I am honestly not wanting to sidetrack this thread, so am going to stop with the following, only posted for general curiosity, and only because Fred asked about the center performance of the Noct-Nikkor vis a vis the 50/1 Nokton at 1 meter.
Shots taken this morning and these are representative of what I consistently get, though I took much more care to nail the focus on these than I did on the samples I posted yesterday where I included the Noct-Nikkor for the first time.
Nikon Z 7, Nokton adapted with Novoflex adapter, tripod, .DNG files, opened in LR Camera Standard profile, mild sharpening, all processing identical for both lenses.
I apologize for the inexactitude of all of it, the crops especially, given the fact that the field of view of the two lenses is so different, but tried to get the cropped images similar enough that judging center sharpness at 1 meter and 2 meters is at least reasonably possible. It is what it is.
First, the uncropped images at 2 meters, then 1 meter. All images taken at f/1.2
Then the images taken at 1 meter:
Then the crops of the shots taken at 2 meters:
Then the crops of the shots taken at 1 meter:
Close, yes, for a small and light 45 year old design? No?
Worth noting that at 0.4m the Nikkor surges ahead.
rscheffler wrote:
There's got to be a Roger Cicala law of forum behavior to define what we've experienced with the Nokton: pre-release curiosity and hype/anticipation, early results causing disappointment and the general consensus turning negative, to the current realization that the Nokton isn't worse than its direct competitors and is considerably better in a number of aspects...
I have all the 50mm Noctilux's and this Nokton f1.
I'll do a wide open comparison on a digital Leica-M for you as soon as I can 👍
Fred Miranda wrote:
I will try to answer this one: They are lenses with different maximum apertures, so if one wants a f/0.95-1 lens, the CV 50/1.2 Nokton and Leica 50/1.4 Lux mentioned here are not really in this category. The latter is a full stop slower and that could be significant enough for someone shooting in very low light. One could argue that this is no longer an issue with modern sensors, but that's another discussion.
I own the 50/1.2 Nokton and that's why I compared it to the new f/1. However, it would be more appropriate for me to compare the new Nokton to other brands with the same maximum aperture.
Cosina still offers both f/1 and f/1.2 Nokton lenses so one didn't replace the other. The new Voigtlander 50/1 Nokton is just a faster choice with different optical design compromises. One is more compact and has a great balance between resolution and rendering, but it's slower. The other is faster, sharper at infinity (center) and sharper across the image field at MFD and close distance. However, rendering is not as pleasant...so there you have it in a nutshell.
I have never tested the Leica 50/0.95 Noctilux but this lens seem to be the only direct competition to the new Voigtlander 50/1 Nokton because it shares a modern design and it's also equipped with FLE. I have no clue how they compare optically but I know the Leica is way bigger and heavier.
Personally, I prefer compact lenses for the Leica M, so both Leica 50/0.95 and Voigtlander 50/1 Nokton lenses would not be my first choice. Having said that, the new Voigtlander balances quite nicely on the Leica M10-R....Show more →
SharpContrast wrote:
I have all the 50mm Noctilux's, The SLR magic Hyperprime f0.92, the Mr Dings new f1 and this Nokton f1.
I'll do a wide open comparison on a digital Leica-M for you as soon as I can 👍
I never came close to that amount of center sharpness from my nikon noct so I sold it--It has been reported that there was wide variation between copies which might explain it.
thanks
A Nokton 50mm f/1.0, that was listed, on the evil-bay as a bidding auction, by a seller in the USA, ended yesterday at $1824 US, which is $25 more than the manufacturer’s list price. Perhaps this relatively low ending bid price will discourage speculators/flippers from continuing to crowd the wait-lists, and on-line sellers will be discouraged from listing the lenses in the $2800 to $3000 range, for buy-it-now.
Or, perhaps, the buyer’s sparse feed-back history, as a seller, kept the bids low.
This should demonstrate that the field curvature is (primarily) caused by the floating lens element, and that at longer focus distances (at least from 7 meter), increased depth of field / less blur in the sides and corners is caused by optical vignetting.
Fred Miranda wrote:
For those wondering how the Voigtlander 50/1 Nokton's FC shape changes from close distance to long distance on both Leica M10-R and Sony A7R IV, here is a comparison.
Notice how the field curvature flattens from close distance towards long distance on the Leica M10-R while it becomes more "Wavy" on the A7R IV's thicker sensor
RexGig0 wrote:
A Nokton 50mm f/1.0, that was listed, on the evil-bay as a bidding auction, by a seller in the USA, ended yesterday at $1824 US, which is $25 more than the manufacturer’s list price. Perhaps this relatively low ending bid price will discourage speculators/flippers from continuing to crowd the wait-lists, and on-line sellers will be discouraged from listing the lenses in the $2800 to $3000 range, for buy-it-now.
Or, perhaps, the buyer’s sparse feed-back history, as a seller, kept the bids low.
This seller just “re-listed” this lens, again as an auction, which has me scratching my head. To me, this seems like an added red flag.
I am not going to bid, but, will follow the progress, due to curiosity.
None on the official Cosina / Voigtländer sites, so if there is going to be one, it will be measurements from Lens Rentals or the like. jffielde wrote:
Is there an MTF chart for the Nokton f/1.0?
And about half way the PDF below are the E-mount versions of the 35/2 and 50/2, as well as the two older APO-Lanthars in E-mount, the 65/2 and 110/2.5 (all only at f2/f2.5):
Note that Cosina express MTF in 10-30-40 lpmm, where Leica and Zeiss go with the traditional 10-20-40 pattern. The main lens html pages also report f4 data for the 35/2 and 50/2 APOs in VM (and E-mount, links below):
philip_pj wrote:
Note that Cosina express MTF in 10-30-40 lpmm, where Leica and Zeiss go with the traditional 10-20-40 pattern.
That's a very import point Phillip. Most manufactures have the highest frequency line at 30 lp/mm while Voigtlander, Leica and Zeiss go the extra mile. I wish Voigtlander would release MTF graphs for all their lenses.
I believe Leica publishes their MTF at 5-10-20-40.
