p.8 #1 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
mudlake wrote:
For those who have the Summarit 75/2.5, which do you prefer? If you were going to buy one 75mm lens for travel/portrait/general use, which would you choose - Summarit or this new 1.5? They are roughly the same price if buying the Leica used.
I have the CV Nokton 75/1.5, the Summarit-M 75/2.5, and the CV Color-Heliar 75/2.5 (LTM). I like the 35+75 combo and I pair each of the 75mm lenses with a different 35mm lens. I’ll state at the outset that I thoroughly dislike both the visual appearance of the Nokton 75 (mainly its bulbous front end) as well as its focusing ring (which has an unscalloped focusing knurl). I would have much preferred a scaled up version of the Color-Heliar 75 which, like the Nokton 50/1.2 has a scalloped focusing knurl.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’ll attempt to answer your question. If I wanted “one 75mm lens for travel/portrait/general use”, despite my (admittedly idiosyncratic) criticisms I would choose the Nokton without hesitation. Why?
* On an M camera, it is perfectly flat field from wide open.
* It has gorgeous rendering and more than adequate sharpness wide open.
* Although it is supposedly optimised for the 1m to 3m range, stopped down it performs extremely well at longer distances.
* In essence, it’s one of those two-in-one lenses (at which Voigtlander seems to excel) with quite different renderings wide open and stopped down.
The Summarit-M 75, on the other hand:
* Is one and a half stops slower.
* Is smaller (46mm filter vs 58mm for the Nokton).
* Weighs nearly the same as the Nokton (345g vs 350g).
* Intrudes less into the M’s 75mm framelines than the Nokton.
* Has consistent rendering from wide open to stopped down.
Although the Summarit-M 75 feels much better to me on the camera, I prefer photographing in open shade or in the late afternoon / early evening, where the Nokton’s speed is invaluable.
If lens speed is not an important consideration for you, however, I’d urge you to consider the Color-Heliar 75/2.5, which is a tiny gem of a lens. Although discontinued, Stephen Gandy at Cameraquest still has new copies available for USD549, with used copies currently listed on eBay for considerably less. Admittedly the Summarit-M bests the Color-Heliar in objective testing but in everyday shooting the differences are less than one might expect—to the extent that Sean Reid regards the Color-Heliar as a “standout performer” when price is taken into account.
p.8 #3 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
genji wrote:
I have the CV Nokton 75/1.5, the Summarit-M 75/2.5, and the CV Color-Heliar 75/2.5 (LTM). I like the 35+75 combo and I pair each of the 75mm lenses with a different 35mm lens. I’ll state at the outset that I thoroughly dislike both the visual appearance of the Nokton 75 (mainly its bulbous front end) as well as its focusing ring (which has an unscalloped focusing knurl). I would have much preferred a scaled up version of the Color-Heliar 75 which, like the Nokton 50/1.2 has a scalloped focusing knurl.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’ll attempt to answer your question. If I wanted “one 75mm lens for travel/portrait/general use”, despite my (admittedly idiosyncratic) criticisms I would choose the Nokton without hesitation. Why?
* On an M camera, it is perfectly flat field from wide open.
* It has gorgeous rendering and more than adequate sharpness wide open.
* Although it is supposedly optimised for the 1m to 3m range, stopped down it performs extremely well at longer distances.
* In essence, it’s one of those two-in-one lenses (at which Voigtlander seems to excel) with quite different renderings wide open and stopped down.
The Summarit-M 75, on the other hand:
* Is one and a half stops slower.
* Is smaller (46mm filter vs 58mm for the Nokton).
* Weighs nearly the same as the Nokton (345g vs 350g).
* Intrudes less into the M’s 75mm framelines than the Nokton.
* Has consistent rendering from wide open to stopped down.
Although the Summarit-M 75 feels much better to me on the camera, I prefer photographing in open shade or in the late afternoon / early evening, where the Nokton’s speed is invaluable.
If lens speed is not an important consideration for you, however, I’d urge you to consider the Color-Heliar 75/2.5, which is a tiny gem of a lens. Although discontinued, Stephen Gandy at Cameraquest still has new copies available for USD549, with used copies currently listed on eBay for considerably less. Admittedly the Summarit-M bests the Color-Heliar in objective testing but in everyday shooting the differences are less than one might expect—to the extent that Sean Reid regards the Color-Heliar as a “standout performer” when price is taken into account. ...Show more →
Awesome info! Thanks for the detailed answer.
Soon after asking that question I did further online research and ended up ordering the Kipon Iberit 75mm f2.4 in e-mount. From what I saw it was the optical equal of the Voigtlander 75/2.5 color-Heliar with close to the same build quality. One thing I like about the E-mount version of the Kipon is the close focus is 60cm, 30cm closer than the Voigtlander Color-heliar. Bokeh looks really good as well. It should be delivered tomorrow. We’ll see if this $299 lens meets my needs.
p.8 #4 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
mudlake wrote:
Awesome info! Thanks for the detailed answer.
Soon after asking that question I did further online research and ended up ordering the Kipon Iberit 75mm f2.4 in e-mount. From what I saw it was the optical equal of the Voigtlander 75/2.5 color-Heliar with close to the same build quality. One thing I like about the E-mount version of the Kipon is the close focus is 60cm, 30cm closer than the Voigtlander Color-heliar. Bokeh looks really good as well. It should be delivered tomorrow. We’ll see if this $299 lens meets my needs.
The Iberit’s 6 aperture blades would be a deal-breaker for me—Nokton (12), Summarit-M (11), Color-Heliar (10)—but the wide-open images in the Sony Alpha Blog review look very good and it’s certainly a plus to have a native E-mount version (your original post didn’t mention that you’d be using it on a Sony body). I don’t think I’m alone in looking forward to reading your opinions of the lens.
p.8 #5 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
genji wrote:
The Iberit’s 6 aperture blades would be a deal-breaker for me—Nokton (12), Summarit-M (11), Color-Heliar (10)—but the wide-open images in the Sony Alpha Blog review look very good and it’s certainly a plus to have a native E-mount version (your original post didn’t mention that you’d be using it on a Sony body). I don’t think I’m alone in looking forward to reading your opinions of the lens.
I’ll definitely do a short review with images. Since I’ll mainly be shooting this one wide open, the six aperture blades shouldn’t be an issue.
p.8 #6 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions
Here are a couple of simple portraits in the front yard with the Kipon Iberit 75/2.4 @ f2.4. The lens is certainly sharp wide open, but not so sharp that I have to dial it down for portraits. Color and black and white conversions.
