Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
p.24 #1Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
It's a true connoisseur's lens, the thinking man's M 35/2 APO with an extra 1.5 stops. Amazingly capable yet understated and composed with near-perfect optical balance. I think it is the most desirable 35mm of all, pretty much flawless with a timeless quality to its images. Leica's design team should be very proud of their achievement. 416 grams of goodness.
The ever-impressive Keith Wee sums up:
'And the point, as always with a Noctilux is the look. That signature mix of depth, separation, and a slightly dreamy aesthetic, now translated into a focal length that tells fuller stories than a 50mm or 75mm ever can.'
'The Noctilux 35mm ƒ1.2 ASPH is also a precision built tool...Not a flex piece and not for vanity’s sake, but something designed to be used by the one who appreciates (and can afford) it.'
https://keithwee.com/2026/01/29/leica-noctilux-35mm-f1-2-asph-review-the-daily-noctilux/
The ever-impressive Keith Wee sums up:
'And the point, as always with a Noctilux is the look. That signature mix of depth, separation, and a slightly dreamy aesthetic, now translated into a focal length that tells fuller stories than a 50mm or 75mm ever can.'
'The Noctilux 35mm ƒ1.2 ASPH is also a precision built tool...Not a flex piece and not for vanity’s sake, but something designed to be used by the one who appreciates (and can afford) it.'
https://keithwee.com/2026/01/29/leica-noctilux-35mm-f1-2-asph-review-the-daily-noctilux/
Nov 09, 2026 at 08:16 PM
p.24 #2Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
Fred Miranda wrote:
The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.Nothing looks sharp on that forumTo be fair, no files uploaded on THIS forum look sharp either. I wish people would just embed high res photos so we could see something meaningful.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.---------------------------------------------
The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.Nothing looks sharp on that forumTo be fair, no files uploaded on THIS forum look sharp either. I wish people would just embed high res photos so we could see something meaningful.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.I think it's more on FM that is only accepts 1.4mb files or whatever the limitation is---it's been the same for something like 10 years.
It's annoying to link files from flickr mobile-y. If this site had kept upping their uploads with the times, I would have posted more. I would guess others are the same.If the file exceeds the maximum upload size (I think it's 1.5MB), it gets saved automatically using ImageMagick on the server. Since it's saved again as a JPEG, there could be some additional compression artifacts from that extra save. It defaults to around 92% JPEG quality, so unfortunately there's not much room for improvement beyond that. In fact, that is already very high JPEG quality, almost imperceptible to most viewers except for you two it seems like 
and higher than most other sites. If you have any further questions about this, please feel free to PM me.
@fred
over on leicaimages.com , i set a max upload size of 10mb. really helps with not having to compress. then I process them with 100%
/usr/bin/gm convert -quality 100 $uploadedtmpfile $bigFileName
more than glad to help if you need the code looked at.
RoamingScott wrote
RustyRus wrote
brick33308 wrote
how to possibly land in hot water:The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.
nehemiahphoto wrote
RoamingScott wrote
RustyRus wrote
brick33308 wrote
how to possibly land in hot water:The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.
It's annoying to link files from flickr mobile-y. If this site had kept upping their uploads with the times, I would have posted more. I would guess others are the same.
and higher than most other sites. If you have any further questions about this, please feel free to PM me.@fred
over on leicaimages.com , i set a max upload size of 10mb. really helps with not having to compress. then I process them with 100%
/usr/bin/gm convert -quality 100 $uploadedtmpfile $bigFileName
more than glad to help if you need the code looked at.
Nov 11, 2026 at 09:49 PM
p.24 #3Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
Jorge Torralba wrote:
The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.Nothing looks sharp on that forumTo be fair, no files uploaded on THIS forum look sharp either. I wish people would just embed high res photos so we could see something meaningful.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.---------------------------------------------
The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.Nothing looks sharp on that forumTo be fair, no files uploaded on THIS forum look sharp either. I wish people would just embed high res photos so we could see something meaningful.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.I think it's more on FM that is only accepts 1.4mb files or whatever the limitation is---it's been the same for something like 10 years.
It's annoying to link files from flickr mobile-y. If this site had kept upping their uploads with the times, I would have posted more. I would guess others are the same.If the file exceeds the maximum upload size (I think it's 1.5MB), it gets saved automatically using ImageMagick on the server. Since it's saved again as a JPEG, there could be some additional compression artifacts from that extra save. It defaults to around 92% JPEG quality, so unfortunately there's not much room for improvement beyond that. In fact, that is already very high JPEG quality, almost imperceptible to most viewers except for you two it seems like and higher than most other sites. If you have any further questions about this, please feel free to PM me.@fred@
over on leicaimages.com , i set a max upload size of 10mb. really helps with not having to compress. then I process them with 100%
/usr/bin/gm convert -quality 100 $uploadedtmpfile $bigFileName
more than glad to help if you need the code looked at.
Thanks Jorge, 10MB is a good idea for photo sites and we've raised our limit too. One difference in what we do: FM doesn't re-encode uploads at all. The JPEG a member uploads is stored exactly as it came in, byte for byte, with no recompression. Re-saving at quality 100 is still a new lossy save, just a very gentle one, so keeping the original is the better of the two. Our thumbnails are the only thing we compress.
Fred Miranda wrote
RoamingScott wrote
RustyRus wrote
brick33308 wrote
how to possibly land in hot water:The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.
nehemiahphoto wrote
RoamingScott wrote
RustyRus wrote
brick33308 wrote
how to possibly land in hot water:The Leica forum has a thread dedicated to 35 nocti images (https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/426941-noctilux-3512-image-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5937295). I just went through all 7 pages (so far) of the thread, and here's my observation (which even applies to quite a number of images posted by Jono whom I respect):
I'm glad to see so many posted images taken with the 35 nocti wide open. My thoughts (which I'm kinda reluctant to share for fear that I'll be accused of hating on the lens which I assure you I'm not) are: wide open, rendering of OOF areas is beautiful and the images have a dreamy 3D quality with beautiful smooth falloff from center focus to periphery. But, and I hope this doesn't get me in hot water, with the exception of a couple of images posted by IMAGEPOWER above, almost all the images posted thus far in this thread are not tack sharp in the center. That's not a bad thing for certain Leica glass (and indeed desireable when, for example, I'm shooting my 35 steel rim reissue or 50 pre asph wide open, in which cases I am purposely avoiding a modern clinical look). However for a lens that is said by Leica as well as many of the reviewers as being tack sharp in the center focus area when shot wide open, I personally would be disappointed if I bought this lens and that was my experience shooting it wide open.
Just speculating, I don't think this is a lens defect, and rather I think it's a function of the high level of resolving power of the lens coupled with shooting technique issues such as insufficient shutter for handheld shots, or failure to accurately dial in focus. It reminds me when for a very brief time I dipped my toe into the Fuji GFX 50 pool and had huge trouble getting tack sharp images except when I shot that camera on a tripod.
I just gloss over any photo uploaded here, the resolution is so bad when viewed on modern monitors that no critical inspection can take place.
It's annoying to link files from flickr mobile-y. If this site had kept upping their uploads with the times, I would have posted more. I would guess others are the same.
and higher than most other sites. If you have any further questions about this, please feel free to PM me.over on leicaimages.com , i set a max upload size of 10mb. really helps with not having to compress. then I process them with 100%
/usr/bin/gm convert -quality 100 $uploadedtmpfile $bigFileName
more than glad to help if you need the code looked at.
Thanks Jorge, 10MB is a good idea for photo sites and we've raised our limit too. One difference in what we do: FM doesn't re-encode uploads at all. The JPEG a member uploads is stored exactly as it came in, byte for byte, with no recompression. Re-saving at quality 100 is still a new lossy save, just a very gentle one, so keeping the original is the better of the two. Our thumbnails are the only thing we compress.
Nov 11, 2026 at 10:24 PM
p.24 #4Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
awesome Fred. thanks for the update!
Nov 11, 2026 at 10:33 PM
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p.24 #5Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
can someone please post a picture of a somewhat closeup shot wide open with the 35 noct with focus on an eye.
for example something like this one with a 75 apo shot wide open.
I am looking to see how crisp or sharp that wide open shot on fine detail is coming out of the 35 noct. Its been out for a while but i still cant find a sample like what I am describing.
thanks
for example something like this one with a 75 apo shot wide open.
I am looking to see how crisp or sharp that wide open shot on fine detail is coming out of the 35 noct. Its been out for a while but i still cant find a sample like what I am describing.
thanks
Nov 12, 2026 at 08:41 PM
p.24 #6Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
Jorge Torralba wrote:
can someone please post a picture of a somewhat closeup shot wide open with the 35 noct with focus on an eye.
for example something like this one with a 75 apo shot wide open.
I am looking to see how crisp or sharp that wide open shot on fine detail is coming out of the 35 noct. Its been out for a while but i still cant find a sample like what I am describing.
thanks
https://www.leicaimages.com/gallery/1/med_U1.1778464289.0.jpg
these aren't the side profile like you want, but I think the sharpness is there. These are both wide open, then 100% crops
can someone please post a picture of a somewhat closeup shot wide open with the 35 noct with focus on an eye.
for example something like this one with a 75 apo shot wide open.
I am looking to see how crisp or sharp that wide open shot on fine detail is coming out of the 35 noct. Its been out for a while but i still cant find a sample like what I am describing.
thanks
https://www.leicaimages.com/gallery/1/med_U1.1778464289.0.jpg
these aren't the side profile like you want, but I think the sharpness is there. These are both wide open, then 100% crops
Nov 13, 2026 at 05:16 PM
p.24 #8Leica Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH. lens
rsolti13 wrote:
these aren't the side profile like you want, but I think the sharpness is there. These are both wide open, then 100% crops
Awesome . Thanks. This is what I was looking for.
JT
these aren't the side profile like you want, but I think the sharpness is there. These are both wide open, then 100% crops
Awesome . Thanks. This is what I was looking for.
JT
Nov 13, 2026 at 06:00 PM