosina declared its membership of the Four
Thirds group, it did so with a drum roll and flourish. The first lens
off the bench is a startling 25mm f0.95, an insanely fast standard lens
(equivalent to 50mm on a Four Thirds sensor). Almost no-one saw it
coming and it was taken up faster than a new computer game. If there was
a block to queue around, there would have been a queue. The first
production run was seriously oversold with dealers around the world
getting a fraction of their orders – 10% in one case I know of. Those
they did get went out of the door the moment they arrived without
disturbing the dust on a store shelf. So what was the fuss about? Speed.
How fast is fast? Well the fastest lenses ever
available for 35mm were f0.95 and there have only been two of them. The
first was a Canon 50mm made to accompany the Canon 7 and 7s rangefinder
in the early 1960’s – the same cameras with a 50mm f1.8 were half the
price. It’s a legend of a lens but it’s soft by today’s standards. Still
people will pay a good price for one especially if converted to Leica
mount – unlike other Canon RF lenses it didn’t have a 39mm screw mount
but needed a special bayonet mount to hold it on the camera securely.
After all it was ‘over-square’, wider than it was long.
Canon probably made it for bragging rights but
at the time they were making a whole series of fast lenses for use on TV
and movie cameras and the 50mm was available in a TV mount as well. Many
of the Leica adapted examples were actually TV lenses. Film was slow and
TV camera sensors were not very sensitive so a lot of light needed to be
sucked in. And in moving images the eye is more forgiving of softness
than in stills.
More recently both Leica and Canon had
50mm f1.0 lenses in their range but again, the slightly slower f1.4
models were cheaper and sharper with the loss of only one stop. Both are
discontinued. Now Leica has re-released the Noctilux in an f0.95
Aspherical version that is a lot sharper – last I saw you could pick one
up from B&H NY for a mere $10,500! Your need would have to exceed a very
large wallet.
There is an odd Noktor Hyperprime 50mm
f0.95 available on the net as well for micro
Four Thirds – it appeared quietly in early 2010 with a price tag of
$750. Testing showed it to be rather soft with poor contrast, dull
colour and so-so bokeh. If you need a 50mm, the Voigtlander 50mm
f1.1 with an adapter is a much better option.
The Noktor is thought to be a rebranded CCTV lens. And there is a key to
the popularity of the new Nokton.
The people who liked the Noktor were mostly movie makers, using the HD
movie mode on their Olympus or Panasonic cameras. In fact, the Panasonic
GH-1 and now GH-2 which are optimized for movie work drove a whole
market in used, superfast, film and TV lenses. 25mm f0.95 Navitars and
Schneiders started to sell for $1000 and up, as with a C-mount adapter
they would fit mFT just fine. Obviously, Cosina noticed.
I suspect that most of the early buyers of the
new Voigtlander were movie makers. The deliciously shallow depth of
field possible with these lenses looks wonderful in a low light scene.
So what does this new lens mean for the rest of us with an Olympus or
Panasonic camera?
Firstly it is not a 50mm. Those lenses have a
paper-thin zone of focus but this is a 25mm with a much deeper DOF. It’s
still thin wide open but certainly easier to work with. A lot of the
complaints about softness with these superfast lenses is to do with
inaccurate focussing, I suspect. Then a lot of the fans also talk about
the special character and ‘glow’. If you do get the focus correct the
critical point is sharp and everything else develops a wonderful
softness, a glow. Portraits and nudes in low, available light have a
distinctive character.
Secondly it’s a lot sharper wide open than the
movie lenses I’ve seen – not in the league of a Leica Noctilux but it’s
less than one tenth of the price and it doesn’t need an adapter. The
magnification routine on mFT bodies is a bit demanding but means you can
get the point of focus exactly where you want.
It’s a heavy lens and not small either with the
unique hood fitted (it’s also a 67mm filter adapter and comes with its
own cap). In fact it’s heavier than the Olympus EP-1/2, EP-L1 and
Panasonic GF-1 compact bodies. It would be most at home on the Panasonic
G bodies with their mini-SLR styling for handling and balance.
Build quality is solid – zero plastic.
Reflections from the lens element coatings remind me of a late Olympus
Zuiko – gold, green and magenta colors. Styling reminds me of an old
Konica or Canon FD lens with no rubber grips. Both meter and feet focus
distance scales are shown, feet in a muted orange, and all markings are
engraved properly. Close focus at 0.17m (6.7”) is delightfully close and
translates to a 1:3.9 ratio, not exactly macro but close to it.
I've heard comments that it is not a true f0.95 because of the
small sensor of the Four Thirds system. Many people seem to get this
wrong. The depth of field is different because of the smaller sensor
and shorter focal length but an aperture is an aperture is an
aperture! No-one used to make these odd claims for the same aperture
on 35mm Half-Frame or Medium Format and the laws off physics haven't
changed in the meantime.
In use it is a challenge. Expect a lot of
failures because it is hard to focus at first – but often images in low
light which are slightly off focus look pretty good, especially in
monochrome. It takes a while to get the feel of it. Also remember it’s
not just about very low light – in moderate indoor light you can use
higher shutter speeds that stop movement. But by the time you’re wide
open and using 800 ISO, you’re operating in candlelight.
My first uses in the three days after it arrived
were for nudes, and street photography. I experimented with a number of
techniques on the Olympus E-P2 as there was no way that I could
pre-focus or catch moving targets with such a thin depth of field. One
was to use the 7x magnified view to focus on a stationary target and
just guess at framing. That worked reasonably well. I got better with
practice during the day and it was a filthy day.
Melbourne has deep, dark narrow alleys in the
city which are full of workers, shoppers, dark cafes, restaurants, stray
school kids and tourists at this time of year. It’s a great place to
shoot. Even on a sunny day they are dim but on a rainy day they are
gloomy. I moved on to a museum which had a frock show with very dim
lighting and finally crashed a model shoot in another dark alley. All
good fun but hard work because I chose to keep the lens wide open and
the body on 200 iso (best setting for the E-P's) unless I was in a wide,
bright street. When I did stop down I found the lens to be really quite
sharp though not quite as sharp as my usual Panasonic 20mm f1.7. But
that is a very special little lens too.
One thing I did notice was
that the process of working in a different way produced quite different
shots to what I usually get. The first gallery is here – https://www.pbase.com/afildes/voigtlander_095
All are tweaked in Lightroom for the net, of
course. Partly because even on a day like this I shot slightly under to
control highlights. Bright areas will blow out totally at these
apertures. I would prefer to convert many of these to black and white. I
am delighted with tone and feel of the images at this point.
Article Copyright
Andrew Fildes 2010 All Rights Reserved
NEW USA Voigtlander M43
42.5mm f/0.95 SUPER SPEED Lens with Next Day Shipping!
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"Selective Aperture Control System"
allows disengaging the click stop detents for easier video
work
Voigtlander M43 42.5mm f/0.95 SUPER SPEED Lens
Equivalent 85mm Field of View on 35mm format full frame
-
This is the
Third Voigtlander M43 f/0.95 lens!
-
New
"Selective Aperture Control System"
which allows disengaging the click stop detents for easier video
work
-
f/.95 to f16 aperture range
-
11 lens elements in 8 optical groups
-
10 aperture blades
-
Filter size
58mm
-
Close focus .23 meter
-
Size: length 74.6mm, diameter 64.3mm
-
Lens hood included with lens
VOIGTLANDER M43 60mm f/0.95
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Equivalent
120mm field of view
for full frame
a LONGGG FASSTTTT Portrait lens!
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The longest Voigtlander f/.95 M43 lens
introduced May 2020
The NOKTON 60mm F0.95 is SFAIK the longest Super Fast f/0.95 equivalent
120mm full frame field of view lens you can buy
Besides great Bokeh for stills and separation from the background, the
60mm f/0.95 features clickless Selective Aperture operation for videos
If you want a unique M43 portrait lens with a unique look, this is IT !
Manual focusing for silky smooth precision focusing
Almost macro focusing at 1:4 to 34cm that trnslates into 1:2 for full
frame equivalent
Thus the 60mm F0.95 Nokton can be used as a large aperture f/0.95 macro
len
Removable Lens Hood included
Main Features
■ Extremely solid and durable all-metal barrel
■ 10-blade aperture diaphragm for beautiful bokeh
■ Manual focus for precise focusing
■ Installed with aperture click stop switching mechanism for video
■ Minimum focus distance of 34cm
Specifications
Focal Length: 60mm
Maximum Aperture: 1:0.95
Minimum Aperture: F16
Lens Construction: 8 Groups 11 Elements
Angle of View: 21.5°
Aperture Blades: 10
Minimum Focus: 0.34m
Magnification Ratio: 1:4
Maximum Diameter x Length: Φ82.5×57.7mm
Filter Size: Φ77mm
Weight: 860g
No
other lens maker offers FIVE M43 f/.95
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10.5mm 17.5mm
25mm 42.5mm 60mm
(all four shown in group shot)
