p.1 #1 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
The CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 was released in Australia today. I purchased mine directly from the always friendly, helpful, and reliable Australian distributor, Mainline Photographics.
Frankly, I don't care for the appearance of Voigtlander's "Vintage Line" lenses, much preferring the knurled focusing rings of the older LTM lenses and the Nokton Aspherical VM and VE 50/1.2 lenses. But the 75/1.5 is growing on me. It's small, it weighs only 350 gm (12.35 oz), and both focus and aperture rings are delightfully smooth in use.
The supplied hood comes in two sections: a ring with a 58mm thread and the actual hood which slides on to the ring and can be rotated to minimize viewfinder obstruction then fixed in place with a thumbscrew. I found this unnecessarily fussy and replaced the OEM hood with an aftermarket straight vented hood.
At first I thought the focus throw was rather short but it's actually longer than that of my Summarit-M 75/2.5. The real issue is that at f/1.5 the depth of field is razor thin, which means that nailing focus with a rangefinder can sometimes be a challenge. (I seem to recall reading similar opinions about the difficulty of focusing the Summilux-M 75/1.4.) The Leica's rangefinder is really best with lenses 50mm and wider so I may wind up focusing with the Visoflex EVF when using the Nokton 75/1.5 wide open.
These niggles fade into insignificance, though, as soon as one sees the images it produces. It's absolutely a keeper and would be a perfect companion lens to the Nokton 40/1.2. (I intend to pair mine with the Distagon ZM 35/1.4.) I think it's odds-on that Cosina will release a VE version of the Nokton 75/1.5 for Sony E-mount and have no doubt that it will be a runaway success with MF shooters.
p.1 #2 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
Very nice photos! Thanks for this ... I am waiting and waiting - not so patiently - for its US release. The rendering looks beautiful as does the sharpness and color.
Again, thank you for the brief review and enjoy.
p.1 #6 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
genji wrote:
The CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 was released in Australia today. I purchased mine directly from the always friendly, helpful, and reliable Australian distributor, Mainline Photographics.
Frankly, I don't care for the appearance of Voigtlander's "Vintage Line" lenses, much preferring the knurled focusing rings of the older LTM lenses and the Nokton Aspherical VM and VE 50/1.2 lenses. But the 75/1.5 is growing on me. It's small, it weighs only 350 gm (12.35 oz), and both focus and aperture rings are delightfully smooth in use.
The supplied hood comes in two sections: a ring with a 58mm thread and the actual hood which slides on to the ring and can be rotated to minimize viewfinder obstruction then fixed in place with a thumbscrew. I found this unnecessarily fussy and replaced the OEM hood with an aftermarket straight vented hood.
At first I thought the focus throw was rather short but it's actually longer than that of my Summarit-M 75/2.5. The real issue is that at f/1.5 the depth of field is razor thin, which means that nailing focus with a rangefinder can sometimes be a challenge. (I seem to recall reading similar opinions about the difficulty of focusing the Summilux-M 75/1.4.) The Leica's rangefinder is really best with lenses 50mm and wider so I may wind up focusing with the Visoflex EVF when using the Nokton 75/1.5 wide open.
These niggles fade into insignificance, though, as soon as one sees the images it produces. It's absolutely a keeper and would be a perfect companion lens to the Nokton 40/1.2. (I intend to pair mine with the Distagon ZM 35/1.4.) I think it's odds-on that Cosina will release a VE version of the Nokton 75/1.5 for Sony E-mount and have no doubt that it will be a runaway success with MF shooters.
p.1 #9 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
I have been curious about this lens for sometime.
I have a Lux 75 1.4 and Sonnetar 73 1.5 I’ll be weighing it against. My initially impression is that it has less character than the other two in a bad way (my preference). But for most, they’ll enjoy more modern results.
p.1 #14 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
In my testing it seems to have issues with the Sony sensor stack. There is a lot of field curvature and sharpness at wider apertures remained behind my expectations.
Apart from that I enjoyed the very high contrast and exceptional CA correction for a fast medium tele as well as the handling.
"It’s no surprise that the Panasonic S1 doesn’t play so well as the Leica SL or CL (and especially the Leica M) with the more problematic M lenses (for instance the 28 Summicron Asph and the 35 Summicron Asph). It may not be a problem for street photography where you’re usually more interested in the centre of the frame, and where you’re not usually shooting near infinity. But smearing will certainly rear its ugly head if you plan to do landscape or anything else where resolution is really important off-axis.
Of course, this is not a priority for other camera manufacturers, who obviously want you to buy their lenses rather than Leica ones!"
LBJ2 wrote:
My thoughts exactly. I've not seen any data on S1(r) sensor stack thickness yet or maybe I just have't looked hard enough.
p.1 #16 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
Phillip Reeve wrote:
In my testing it seems to have issues with the Sony sensor stack. There is a lot of field curvature and sharpness at wider apertures remained behind my expectations.
Apart from that I enjoyed the very high contrast and exceptional CA correction for a fast medium tele as well as the handling.
"It’s no surprise that the Panasonic S1 doesn’t play so well as the Leica SL or CL (and especially the Leica M) with the more problematic M lenses (for instance the 28 Summicron Asph and the 35 Summicron Asph). It may not be a problem for street photography where you’re usually more interested in the centre of the frame, and where you’re not usually shooting near infinity. But smearing will certainly rear its ugly head if you plan to do landscape or anything else where resolution is really important off-axis.
Of course, this is not a priority for other camera manufacturers, who obviously want you to buy their lenses rather than Leica ones!"
Good reference. Thank you.
Wondering if lack of micro-lenses adjustment for M glass or S1(r)sensor stack thickness for the referenced 28 Summicron Asph and the 35 Summicron Asph in Jono's post.
Also, seems from above comment the CV75 doesn't play well on the Sony sensor either which I would assume 75mm wouldn't have a problem on the Sony stack. Guess I'll just have to try it on the M10 😉
p.1 #18 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
Phillip Reeve wrote:
In my testing it seems to have issues with the Sony sensor stack. There is a lot of field curvature and sharpness at wider apertures remained behind my expectations.
Apart from that I enjoyed the very high contrast and exceptional CA correction for a fast medium tele as well as the handling.
Thank you about the on-Sony performance. Otherwise, from the sample images posted, pop and very high contrast is very appealing to me.
p.1 #19 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
Phillip Reeve wrote:
In my testing it seems to have issues with the Sony sensor stack. There is a lot of field curvature and sharpness at wider apertures remained behind my expectations.
Apart from that I enjoyed the very high contrast and exceptional CA correction for a fast medium tele as well as the handling.
At center, it should not make much difference and it's possible that moderate field curvature is a characteristic of the lens. The only way to know for sure is to test it on a Leica or Kolari modded Sony body.
Love the contrast and colors from the samples!
BTW, too bad about the field curvature. Is it wavy?
Aug 08, 2019 at 03:12 PM
Steve Spencer Online • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #20 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
LBJ2 wrote:
Good reference. Thank you.
Wondering if lack of micro-lenses adjustment for M glass or S1(r)sensor stack thickness for the referenced 28 Summicron Asph and the 35 Summicron Asph in Jono's post.
Also, seems from above comment the CV75 doesn't play well on the Sony sensor either which I would assume 75mm wouldn't have a problem on the Sony stack. Guess I'll just have to try it on the M10 😉
It isn't focal length that determines how lenses do with a thicker sensor stack. It is the exit pupil and how wide the aperture is. With the CV 75 only be 68mm long it is perhaps not too surprising that it probably has a pretty short exit pupil. It also has a quite wide aperture, so some problems could potentially be expected. I am disappointed that this lens doesn't do better as the Leica mount let's me use it even on my Fuji GFX and I am now not too optimistic this lens will work well on that camera. It is asking an awful lot for such a small lens to not only work well with the thicker sensor but also cover a wider image circle. Let's see how the performance pans out, but it looks to me like the best hope is they make an FE version of this lens. I think that is pretty likely, but it still is disappointing that this lens seems to do a bit worse with the thick sensor stack than even the CV 50 f/1.2 Leica M version.
