The Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.4 is the most interesting budget alternative to the famous Leica 35mm LUX, for a little more than 10% of the price, you probably get something like 90% of the performance. Considering what you pay for this lens, there is simply no interesting alternative. You can make life simple and skip to the bottom line, or you can read the details below.
Please, don't think of this as a inexpensive lens. ALL 1.4 lenses are in a rarefied territory of exotic ultra fast lenses.
Lets talk about what you get and what you do not get for the money in the Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 lens.
The defining character of this lens is "FAST". This is a 1.4 lens, you can shoot this lens handheld in dark bars. As far as I am concerned, the number one reason to purchase a 1.4 lens is photographing after sunset, also known as "available darkness" photography. The number two reason is environmental portraits with incredible shallow focus on the subject and a delightfully blurred background. Maybe there is a third reason, 35mm is one of the classical rangefinder lenses, popular for street photography.
The Nokton 35mm 1.4 does "wide open" excellently, it is a fantastic lens for wide open photography, with a nice out of focus look.
There is no such thing as a "free lunch", you can say that about this lens also. While the Nokton 35mm 1.4 excels at its main job, photographing wide open, the lens does have a small problem, it is one of those you need to know about, once you know and understand it is not a problem. The lens have a pretty dramatic focus shift when stopped down to 2.0 and 4.0 - what does that really mean.? simply, imagine you photograph a portrait at about 3 feet, if you photograph at f. 1.4 the focus will be on the eye of the person (assuming you focused on the eye) however, once you stop down to 2.0 the focus plane have moved almost 3 inches backwards and is now on the ear.. roughly the same is true at f. 4.0 - things get better at 5.6 because the depth of field catches up with the focus shift.. so basically at 5.6 the depth of field have covered the area you originally focused on.
What does this mean for you as a photographer.? The 35mm 1.4 is a very competent lens, when used inside its comfort zone. So, buy this lens for wide-open night, street and portrait photography. Use the lens wide open at f 1.4 or stop it down to f. 5.6 or below for landscape.
This description of the 35mm 1.4 is based on owning one and playing with another, both of these had the same profile, I have heard that some users claim to not have the focus-shift issue, I have not personally seen a lens without the focus-shift. As I said above, there is nothing wrong with this lens, but you need to understand the strong sides of the lens. While you think about this, it might be worth knowing that the famous Leica 35mm 1.4 display a similar focus shift issue, so part of shooting a 35mm 1.4 ultra fast lens, involves focus-shift, get over it and go take some pictures. The Leica lens also apears to come with a bit of varity, some users claim huge focus-shift issues, others claim no such thing, I don't own the lens and don't intend to purchase it as long as my $600 Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 does the trick so incredibly well.
The physical appearance of the lens is classical 35mm. It is very compact and well build. Sorry I can't give you a mechanical reason not to buy this lens. I recommend getting the matching lens-hood.
Crop-Factor. If you are a user of the Leica M8 or the Epson RD1 you will be aware of the related crop factor issues, this was the original reason I purchased the 35mm 1.4, to act as a "50mm" on my M8. This is a lovely fast lens on the M8, naturally, again it must be used within its comfort-zone.
How do I know this lens..? I have use two of them, own one and love it. The last year I have used this on my M6 film rangefinder, and also on my M8, and finally now in Dec 2009 on my new M9, the lens perform well on all of these cameras. I should add that the lens have a grove in the lens mount, you can code the lens with a sharpie by making marks in the grove, this will let your M8 or M9 camera record the lens and focal length which can be very convenient for sorting images in Lightroom.
ALL 1.4 lenses are exotic lenses. there are some compromises, these are well worth living with in return for ultra-fast exotic glass rendering and low-light photography.
Bottom line - For my money, this lens is Highly Recommended, there is no other similar small fast lens, for this kind of money. Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton -- Multi-coated
The Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.4 is a great bargain in fast M lenses (especially if you can find one used -- they depreciate significantly in my experience). I have been happy with the results I get from it, both on my M8 and my M2. The other reviewer that mentions focus shift is correct: you'll most likely experience it. I tested for it (with a yardstick and tripod) and found it in my copy. However, I don't worry about it much in regular shooting. Another great benefit of this lens is its compactness. It's pretty amazingly small.
As far as other options, you could also consider the Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2 (1 stop slower) for somewhat less than twice the price of the Nokton. I prefer the handling of the Zeiss, but I could live with the Voigtlander as my only 35mm.
While there is no debate that all the Leica 1.4 lenses are the best in the world Voigtlander comes so close that it's splitting hairs to compare for anyone other than the most discriminating professionals and camera enthusiasts. The other thing worth mentioning is that the leica lenses are way overpriced and completely unavailable. If you want a Leica prime lens you either need to wait to pay thousands from a dealer or pay even more to grab one off Ebay.
This lens is well made, great for shooting in low light, has beautiful bokeh ( I know hard core bokeh/photo people will disagree but it's subjective) and sharp focus within the shallow depth of field. If you do not know what these terms are and you do not plan on taking shots with available light then you do not need this lens.
The Leica rangefinder bodies are the only game in town but thankfully Voigtlander and Zeiss make lenses that are available for people who can't wait 18 months for a lens. Works great on the M9 and all shots look amazing. Search flickr for shots to see results. Remember to compare to Leica 35mm 1.4 shots too just to make sure. lenses are unique and for picky people who are more technical than artistic, this lens might not be for you. For everyone else it's a decent deal.
Enjoy. - Leica - Voigtlander - Leica Lens'
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