sander9t
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 Original Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.5 (Prominent 1951-1960) | |
***I didn't get a hit when searching in the forum. If there is an existing post, please let me know and I can move these over.
First of all, a few words about the camera. I recently got a minty Voigtlander Prominent camera (1950s) with three lenses: Nokton 50/1.5, Skoparon 35/3.5, and Dynaron 100/4.5. What to say about them? A dream of the glorious days of chrome plated cameras and lenses! Made out of brass with a shiny chrome finish, this is absolutely the most beautiful camera I have ever touched. Cameras built in 1950s are considered the peak in terms of build quality. Nothing that came after compares. Some say the Prominent has a build quality that is even better than Leica M3 and Contax IIa and IIIa (which I don't have - if you do, please comment). I am going through my first roll with it. The sad truth is that despite the stunning build quality and attention to details, the camera was not designed for regular human beings to use: the soybean size viewfinder is placed somewhere in the center towards the right side and extremely hard to see through; I don’t know the magnification but it must be miserable (estimated to be below 0.5x); it is much heavier than its competitors; the focusing is not done on the lens but via the left knob on the top plate; you wind the film via the right knob and you have to wind a long way. In fact, the commercial failure of this camera contributed to the collapse of the Voigtlander company which was sold to its arch rival Zeiss Ikon in 1956. An interesting thing about the camera: it has an inner bayonet mount for the 50mm lenses (Nokton 50/1.5, Ultron 50/2, Skopar 50/3.5) and an outer bayonet mount for other lenses.
I will focus on the original Nokton lens in this post. When introduced in 1951, it was considered the sharpest 1.5 lens, easily beating competitors (Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 for Contax rangefinders, Leica Summarit 50/1.5, etc.), until 1961 when Leica brought the legendary Summilux 50/1.4 (Type 2) and Zeiss brought the Contarex Planar 55/1.4. In addition to the Prominent mount version I have here, Voigtlander also produced two additional versions: one for Leica Thread Mount (LTM) and the other for Contax rangefinder mount, with very limited quantity. The story goes like this: the original Nokton was so good that many Leica and Contax users wanted it badly and some even used a Summarit’s barrel to house Nokton's optics so that they can used them on Leica bodies; encouraged by the demand and the pride, Voigtlander thus made the Nokton available in competitors' mounts. Today, due to rarity, expect to pay $7K or more for a LTM version if you desire.
The Voigtlander brand went through a roller coaster ride, mostly downwards, after being sold to Zeiss Ikon in 1956. After Cosina bought the Voigtlander nameplate in 1999, it revived the Nokton branding with a modern aspherical 50/1.5 lens (first in Nikon SC rangefinder mount in 2003 and in Leica M-mount in 2013) which was said to based on the original Nokton. Interestingly, Cosina’s "reissue" only resembles the original Nokton in appearance while they have very different optical formulas. And what is more interesting is that the replica’s form is based on the LTM version of the original Nokton because the LTM version has built-in focus mechanism.
In order to adapt the original Prominent Nokton to mirrorless cameras, you need either a Prominent-LTM or Prominent-M adapter, and they tend to be pretty expensive. This is due to the fact that the lens has no focus mechanism (as mentioned before, the focus mechanism is inside the Prominent camera), so you need an adapter with a focus helicoid. I use a Prominent-LTM adapter plus a LTM-FujiX adapter to use it on my Fujifilm X-T3. Infinity focus is achieved by back focus a little bit, and thanks to the helicoid, now it can focus down to 0.4m instead of 1m originally designed - a nice little surprise for going through hoops. If you want to use it on a Leica M camera, make sure you get a Prominent-M adapter that allows rangefinder coupling.
 Nokton 50/1.5 on Voigtlander Prominent (1950s) by Sander Li, on Flickr
 Nokton 50/1.5 on Voigtlander Prominent (1950s) by Sander Li, on Flickr
Here is a photo of the Prominent + Skoparon setup, which clearly shows the use of outer bayonet.
 Skoparon 35/3.5 on Voigtlander Prominent (1950s) by Sander Li, on Flickr
The Nokton on X-T3 via two adapters.
 Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5 Prominent on X-T3 by Sander Li, on Flickr
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