Well, my new f/1 just arrived today from Cameraquest and I couldn't be happier! I've looked at this work of art for a long time and finally decided to pull the trigger and stop the dreaming.
Here are a couple of initial images. I'll be posting here a lot I fear. Sorry.
ILCE-7RM550mmf/1.01/100s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM5Voigtlander NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical lens50mmf/1.01/8000s100 ISO0.0 EV
I've received many inquiries about the Voigtlander 50mm f/1 Nokton, mainly because I consider its outward field curvature a downside. The exaggerated curvature leads to uneven out-of-focus rendering, with the far corners appearing more in-focus than expected. While this is a characteristic of the Voigtlander, the Leica 50mm f/1 Noctilux and 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux seem to exhibit this issue to an even greater extent. The TTArtisan 50mm f/0.95 is the only lens that doesn't show this curvature in the rendering tests.
As mentioned in the review, all three "f/1" lenses struggle with high optical vignetting and outward field curvature, which can be distracting. The Leica 50mm f/1 Noctilux displays the most noticeable effect, followed by the Leica 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. The Voigtlander 50mm f/1 performs surprisingly better but still suffers from this issue, which remains one of my main criticisms. That said, it's no worse than the Leica Noctilux lenses.
Designing 50mm f/1 lenses is clearly not easy!
While the Noctilux 50mm f/1 has more pronounced unevenness, it's less distracting than the other two. This could be because its rendering is never perfectly smooth, showing more defined outlining and a busier focus transition zone compared to the Leica f/0.95 and Voigtlander 50mm f/1 lenses. The unevenness is better blended by the center’s structure, which integrates more naturally with the unnaturally in-focus corners due to the curvature.
Does another possibility exist? We live in a photographic world with design hat tips to vintage or landmark lenses seemingly appearing every week these days. Designer SA, and probably more aberration tuning coming along, if the idea catches on in the popular imagination.
The status of these ultra-fast lenses might be enough to nudge Cosina into doing this as an intentional part of the 50/1 lens design, given the 'back to the future' orientation in many of their lenses. Not many aberrations are off-limits in the search for 'the formula' ideal rendering.
It's a good thing you point it out, of course, many people (such as myself) find it hard to notice in others' images.
philip_pj wrote:
Does another possibility exist? We live in a photographic world with design hat tips to vintage or landmark lenses seemingly appearing every week these days. Designer SA, and probably more aberration tuning coming along, if the idea catches on in the popular imagination.
The status of these ultra-fast lenses might be enough to nudge Cosina into doing this as an intentional part of the 50/1 lens design, given the 'back to the future' orientation in many of their lenses. Not many aberrations are off-limits in the search for 'the formula' ideal rendering.
It's a good thing you point it out, of course, many people (such as myself) find it hard to notice in others' images. ...Show more →
I'm sure it's possible to remove that curvature, as TTArtisan has done, but every design choice comes with its compromises. In Cosina's case, they seem to have focused on creating the smallest, high-performing 50mm f/1 lens, and in that pursuit, issues like optical vignetting, color aberrations and curvature are hard to fully resolve. If there were fewer size and price constraints, it would likely be possible to design a more "perfect" lens. MS Optics produced a 50mm f/1 lens that's even smaller but with even more compromises.
The uneven rendering used to bother me more than it does now. I've come to accept it as part of the lens's character. However, I don't think we'll ever be fully satisfied with axial chromatic aberration.
I just noticed this thread when it popped up on the first page of the forum, thanks to the rather amazing image that @taildraggin just posted. Some of the images and comparisons from a year or two ago are fascinating, not least the contrast with the Noctilux f/1.0.
This makes me wonder, have any of you ever compared either the Nokton f/1.0 or, more particularly, the Noctilux f/1.0 with the pre-Asph Summilux v2/3 wide open?
I do realise that that is rather a niche question (to say the least!), but I rather suspect that one or two of you who have rather more 50mm lenses than me might have both the f/1.0 Noctilux and the pre-Asph Summilux (which is a lens I’ve long coveted). I’m asking purely out of curiosity, you understand, nothing more ….
Andrew CD wrote:
I just noticed this thread when it popped up on the first page of the forum, thanks to the rather amazing image that @taildraggin@ just posted. Some of the images and comparisons from a year or two ago are fascinating, not least the contrast with the Noctilux f/1.0.
This makes me wonder, have any of you ever compared either the Nokton f/1.0 or, more particularly, the Noctilux f/1.0 with the pre-Asph Summilux v2/3 wide open?
I do realise that that is rather a niche question (to say the least!), but I rather suspect that one or two of you who have rather more 50mm lenses than me might have both the f/1.0 Noctilux and the pre-Asph Summilux (which is a lens I’ve long coveted). I’m asking purely out of curiosity, you understand, nothing more …. ...Show more →
I never compared the two wide open, but the Noctilux definitely produces noticeably more blur.
Recently, I did a quick comparison between the Leica 50/1 Noctilux, the LLL 50/1.2 Noctilux, and the Leica 50/1.5 Summarit (which has a performance and rendering closer to the Leica 50/1.4 Lux v1).
Both Noctilux lenses are similar in rendering and amount of blur, but the 50/1 is always sharper. The 50/1.2 has more glow, but the Summarit takes the crown with the most glow!
These were just informal rendering tests around my neighborhood. Let me know if you’d like me to share some samples.
Great example of how vignetting can enhance composition.
I've also been shooting landscapes wide open recently, and in many cases, I really like the results.
Fred Miranda wrote:
Great example of how vignetting can enhance composition.
I've also been shooting landscapes wide open recently, and in many cases, I really like the results.
Thanks Fred! I’m a fan of natural vignette as well. This f/1 lens is still new to me and I can’t wait to get to know it better.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I never compared the two wide open, but the Noctilux definitely produces noticeably more blur.
Recently, I did a quick comparison between the Leica 50/1 Noctilux, the LLL 50/1.2 Noctilux, and the Leica 50/1.5 Summarit (which has a performance and rendering closer to the Leica 50/1.4 Lux v1).
Both Noctilux lenses are similar in rendering and amount of blur, but the 50/1 is always sharper. The 50/1.2 has more glow, but the Summarit takes the crown with the most glow!
These were just informal rendering tests around my neighborhood. Let me know if you’d like me to share some samples.
Thank you Fred! That (what you say about the Noctilux relative to the Summilux pre-Ash v2/3) makes complete sense.
And yes, I'd certainly be interested to see any samples that you could share, very good of you to offer.
The reason I’m interested is that, increasingly, I find myself liking the character and vintage rendering of some of these older, fast 50mm lenses — hence coveting the pre-Asph v2/3 Summilux — and also landscapes shot wide-open, as you also mentioned. For two or three years, the pre-Asph v2/3 has been high on my list of “one day …” unnecessary purchases to make but, more recently, I’ve been fascinated by some Noctilux f/1.0 samples (not least those posted here by @Edward Teller ), although I doubt I’d like its size.
(I’ve even wondered about the subject of this review thread, the CV Nokton f/1.0. Again, not my preferred size for M cameras, and very different animal, obviously, but for what it’s good at, it’s impressive. @highdesertmesa ‘s description, earlier in this thread, of landscapes taken at f/1 as “ethereal” is nicely put.)
