Sorry to go off-topic, but could someone with experience with both lenses share the difference between the V2 and V3 Noctilux F1.0? Is it just the slight color difference due to the coating? (V2 being warmer, V3 cooler?)
philip_pj wrote:
Impressive focus fade down a stop or two, and the focal plane is very easily seen.
Agreed.
This is one from tonight with only a streetlight for lighting. Wide open, this lens can be very sharp. But even at f/1.0 this image needed ISO 3200 to get 1/50 second!
I bought a V 50/1 with the idea it would be useful in the low angle dimmer light of winter Anchorage. I took it out for its first photo session for the Iditarod ceremonial start last March. I need bit more DOF to I shot mostly F1.8-2 and I was pleased, the color, detail etc in the Winter light gave me what I was looking for. The lens might get less use in summer Anchorage, I'll try with a ND and see what I get. For Winter light this lens is just what I wanted/needed.
I acquired a LLL 1966 and so put it lens to lens in the night sky- these are 2.5 sec exposures of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson with Moonlight as a fill light. This was done early morning so the Moon was behind me illuminating the mountains. LLL is on top Voightlander 50/1 on bottom. The LLL has more character, the 50/1 has more detail. You can discern the Andromeda galaxy M31 just above the mountains and to the right of the single Saguaro that extends higher than the mountains- not bad for 2.5 sec (in both). The V50/1 should be amazing on a tracking mount, I have not yet done this, the LLL works fine for night, but this is not its strongest point to do star photography with scenery, the V50/1 on the other hand, this is something I will have to try other times and context. I wish I had for the comet last fall, but hope to catch the next good comet, that could well take years.
I haven't been able to define the palette of the CV Noktons. Using the 50z/1 and 28z/1.5 (that I have developed an unnatural love for) on a Zf, it finally dawned on me that it looks like CV tuned the colors to have something of a modern Nikon AI/AIS era look - neutral, Kodachrome-like.
It always seemed that the later film-era AF-D nikkors produced more saturated blues-greens (toward Velvia) and the digital era "G" are flatter and more smoothly color balanced, perhaps to support digital editing better(?).
Thanks, EMH2025, for the sky pics. Any chance you could post upper corner crops for the V50/1 so we can see what the effect of curvature of field and coma is? I did look at the image before reading your remarks, and noticed M31.
AZSteve wrote:
Thanks, EMH2025, for the sky pics. Any chance you could post upper corner crops for the V50/1 so we can see what the effect of curvature of field and coma is? I did look at the image before reading your remarks, and noticed M31.
I dont seem have saved those source files, I can shoot them again or at least the V50/1 but I do have this because I haven't recycled the chip yet- I shot the V50/1 for a few hours hoping to catch an earth grazer meteor over the Catalina foothills in Tucson- didn't get one. So this is one of the 3 sec F2 images with more sky in it as that is the point. I did not correct for fall off in this image, I did not denoise, or sharpen just made it a bit brighter. I think the V50/1 will require a crop to be great at low F, but working with it I do think it could be remarkable for scenery at night with stars (and meteors and it is meteors that interest me more)
I have been doing a lot of lens to lens comparisons, but not saving all the source data. Fred did his LLL rigid review, I have one and I have been comparing it to the Funleader contax g 45/2 for instance, and they are close very close, the LLL has richer color and I think the contax is ever so slightly sharper. Picking lenses for when I am out and about, and dont or cannot carry them all and still trying to decide which of these two goes in my pocket as my "nifty 50" general.
Thanks again, EMH2025, I was freaking out in awe at the low coma in the upper two corners and then reread your words and saw f/2, so not f/1! The corners look very similar so looks like good centering in your copy. Best wishes.
AZSteve wrote:
Thanks again, EMH2025, I was freaking out in awe at the low coma in the upper two corners and then reread your words and saw f/2, so not f/1! The corners look very similar so looks like good centering in your copy. Best wishes.
The V50/1 is nice class- see review on Three Blind Men and An Elephant youtube it might be Vs most expensive lens but it is a bargain in terms of money and back pain compared to Nikon/Leica Noct glass. For most of what I want I think it will be good, but for, scenics maybe not F2 because I can do 16:9 but for meteors I want as much as good sky space as possible so stopping down to 2 works better as not have a meteor buried in the corner. The other thing is meteors have color and a little color contrast increase with a bit more F is good. At F1.4-1.8 you will do fine. At F1 too much tunnel vision for nighttime scenery. I really like this lens.
I'll admit. This was total luck. I was in the back yard using my Voigtlander 50/1.0 Nokton and while focused on the hummingbird feeder, this guy showed up for a few seconds.
