This lens is a huge kick in the pants, ultra fast exotic glass, for beer and hotdog prices.
This is the FASTEST non-Leica lens currently in production for the M mount system, and it sells for about 10% of the Worlds fastest Lens, this may be all you need to know to make your purchase decision.
This lens WILL make you want to go bang your head on a brick wall, it is frustrating, challenging, it will make you look like a idiot again and again.... and when you are ready to give up focusing it... it will deliver pictures like nothing you have ever seen before. A friend of mine bought the lens, gave up, returned the lens, then two weeks bought the lens again... Saying "nothing else render like this lens and I can't live without it". Now you know, so don't come blame me when you buy this lens and find yourself hopelessly addicted to ultra thin focus photography, it is not my fault that you can't focus 1/16 of a inch at 5 feet, its also not the lens's fault, don't buy this lens unless you are ready to find your skills challenged.
Lets talk about the lens for a moment, all metal housing, rock solid, and while we are at it, heavy as a brick, but what do you expect from a lens with a aperture of 1.1 ? This is a huge amount of finely polished big chunks of glass, this lens transmit almost as much light as if you simply took the lens off your camera.
The lens focuses easier than its famous competition the Leica Noctilux, because the focus moves from near to far in a smooth and short 90deg turn, the noctilux requires a much longer and heavier focus turn. Like the Noctilux, this is a BIG lens, but it rests comfortably in your left hand when shooting, still you will know what lens you have on the camera when hooking the strap over your shoulder, all this glass is heavy.
The aperture ring is easy with firm click stops.
The lens come with a lens-hood, personally I don't like the stock hood and use mine without, I would never recommend this, but the hood cover a good deal of the viewfinder so I prefer the lens without.
Im not going to tell you this lens is sharper than the famous Noctilux 0.95, but it cost about $9000 less, you need to answer the value question based on your wallet. I bought one of the first and personally I really like the way the Nokton renders wide open, the bokeh may be described as a little grainy, almost water-colorish, this is perfect for my taste and I have been very happy with this lens for street photography and portraiture.
Voigtlander have made a business of creating incredible value lenses for rangefinders, delivering superb lenses at a great price. The new 50mm 1.1 is maybe the single best value Voigtlander have ever offered. Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.1 Leica M Mount Lens - Black
This was the first lens I purchased for my Leica M9 body in September of last year. It was also the only lens I used on that body until I purchased a Summicron M f2/28 and a few more other original Leica Lenses. I bought my Nokton f1.1/50 here. I bought it from the Photo Village.
I paid $999.- The delivery was prompt. The initial quality of the lens very impressive.
The lens was indeed quite excellent when first used. The depth of field was incredibly narrow and the photographs coming out of the camera were unlike anything I had been able to shoot with any kind of equipment until then.
I felt like I had made a great purchase. I could have written a review very comparable to the other one here.
There was no other raking I could possibly give this lens but five stars.
Focussing was indeed a challenge when shooting wide open, but focussing was somehow my job. I had to learn to refine my ability to match the performance of this apparently very fine and also very affordable lens.
The trouble started a few weeks into my ownership of the lens. At a museum visit I suddenly was not able to focus the lens properly at all. The lens began to back focus by about 12 inches, then perhaps even more. I obviously thought that my ability to take picturess had deteriorated, or perhaps that there was something wrong with my M9 body?
I ran some tests, and indeed, the lens was now back focussing to a level that made it completely unusable. There was just no way I could predict what kind of image would come out of the camera, no matter how precisely I tried to focus using the range finder.
I emailed the manufacturer in Germany at first. I soon received an email that this was a bit of a surprise: "We know about this 'problem' in combination with Leica M9."
"The lens itself has no default, it works just fine." and "The lens must be adjusted with the camera of use, in this case the Leica M9." A potential solution: "Please find information from the factory attached. Please turn to your dealer for adjustment accrding to the manual. We hope we have been able to help you."
An interesting kind of help one would receive for a lens that was on guarantee and not a month old. The attached file was a PDF with instructions how to disassemble the lens in 13 steps and to make adjustments. ("Please note that collimator is necessary for this adjustment.") Also attached was a Word document stating that the lens was fine and that the back focus issues came from the "unevenness of the sensor" on the M8 and M9 cameras. Had I used an apparently more precise film Leica, none of the issues would have occurred?
I brought the lens to a trusted dealer in Manhattan and he let me compare the still very new Nokton with an old and beat up Noctilux f1/50. The old Leica lens focussed very precisely. The Nokton really no longer did.
I showed the dealer the instructions I received from Voigtländer, and he did not feel comfortable making the adjustments suggested. I was sent to camera repair shop on Broadway. Here the expert suggested I return the lens to the distributor (in this case, Photo Village) as the lens was indeed still covered by a one year warranty.
The man at photo village took the lens back in for repair. The date was October 20. I had owned the lens for a few weeks then. It is the 27th of January as I am writing this.
So the lens has been "in Japan" for about three months now.
The lens is indeed affordable. It is interesting and exotic.
It is challenging.
But it does not come with a Leica passport guarantee that promises to replace even a damaged lens in the first three years after purchase.
I am not sure if the sensors on the Leica M8/M9 cameras are indeed placed less precisely than the film in previous Leicas, as claimed by Voigtländer.
Though I was indeed surprised that my customer service experience was a PDF file and a Word document, followed by months of waiting.
(So the lens is currently, in fact, a 999.- spent on a relatively brief encounter with it.)
It is possible that I will receive my lens tomorrow. I might need to wait for a few more weeks. I am apparently "not the only customer" waiting, according to an email from Photo Village.
And once I receive my "repaired" lens back, I have no idea if it will focus precisely or not. And I have no idea if it will keep the focus for a few weeks, moths or many years.
I am looking forward to shooting with the lens again, of course. Even if it is heavy and big and challenging to use.
This is a personal experience with the lens, but it would not be fair to future customers if I did not share it.
I will be very happy to replace this here with a completely positive review, if the lens indeed returns repaired and if I manage to work with it for at least a few months.'
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