Voigtländer Nokton 35/1.4 II

[tom0511]

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I just aquired the lens. Distorsion is visible if there are straight lines in the image. LR has a profile to correct it (if you plan to use it on a digital camera).

I would thinjk the point is if you want a more classic lens with less contrast and without biting sharpness, rendering a little smoother or a more modern lens with stronger contrast and sharpness.

[Product Details]

More about Voigtlander 35 mm F1.4 Nokton II MC

Available at Amazon and B&H Photo Video

[TomB_tx]

I use my 1.4 Nokton for dim light situations on my M9. On M10 I much prefer the 35 Summarit - which suggests I'd like the Ultron as well.

[hansvons]

The Nokton is the Summilux V1 Steel Rim equivalent, while the Ultron matches somewhat the 90ies-designed Summicron ASPH. Both Voigtländers are good lenses. You can’t go wrong with either.

[lct]

50 minutes ago, hansvons said:

The Nokton is the Summilux V1 Steel Rim equivalent, while the Ultron matches somewhat the 90ies-designed Summicron ASPH. Both Voigtländers are good lenses. You can’t go wrong with either.

Agree about the UIltron but its OoF rendering is more busy than that of the Sumicron 35/2 asph v1 at full aperture and the Nokton 35/1.4 SC v2 is sharper than my Summilux v2 at full aperture too. I have no experience with the Summilux Steel Rim but it is even softer with more flare AFAIK so i would compare it to the Nokton SC v1 preferably. YMMV.

[mheine]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb rick_eeh:

Hi everyone that has experienced this beautiful lens.

I am still thinking whether to choose either Nokton F1.4 or Ultron F2.
I am more into street and nature photography, I have seen lots of pics and i like the look of Nokton + it is way cheaper, good thing for me but i am not sure if it is the right lens for me when it comes to distortion
so do you think the distortion of Nokton is that bad?

I am open with all your thoughts, thank you!
 

Not sure how important the f2 is but I noticed recently that the Ultron seems to be an f2.2 / f2.4 lens. I compared it to the Nokton and another 35mm f1.4 (Sigma) on another system. At the same light, same f-stop and same ISO, the Nokton and Sigma showed the same shutter speed. The Ultron instead needed a slower shutter speed, stopping the others down (f2.2 on Sigma, one stop after f2 on Nokton - not sure which f-stop this would be) got me the same shutter speed. 

I noticed the different f-number by taking images. Before I got the Ultron, I used the Nokton stopped down to f2 quite often and used a fixed ISO and Shutter Speed. On the Ultron, the images turned out to be darker and there is definitely less bokeh. 

It‘s a bit of a bummer for me, as f2 seems not to be the real aperture value of the Ultron or at least with my version. It‘s still a very capable lens for sure and I like the bokeh rendering. The shot is on f2! 

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Edited February 1, 2024 by mheine

[hansvons]

@mheine, interesting findings. From my experience, there could be three reasons for that. One is you are right and your Ultron copy has aperture issues (the aperture doesn’t open fully which should be roughly 17,9mm in diameter), thus its full aperture is not f2.0. 

Another reason why the lens renders darker could be the glass which is less transmissive. A t-stop measure by Voigtländer would give us clarity here. Since the lenses are not made for cine applications and the light is usually measured through the lens which compensates for the optic’s ND effect, there is no t-stop value available. 

The latter isn’t totally unrealistic, as the Ultron has a relatively complex aspherical design compared to the Nokton which is an old-fashioned double Gauss design with only 6 lenses. The more glass the less light can be transmitted. That can be counteracted by coatings, but only to a certain degree and is costly, especially if the design target is compactness, which is the case.

Another reason could be strong vignetting, which the light meter takes into account. On regular, non-M sensors M wide angle lenses tend to vignette considerably more. On film, they behave best. The difference between my Nokton’s corner performance on film vs the SL2-S sensor is night and day, and this camera’s sensor is already somewhat M lenses optimised. 

[mheine]

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vor 11 Minuten schrieb hansvons:

@mheine, interesting findings. From my experience, there could be three reasons for that. One is you are right and your Ultron copy has aperture issues (the aperture doesn’t open fully which should be roughly 17,9mm in diameter), thus its full aperture is not f2.0. 

Another reason why the lens renders darker could be the glass which is less transmissive. A t-stop measure by Voigtländer would give us clarity here. Since the lenses are not made for cine applications and the light is usually measured through the lens which compensates for the optic’s ND effect, there is no t-stop value available. 

The latter isn’t totally unrealistic, as the Ultron has a relatively complex aspherical design compared to the Nokton which is an old-fashioned double Gauss design with only 6 lenses. The more glass the less light can be transmitted. That can be counteracted by coatings, but only to a certain degree and is costly, especially if the design target is compactness, which is the case.

Another reason could be strong vignetting, which the light meter takes into account. On regular, non-M sensors M wide angle lenses tend to vignette considerably more. On film, they behave best. The difference between my Nokton’s corner performance on film vs the SL2-S sensor is night and day, and this camera’s sensor is already somewhat M lenses optimised. 

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I appreciate that a lot. 

I guess not fully opened aperture blades would result in edged bokeh balls, right? If so, mine are perfectly round when shooting wide open. 

As you say, the lens optics are way more complex than the ones from the Nokton f1.4. But if this is the case and the lens is not letting enough light to the sensor, it should not be advertised as an f2 lens in my opinion. 

The less amount of bokeh is the biggest reason for me to believe that it’s not really f2. I am not an expert by any means but less bokeh means for me a slower lens.

Maybe someone else can have a look on that. Beside all that, the lens is lovely in handling, very well built and looks superb on a M body. Well, the same for the Nokton, love these two a lot! 

[hansvons]

If the lens’ aperture opens up to a focal length divided by square root two and again by square root two as we are calculating for f2 which equals roughly 17.9-millimetre aperture diameter, the lens is by definition an f2 lens, regardless of how much darker it renders compared to other f2 lenses.

That’s why there’s the t-stop measure that takes into account the amount of light that is swallowed by the lenses. 

In t-stops, the Nokton could be a t1.6 lens and the Uktron a t2.2 lens. However, as its full f-stop is (probably) physically f2 it’s an f2 lens and correctly advertised. But I get what you mean, of course.

32 minutes ago, mheine said:

I guess not fully opened aperture blades would result in edged bokeh balls, right? If so, mine are perfectly round when shooting wide open. 

I’d say you could be right. However, the aperture ring could be still perfectly round at f2.2, so that the discrepancy in bokeh can't be spotted between f2 and f2.2.

Edited February 2, 2024 by hansvons

[69xchange]

Did a quick test comparison of the glow with my SR reissue VS my 35mm voigtlander nokton classic ii SC w/ 1/4 BPM filter. Only white balance on the Voigtlander was adjusted to match the SR reissue.

Top = Steel rim resissue (no filter attached)
Bottom = Voigtlander 35mm nc ii sc (w/ 1/4 BPM filter)

The SR reissue certainly has more "glow" even when the Voigtlander nokton classic has a 1/4  BPM filter attached. The voigtlander also has slightly more vignetting around the corners and renders more cooler (when unadjusted) on the WB scale vs the SR reissue. In addition, with the 1/4 BPM filter on the Voigtlander, the shadows/blacks are slightly lifted as you can tell by the comparing the canon lens.

 

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Edited February 26, 2024 by 69xchange

[lct]

Interesting thank you. May i ask if you did the same comparo with no filter at all? Just curious.

[69xchange]

3 hours ago, lct said:

Interesting thank you. May i ask if you did the same comparo with no filter at all? Just curious.

I have not compared the voigtlander nokton classic ii SC without the BPM filter yet. I will be doing more comparisons this week when i have some more time. I am also trying to find the "perfect" 50mm to pair with my SR reissue. The 50mm candidates at the moment are... Canon 50mm 1.4 LTM and 50mm Summilux pre-ASPH v2 (e43). Here is a sample of the canon 50mm 1.4 LTM w/ 1/4 BPM compared to the 35mm SR reissue and voigtlander 35mm nokton classic ii sc. Color balance had to be adjusted heavily on the canon due to it rendering way cooler and contrast had to be bumped up by A LOT.

 

50mm summilux pre-asph comparison to come...

 

TOP: Canon 50mm 1.4 LTM w/ 1/4 BPM (heavy white balance correction & contrast increase)

MIDDLE: SR Reissue (No filter)

BOTTOM: Voigtlander 35mm Nokton Classic ii SC w/ 1/4 BPM (Slight white balance & no contrast increase)

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[28framelines]

41 minutes ago, 69xchange said:

I have not compared the voigtlander nokton classic ii SC without the BPM filter yet. I will be doing more comparisons this week when i have some more time. I am also trying to find the "perfect" 50mm to pair with my SR reissue. The 50mm candidates at the moment are... Canon 50mm 1.4 LTM and 50mm Summilux pre-ASPH v2 (e43). Here is a sample of the canon 50mm 1.4 LTM w/ 1/4 BPM compared to the 35mm SR reissue and voigtlander 35mm nokton classic ii sc. Color balance had to be adjusted heavily on the canon due to it rendering way cooler and contrast had to be bumped up by A LOT.

 

50mm summilux pre-asph comparison to come...

 

TOP: Canon 50mm 1.4 LTM w/ 1/4 BPM (heavy white balance correction & contrast increase)

MIDDLE: SR Reissue (No filter)

BOTTOM: Voigtlander 35mm Nokton Classic ii SC w/ 1/4 BPM (Slight white balance & no contrast increase)

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

 

That distortion on the Voigtlander on the blinds though….

if Voigtlander released a v3 of this lens and removed the barrel distortion not seen in the Steel Rim, I think it would be perfect.

[geoffnik]

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V2 distortion  Edited March 4, 2024 by geoffnik

[geoffnik]

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V2 distortion  Edited March 4, 2024 by geoffnik

[lct]

2 hours ago, geoffnik said:

V2 distortion

You mean Summilux 35/1.4 v2 i guess. My Nokton 35/1.4 SC v2 has sigificantly more distortion. It is easy to adjust in PP though so i can only be an issue for jpeg users.
Nokton 35/1.4 SC v2 @ f/2 with no correction:

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[geoffnik]

No - thats with my Nokton - on film

Edited March 4, 2024 by geoffnik

[lct]

15 minutes ago, geoffnik said:

No - thats with my Nokton - on film

Interesting indeed. At which aperture(s) if i may ask?

[geoffnik]

Sorry - can’t remember the first - the second would have been near wide open.

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[TomB_tx]

I've used both the V1 & V2 Noktons, and find the distortion similar. However it has never bothered me.

[69xchange]

Finally a nice sunny day and a day off work. I went out to test the Voigtlander 35mm Nokton Classic 1.4 SC ii that I purchased almost one year ago and has been sitting since... Nothing special here, just a quick walk around the neighbourhood and used my car as a "model" since I didn't have anyone else...

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