{"id":7681,"date":"2018-07-24T17:33:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T22:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=7681"},"modified":"2024-09-05T08:24:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T13:24:01","slug":"review-voigtlander-40mm-f-1-2-nokton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-voigtlander-40mm-f-1-2-nokton\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 Nokton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Voigtl\u00e4nder has been steadily releasing a rather full complement of lenses for the Sony E-Mount, from their ultra-wide 10mm and 12mm offerings, to the classic rendering 35mm f\/1.4<\/a> to extremely high-end macro lenses like the 65mm f\/2 and the new 110mm f\/2.5.  Today we’re looking at one of their newer designs, the Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 Nokton.  40mm fills a great niche in focal length, being a bit wider than the standard ‘normal’ lens, but a touch longer than a traditional 35mm lens.  In many cases, it can pull double duty, filling the needs of two lenses in one, and with a fast f\/1.2 maximum aperture, there’s tremendous control of depth of field.  At $1,099 US, it’s not a cheap lens, but if it performs well, it can be a lens that can be enormously versatile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 Nokton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you’ve handled a Voigtl\u00e4nder lens any time in the past few years, the 40mm f\/1.2 follows the same design language, with a solid metal body, clicky aperture ring up front and a smooth, well damped scalloped focus ring taking up the majority of the lens body. The tolerances are tight, and the lens feels reassuringly solid in the hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the all metal and glass construction, the 40mm f\/1.2 is a fairly dense lens, but in absolute terms, it’s fairly small.  In an age where f\/1.4 prime lenses are getting bigger and bigger, it’s a welcome relief to have an ultra-fast aperture of f\/1.2 in a package that is quite compact.  While it doesn’t quite reach the incredibly small proportions of it’s 35mm f\/1.4 cousin, the 40mm f\/1.2 is also a much better corrected optic. Considering those optical corrections, the size is quite remarkably small.  The lens handles very well on my A7 III, and even felt fairly nice on my a6000, though the weight did make it a bit front heavy on that body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Voigtl\u00e4nder 35mm f\/1.4 next to the 40mm f\/1.2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The focus ring on the 40mm f\/1.2 is a wide scalloped metal ring that turns with excellent damping. The damping on the tested sample was a bit lighter than the focus ring on my 35mm f\/1.4, but felt equally nice.  The lens can focus from 0.35m to infinity, with around a 135 degree turning radius from closest focus to infinity. The aperture ring at the front of the lens has detents every 1\/3 stop, and moves freely.  Detents are slightly less tactile than I generally prefer, but not enough to cause problems in usage. The aperture ring is knurled and sits behind another control ring, which flares out in two spots for grip.  As these bumps are prominent, it took some adjustment before I stopped grabbing them and moved my hand backward slightly to operate the aperture ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The aperture ring here is switched to turn clicks off<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That control ring operates the de-clicking mechanism for the aperture, similar to how Voigtl\u00e4nder’s Micro 4\/3 lenses operate.  Push towards the lens mount and rotate the control ring 180 degrees, and the white aperture dot changes to a yellow line, and the aperture detents go away, leaving a smooth, continuously operational aperture ring, perfect for video use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voigtl\u00e4nder’s lenses are all manual-focus, manual aperture affairs, and the Nokton 40mm f\/1.2 is no different, though the lens does have electronic contacts.  The contacts transmit EXIF data, including focus distance, allowing for all 5-axes of image stabilization to be used on bodies that have IBIS. It also allows for auto-magnification of the focus point when turning the focus ring, which can aid in quickly establishing critical focus.  With the good contrast wide open, excellent focus haptics and auto-magnification, I found focusing the 40mm f\/1.2 to be extremely easy in my day-to-day use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The last Voigtl\u00e4nder lens I reviewed, the 35mm f\/1.4 Nokton Classic, featured optics that lived up to that ‘Classic’ moniker.  The 40mm f\/1.2 Nokton doesn’t feature such a designation, and the optics provide a more modern rendering, as you might expect.  As you’ll see going through these sections, the Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 features excellent optical quality, and the overall rendering is simply wonderful to my eye.  Let’s dive in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Making fast wide-angle and normal lenses is always a challenge. Making them both compact and<\/em> sharp at wide apertures is even more difficult, yet Voigtl\u00e4nder has done just that.  In the focus ranges most likely to be used wide open, from around 0.5m to around 5-10m, the Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 displays good resolution straight from f\/1.2 across most of the image frame.  Results are perfectly usable at f\/1.2, and while the corners are fairly soft at this aperture, the off-center thirds are still sharp enough for most any work.  Once you get towards infinity, the field curvature in the lens impacts the edges more, while also softening detail a bit.  Very close up, spherical aberration also reduces contrast and sharpness at wide apertures. As such, the lens is rather soft between f\/1.2 and f\/2 when shooting close up, so you’ll want to stop down if focusing very closely unless you are after a more dreamy look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lego Man – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 Nokton @ f\/1.2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Upon stopping down to medium apertures, the lens becomes extremely sharp over almost the entire frame.  While the corners need f\/8 or so to become truly sharp, for most uses, even f\/2.8 yields very good cross-frame sharpness.  While diffraction takes a bite at f\/22, proper sharpening can yield extremely detailed shots even there.  The sharpness profile means that the lens is extremely useful not only for situations where you require subject isolation, but also for landscape work where corner to corner sharpness is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The bokeh of the Voigtl\u00e4nder 35mm f\/1.4 was one of the major strikes against that lens, but it represents a definite strength of the 40mm f\/1.2.  While the bokeh is not perfect, I absolutely love the rendering of the out of focus areas with this lens.  Backgrounds are predominantly smooth, and specular highlights usually quite even.  In certain situations, a very slight bright ring outline can be seen..  Also, very faint onion ring artifacts due to the aspherical elements can be seen in highlights if you look closely, though they are not distracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flower – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 @ f\/1.4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At moderate distances, the contrast in the bokeh can look a bit rough, and the edges, especially in out of focus foregrounds, can display a swirly character in the right situations, but overall, the blur rendered by the lens is consistently pleasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 displays lovely smooth tonality and a slightly muted color response at wide apertures that becomes rich and crisp upon stopping down a touch.  Contrast is affected by spherical aberration at close focus and wide apertures, but otherwise remains strong throughout. The overall effect is outstanding for a wide variety of subjects from portraits to landscapes and architecture.  I simply love the way the lens draws.  At wide apertures, the subject just pops out of the frame, and stopped down, there’s just excellent fine contrast throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Columbus at Night – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 @ f\/8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lens does have a touch of lateral chromatic aberration that is visible in some shots, but it is easily corrected in post-processing.  Longitudinal chromatic aberration is also visible at wide apertures, with a slight green fringe visible in the background and a slight magenta fringe in front.  In all, it’s fairly well controlled for such an extreme aperture lens.  Purple fringing is also present on high contrast subjects wide open, but is nowhere near as offensive as it can be on the 35mm f\/1.4.  Stopping down to f\/1.6-f\/1.8 eliminates the majority of these aberrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The 40mm f\/1.2 shows moderate barrel distortion that can be visible when shooting subjects with straight lines.  There is a built-in lens profile for this lens within Adobe products that will correct the distortion in the shots that need it, with minimal effect on final image sharpness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens performs quite well with regards to flare, with almost no loss of contrast when shooting into light sources, and only a small amount of ghosting in most situations.  Feel free to use the sun in your compositions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunset Grasses – Sony A7 III with Voigtl\u00e4nder 40mm f\/1.2 @ f\/4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One area where the Nokton 40mm doesn’t perform well is in vignetting.  The lens displays strong vignetting starting at f\/1.2, and it’s still rather visible even at f\/8 and f\/11, though it certainly lessens as you stop down. In some situations, you will want to correct this, which can be done easily with that built-in Lightroom profile at the expense of added noise at the corners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens aperture creates very nice sunstars, which look best between f\/4 and f\/8, and can add a nice touch to your images.  Stopping down to smaller apertures softens the sharpness of the sunstars, though they are still visible at these apertures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, I absolutely love the optical qualities of this lens.  There is just something special about the way it draws, and I found it an extremely versatile lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/h4>\n\n\n\n