Voigtlander Nokton 40/1.4

[brickftl]

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I searched and haven't seen anything specific to this lens on the Leica forum. 

I decided to buy a mint used one because the 40mm length actually suits me better than 50mm length. Reviews indicate that wide open at f1.4 it's reminiscent of a vintage lens, but stopped down to f2 it becomes a superlative sharp well controlled performer.

Any thoughts on this lens?

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[Lee S]

I don’t have experience of the 40mm f1.4 but I do have the 35mm f1.4 which is very close in performance and rendering. The 40mm is supposed to be slightly better in every key area. 

Based on the 35mm use I can say is it’s a wonderful lens and my most used.

Compact, no viewfinder blockage, dreamy and full of character wide open but sharp enough stopped down except the corners. It has quite savage distortion so probably not best for architecture, otherwise it adds to the image uniqueness.

The perfect lens for Leica rangefinder IMHO, it also looks beautiful on the camera .

Edited August 23, 2024 by Lee S

[pippy]

Absolutely one of my favourite lenses (it's on my M-D as I type). I, too, am a huge fan of the 40mm f/length.

As well as borrowing almost all of the physical design cues from the v1 / v2 35mm Summilux it has a fairly similar optical (modified double-gauss) design so it shouldn't come as a surprise to find that it renders in a rather similar fashion. Here are schematics of the Voigt. 40 and the v2 Summilux;

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As they are rather similar designs it's hardly surprising to learn that the Voigt shares much of the character of the Summilux. For starters this means that it both Benefits and Suffers from the well-known 'Glow' when used wide-open (although not to quite such strong dramatic effect!). It also has the Summilux' propensity for notable vignetting at wide apertures(*). I can't remember if the 40 suffers as much from Coma as the Summilux. Should perhaps check this out once it gets dark?...

Like the Summilux it also changes character completely once stopped-down just two clicks and from c. f2.8 is about as sharp as most of us could desire.

The main issue which always arises when the 40 is being discussed is focus-shift under some quite specific parameters. At min. focus (and down to around 1.5m) and shot at f1.4 the focus will (or at least should!) be spot-on. Stopping-down to f2.0, however, changes things and the lens (IIRC) front-focusses by a centimetre or two. At f2.8 the focus-shift is reduced but still present. By f4.0 things have gone back to normal.

To be perfectly frank I hadn't even noticed - even although I had been using the lens for a number of years - because this aspect is so specific to these circumstances and was not a situation in which I had ever found myself. It was only after reading comments posted here that I did some tests and discovered what was happening.

For what it is worth my 1974 v2 35mm Summilux behaves in exactly the same manner!

At any other distances and at any other apertures the lens is, quite simply, a stellar performer in every respect.

What else to say? It takes 43mm filters (which isn't great news but better in many ways than the v2 Summilux which doesn't have a filter thread at all!) and Voigtlander offer a dedicated hood made for these 35 and 40 f1.4 Noktons in the form of the LH-6. This hood is bayonet-mouned on to the front-most (chrome-plated) ring of the lens and is a beautifully engineered / manufactured piece of kit. If you are considering the lens I would strongly advise picking up one of these hoods to go with it.

Touching on a point mentioned in the above post by Lee S it is worth mentioning that the 40mm has none of the rather pronounced barrel-distortion which afflicted the contemporary 35mm f1.4 Nokton. So noticeable was this aspect of the 35 that it underwent an optical redesign several years ago and the currrent Voigtlander 35 Nokton can be recognised by its 'V2' designation.

Philip.

* When I used the Nokton with my now-gone M9-P I would dial-in the lens profile for the earliest 35mm Summilux in the Menu. It was only once I started to shoot with the lens wide-open with the M-D that I even became aware of the Vignetting thing! As the M-D has no screen / Menu and the lens is uncoded there was not the option of having any correction applied in-camera.

Edited August 23, 2024 by pippy

[Lee S]

17 minutes ago, pippy said:

Touching on a point mentioned in the above post by Lee S it is worth mentioning that the 40mm has none of the rather pronounced barrel-distortion which afflicted the contemporary 35mm f1.4 Nokton. So noticeable was this aspect of the 35 that it underwent an optical redesign several years ago and the currrent Voigtlander 35 Nokton can be recognised by its 'V2' designation.

Philip.

Good to point this out Pippy.

I adore the 40mm focal length also, had the 40mm F1.2 Norton for E Mount, would like to try M Mount but not sure how I would find using one with the lack of 40mm frame lines on my M10… 

Suppose use the 50mm lines and have extra for cropping would work. 

Edited August 23, 2024 by Lee S

[pippy]

3 minutes ago, Lee S said:

...I......would like to try M Mount but not sure how I would find using one with the lack of 40mm frame lines on my M10…Suppose use the 50mm lines and have extra from cropping would work. 

FWIW I find that using the outer-edge of the 50mm lines is a good 'guestimate' position with both the M Monochrom and the M-D. I am aware that some here prefer to use the 35mm lines but I'd far rather have more picture area than expected (which, as you rightly say, allows for cropping) than less picture area than expected which sort of presents one with a Fait Accompli...

Philip.

[lct]

I used a CV 40/1.4 only once but it had too much focus shift for my taste. Same issue with CV 35/1.4 SC v1. My CV 35/1.4 SC v2 seems to have none though. Among 40mm lenses, no problem with Summicron 40/2 nor Rokkor 40/2 for Minolta CLE as far as my lenses are concerned.

[Ray Vonn]

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@pippy and @Lee S really have covered it all regarding this lens, there's really not much more to add.  Obviously not 35mm or 50mm but even there that's a good thing for me, perhaps a bit of both in terms of being a sort of mid-point and if I take just the one lens it's this one because it covers so much in its flexibility.  And, if cost is an issue, it's ridiculously under priced for what it provides IME. 

[Wwin]

On 8/23/2024 at 6:03 PM, Lee S said:

Good to point this out Pippy.

I adore the 40mm focal length also, had the 40mm F1.2 Norton for E Mount, would like to try M Mount but not sure how I would find using one with the lack of 40mm frame lines on my M10… 

Suppose use the 50mm lines and have extra for cropping would work. 

I have this lens and when u use 50mm lines it works perfectly.