Review: Voigtländer 40mm f/1.2 Nokton

Conclusion

Pros

• Solid all metal construction with excellent haptics
• Quite compact given the quality of the optics and the fast maximum aperture
• Sharp over most of the frame from f/1.2 and very sharp stopped down
• Beautiful bokeh
• Excellent color and contrast
• Good flare resistance
• Aperture ring can be declicked

Cons

• High vignetting
• A bit of chromatic aberration
• Some barrel distortion
• Spherical aberration causes softness at wide apertures when focused close

I simply have to say: I love this lens.  From the moment I looked at the first batch of photos from this lens, I was hooked.  There’s something about the rendering that just speaks to me, and I found it to be nearly the perfect focal length for everyday use.  The lens is sharp right from f/1.2, and is extremely sharp stopped down. Bokeh is generally very good, and color and contrast are excellent. Portraits taken with the 40mm f/1.2 just pop, and it makes for a great landscape lens as well.

The $1,099 price might seem a bit steep for an all-manual lens, but the versatility and optical quality make it very much worth that price of entry.  This is an outstanding effort from Voigtländer.  Where’s my wallet?

Image Samples

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