Admiring Light
Menu
  • Home
  • Review Index
  • Shop Talk
  • Technique and Vision
  • Opinion
  • Portfolio
  • Site Index
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
Menu

Review: Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95

Posted on September 16, 2013September 16, 2013 by Jordan Steele

Contents

  • 1Around the Lens: Build Quality and Handling
  • 2Image Quality: Sharpness
  • 3Image Quality: Bokeh
  • 4Image Quality: Lens Aberrations and Flare
  • 5Image Quality: Color and Contrast
  • 6Conclusion
  • 7Image Samples

Voigtländer is the oldest name in photography.  The original Voigtländer optical company was founded in 1756 and has been producing groundbreaking photography equipment since.  They created the fastest optical lens in the world in 1840, the original Petzval lens, which was a screaming fast f/3.7.  Ok, screaming fast for 1840.  They also created the first all-metal daguerreotype camera in 1841.  That legacy of solid metal build and ultra-fast optics is realized today in the lineup of ultra-fast lenses for the Micro 4/3 system.

Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95
Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95

Today, the Voigtländer name is owned by Cosina in Japan, but they continue the legacy by producing outstanding optics for a range of SLRs, rangefinders and now mirrorless cameras.  The lens we’re looking at today completes the trinity of ultra-fast primes for the Micro 4/3 mount.  In 2010, Voigtländer made waves by introducing the 25mm f/0.95 Nokton.  They followed that by creating a 35mm equivalent lens in the 17.5mm f/0.95 Nokton (reviewed here).  Now, in 2013, they complete the trinity with a portrait length lens while maintaining that ultra-fast f/0.95 aperture in the Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95.

The 42.5mm f/0.95 has a field of view equivalent to an 85mm lens on a full frame camera, and so is perfectly suited to a range of applications, though with a fast aperture in this focal length, a primary use for this lens is available light portraiture.  With an aperture of f/0.95, the Nokton 42.5mm is nearly two full stops faster than the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 for Micro 4/3 and gives you the ability for shallow depth of field usually reserved for larger format cameras.    Enough talk, let’s dive in!

If you’re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective.  You won’t find lens charts or resolution numbers here.  There are plenty of other sites that cover those.  I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool in real-world shooting. 

The Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 on the Olympus OM-D E-M5
The Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 on the Olympus OM-D E-M5

Around the Lens: Build Quality and Handling

Like the other f/0.95 Noktons, the 42.5mm f/0.95 is an extremely solidly built lens.  It’s crafted entirely of metal and glass and is quite substantial in the hand.  The lens is significantly larger than something like the Olympus 45mm f/1.8, as expected for such an extreme aperture, but even when seeing the size, the thing that surprises is the weight.  This is a VERY dense lens, and feels far heavier than it looks.  I’d highly recommend using this lens with a camera that has a relatively substantial hand grip, simply because it is rather front heavy.  The lens weighs in at a hefty 1.25 pounds.  Indeed, the  Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 is the heaviest lens currently made by a major manufacturer specifically for Micro 4/3.

Voigländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 with Hood
Voigländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 with Hood

The lens comes with a nice metal hood and a hood mounting ring that screws into the filter threads.  If you don’t want to use the hood, you can leave this mounting ring off.  If you plan on using the hood, screw the mounting ring on, and then the hood mounts to the ring via thumbscrew.  The hood is also reversible for storage.  Nice!

The lens has three rings: the broad scalloped manual focus ring, the aperture control ring, and a third ring that is spring-loaded.  This top ring can be pulled down and rotated 180 degrees.  When this is switched, the white aperture dot is now a yellow aperture dot, and the click-stops for f-stops are removed, allowing for continuous (and silent) aperture control from f/0.95 to f/16.  This is quite useful for video use.

The manual focus ring is well damped and silky smooth to operate, while the aperture ring has nice solid detents every half stop.  The aperture diaphragm is a 10 bladed design, which allows for generally round highlights throughout the aperture range.  The lens is a joy to focus and feels wonderful in the hand.  Of course, like all the Voigtländer lenses for Micro 4/3, the 42.5mm f/0.95 is an all-manual lens.  You must set your aperture manually and then manually focus.  Luckily, with the ability to magnify parts of the scene on most all Micro 4/3 cameras, manual focus is very accurate to use and can even be quick once you’ve had some practice.

One very unusual feature of the 42.5mm f/0.95 is its extremely close focus ability.  Most 85mm lenses on full frame cameras have minimum focus distances in the 0.85m to 1m range.  This is close enough to get a solid head and shoulders portrait of an adult, but not much closer.  The Olympus 45mm f/1.8 features relatively close focus ability for a portrait lens, at 0.5m.  The Voigtländer 42.5mm on the other hand, can focus all the way to 0.23m, which is extremely close, and allows for 1:4 magnification.  Because of the smaller sensor of Micro 4/3, this actually covers the same area as a 1:2 macro lens on a full frame camera.  With the ultra-wide f/0.95 aperture, you can create some very unique photographs with this lens that simply aren’t possible with anything else.

Continue: Image Quality

Pages: 1 2 3

15 thoughts on “Review: Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95”

  1. Pingback: First Impressions: Voigtländer Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 @ Admiring Light
  2. Mike A says:
    September 16, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    For the issue of the harsh OoF areas at longer distances, there are a couple decent Lightroom fixes:

    1) First, if you used the local brush in LR and apply it to the OoF areas, you can do a localized clarity reduction on those areas that will really improve things, though depending on the image, you may need to make additional adjustments in contrast or exposure for those same areas to compensate for unexpected changes.

    2) The CA eye dropper tool can be easily used on the fringing that’s on the OoF circles that can improve their appearance too. The problem with that is that if you have additional fringing in in focus areas, you’ll likely need to prioritize those ones. Some times a localized defringe works, but its not as precise as the dropper.

    Anyway, just some suggestions…

    Reply
  3. Bla says:
    September 17, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    Regards being slower than 0.95 for exposure, this might have something to do with it:

    http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Reviews/F-stop-blues

    Reply
    1. al says:
      November 12, 2014 at 1:16 am

      That’s irrelevant to Jordan’s point that the 42.5 seems to transmit less light than the 17.5 and 25. All three are 0.95.

      Reply
  4. Sahib7 says:
    September 25, 2013 at 5:02 am

    Nice review! Thanks!
    Will you review the 25mm Nokton, too?

    Reply
  5. cosinaphile says:
    September 25, 2013 at 6:19 pm

    that some really close focus , thanks for the info

    Reply
  6. Wolfgang Lonien says:
    September 29, 2013 at 10:26 am

    Love that ‘first sign of fall’ image…

    Reply
  7. Pingback: Olympus OM-D E-M1, Lumix GX7 und Fuji X-A1: Aktuelle Tests und Reviews - Systemkamera Blog
  8. robin says:
    October 13, 2013 at 7:19 am

    Excellent work on the review. And some fine images!

    Reply
  9. Pingback: Anonymous
  10. Amin Sabet says:
    December 5, 2013 at 9:30 pm

    Great review as always

    Regarding this statement: “Bokeh gets quite busy at longer focus distances, which may or may not appeal to the viewer”

    That seems to be true of nearly all (perhaps all) extremely fast lenses. For example, the Canon 85/1.2L which is known for smooth and creamy bokeh renders like this under similar circumstances (not my image but a good example of 85L wide open with a longer focus distance): http://www.flickr.com/photos/_gr/10928322184/

    If there is an ultra fast lens which doesn’t get harsh and also suffer axial CA under those circumstances, I haven’t seen it.

    Bokeh from this Voigtlander is very much to my taste based on your samples!

    Reply
  11. Pingback: Mirrorless Year in Review @ Admiring Light
  12. al says:
    November 12, 2014 at 1:23 am

    I’ve used the VM 21 1.8 and 35 1.2 ii only, but I do discern a certain consistency across all these lenses that one might call the “Voigtlander look.”

    I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what this consists of, but I want to say it’s a faux-classic look–with the flaws of classical optics like low-contrast wide open, SA and CA, and busy swirly bokeh (although bokeh tends to be extremely smooth at close focus), but maintained in an artificial way, with computerized manufacture. They also lack the subtle tonal transitions and clarity of Mandler-era Leica optics (which probably comes down quality of the glass).

    Personally I find the Voigtlander look (which one should really call a Cosina look, more properly) rather irritating. I wonder if anyone else thinks so.

    Reply
  13. Pingback: In Malaysia Now : Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 Nokton MFT Lens
  14. Pingback: F?0.95??? VoightLander NOKTON 42.5mm F0.95??????? | ?????????????

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow Me:

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on InstagramFollow Us on Mastodon

Most Popular Posts

  • "Full Frame Equivalence" and Why It Doesn't Matter (288)
  • Fuji X-Pro 2 vs. Sony A7 II: Noise Comparison (70)
  • Fuji 56mm f/1.2 vs. Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 Nocticron (63)
  • Review: Metabones Speed Booster (Canon FD to Fuji X) (56)
  • Review: Olympus OM-D E-M5 (48)

Recent Comments

  • Eric Wojtkun on My Favorite Photos of 2022
  • Jordan Steele on “Full Frame Equivalence” and Why It Doesn’t Matter
  • Leon on “Full Frame Equivalence” and Why It Doesn’t Matter
  • Clarke jones on Review: TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 ASPH (RF Mount)
  • Anonymous on Sony A7 III vs. A7 II – Noise Comparison

Archives

©2023 Admiring Light | Theme by SuperbThemes
We use cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You may consent to the use of cookies or opt out. Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

SAVE & ACCEPT