Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical III VM lens announced

[Vproven]

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I have the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 v2 iii and use it with a M10-R. It never feels tack sharp and any aperture. Not sure what the problem is? No coding on the lens. What is the recommended in camera lens setting you recommend as there are several 35mm in the camera menu? Any suggestions? 

[Lesslemming]

Can we take a moment to talk about how great this lens is?
I own a VM 35mm f/1.2 III and use it on the M10-M.

I have or had the following lenses which serve as reference points:

Summicron 35mm ASPH, Summilux 50mm ASPH, Summicron 50mm V5 (current), Summicron 75mm APO, Elmarit 28mm, VM Nokton 35mm 1.4 classic, VM Ultron 35mm 1.7.
 

Here are some bad points:

• The chrome coated brass nose is silly. I hate it! Brave people can remove it and coat it matte black. I did not have the balls for that yet.
   
• The lens has no coding and unfortunately no groove to reliably create the code yourself with a sharpie without it being rubbed off over time.
  This requires me to set the camera to Summilux 35mm manually, but since I only own this one non-coded lens, it is no real problem. Because I shoot in DNG and process in Capture One, I don't get the auto corrections from the profiles anyway (I think). I only do it for the "35mm" tag in the EXIF.
   
• My copy had noticeable back-focus at MFD and f/1.2. I solved the issue by applying a tiny strip of household clear adhesive tape to where the rangefinder touches the part of the lens that engages with it. Takes seconds and works perfectly. Take note: This is the way to solve Back-focus issues on rangefinder lenses sustainably and correctly.
   
• My copy rattles. Sounds like ball bearings for the aperture blade. Could also just be my personal copy, I don't know. It does not affect performance.
   
• Focus ring feels good and bad at the same time. It is stiffer than I would like, but offers precise focussing. From 0.5 to 0.7m it feels quite a lot stiffer than from 0.7 to infinity. Still acceptable and Leica lenses sometimes do that too but I wish it didn't.
   
• Aperture clicks are different than Leica. Not bad but certainly different. As a Leica-Man I don't like that. *snob snob*

Did you notice how optical performance* is not on this list? Everything that is wrong about this lens is essentially what is wrong with me as a Leica snob. So let's ignore that and have a look at the good stuff, shall we?

• Minimum focus distance 0.5m -> Oh Leica, you should have done that a long time ago. Granted, the 0.4 on the Summilux is even better, but 0.5m for 35mm is already decent. Requires the use of back LCD or Visioflex, of course (stating the obvious).
   
• Noctilux level speed -> A 35mm with f/1.2 sounds ridiculous and it is. But oh is it fun! 
   
• Acutance wide open -> As an M10-M shooter and due to the style I use, acutance is important to me. I do not mind a little softness up close wide open for portraits, but generally speaking I seek sharp images. At f/1.2 and close to MFD there is a minimal amount of spherical aberration but nowhere NEAR to where I would call it "glowing".
  At medium distances and further it is surprisingly sharp at f/1.2. Surprisingly! I shot some images wide open unnecessarily just to see what kind of performance I can get. Of course my images are processed but still you wouldn't have guessed these were shot at f/1.2. It's crazy! I have no reservations taking any image with this lens wide open.
   
• Acutance stopped down -> Is disgustingly sharp. I don't look in the corners too much, but all stopped down images looked as though they would cut my fingers when I touch the screen. 
   
• Out-of-focus rendering (Bokeh) is absolutely pleasing. It melts into nothingness; the 12 aperture blades make for almost perfectly circular balls even stopped down.
   
• Overall very modern rendering and feel.
   
• Brass construction feels weighty and solid without feeling too heavy. It sits quite right on my M10-M, but is no lightweight (again, obvious).
   

Here is a gallery of shots (almost all taken @ f/1.2). 500px isn't the best to judge image quality but alas.
https://500px.com/p/beholdclarity/galleries/voigtl-nder-nokton-vm-35mm-f-1-2

Now, I do find myself wishing I had the Summilux 35mm f/1.4 FLE II.
It would give me the consistent Leica operation (aperture clicks, focus resistance etc.) that I am used to. I would also prefer the focus tab and 0.4 against 0.5m MFD.

However, losing 1/2 stop of light, not gaining anything in weight and size and being between a half and a full order of magnitude more expensive makes the Summilux 35mm a bad value proposition for me. It simply doesn't seem worth it. With the older VM lenses, like the 35mm Nokton f/1.4, the performance was acceptable at best. This has changed! These new lenses are amazing, if you have the stomach for mounting a *sigh* third-party lens on your precious Leica Camera.

 

*Note that I can not comment on any color aberrations due to the M10-monochrome sensor.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Lesslemming

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[bchalifour]

I guess when you wrote "acutance" you meant "aperture". Now have you tried the VM 35 mm f 1.5? It solves the biggest problem of the f1.2 V3 even if it is smaller than the VM 35 f1.2 V2, size (especially using with the rangefinder/optical viewfinder. And it is pretty good at f 1.5. It has become my go to lens because of its small size an optical qualities (plus frankly precise focusing at f 1.2 with a range finder (without the help of the EVF) is not my dream situation (because of the (too) shallow depth of field).

Examples: #1 Window at 160 ISO f 1.5, handheld at 1/180s and #2 Books at 1000 ISO, f 1.5, 1/180s (handheld too)

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[Keith (M)]

@Lesslemming - reading your list of bad points prompted me to check my 35mm VM Nokton III f1.2 (bought new Nov 2020).  Focus is buttery smooth (as are the results)  across the range, click-stops are positive and consistent (more than I can say for some of my M lenses!) and focus at MFD & f1.2 is spot-on.  Results from my M10M, M240 and latterly M11 have been everything I had hoped for.  At 332g it is little 'porky' and when deciding that something smaller & lighter fits the bill for a particular outing then my 35mm Nokton Classic II f1.4 SC fits the bill very nicely - with the potential bonus of added quirkiness / glow / whatever.  😉

[Lesslemming]

3 hours ago, bchalifour said:

I guess when you wrote "acutance" you meant "aperture".

Now have you tried the VM 35 mm f 1.5? 

No, I was describing the “acutance wide open”.

I have not tried the VM 35mm f/1.5 but I am tempted. I don’t mind the size and weight of the 1.2 so I think I will either stick to it or go all out for the Summilux 35mm. But like I said, there really is no complaint about my 1.2 version iii, except the inconsistency in focus operation which, judging by other comments, is rather my personal copy at fault. 

[sometimesmaybe]

22 hours ago, Lesslemming said:

A 35mm with f/1.2 sounds ridiculous and it is

i've owned this lens for around 18 months and taken more than 5,000+ images with it on my m246. this extra 0.5 stop of light and the spherical aberrations aka glow (at between 0.5m ti 1m) give such distinctive look for a 35mm focal length!

i can't believe this lens doesn't get more love from the LUF!

fun fact, the CV 35mm f1.2 v3 covers the whole GFX senor (albeit the corner performance becomes comically bad on medium format). on my m246, this lens just sings... 

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[OR120]

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5 hours ago, sometimesmaybe said:

i've owned this lens for around 18 months and taken more than 5,000+ images with it on my m246. this extra 0.5 stop of light and the spherical aberrations aka glow (at between 0.5m ti 1m) give such distinctive look for a 35mm focal length!

i can't believe this lens doesn't get more love from the LUF!

fun fact, the CV 35mm f1.2 v3 covers the whole GFX senor (albeit the corner performance becomes comically bad on medium format). on my m246, this lens just sings... 

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I agree with you!