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This Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical MC lens reviews by Federico Zaza (Website | Website | Facebook | Instagram):

WELCOME BACK TO THE GOLDEN AGE : BATTLE OF ULTRA BRIGHT LENSES

As it happened in the last decade, in the Sixties we’ve seen the birth of A LOT of ultra bright lenses. Mainly around the 50 mm focal lenght, and this makes me really happy since it is my favorite focal length. To be true this process started in the late Fifties with the very first f1.2 available on the market.

Between the Sixties and the Seventies a lot of amazing glasses came out, such as the first lens we can think of as a precursor of these ultra bright lenses. The legendary Leitz 50 f1.2 Noctilux, the first one of an incredible, unmatched series of glasses. But even competitors took the chance to write the history. Starting from Nikon with the unique and truly special Nikkor Noct 58 f1.2, which was available both in Ai and Ai-S version. But we can think even of Canon with several different lenses, such as the magical “The Dream Lens”, a fabulous 50 f0.95 “born” in 1960. ( a rangefinder glass ).

We lived a similar trend within the first two decades of this millennium. Leica, again, took out an astonishing 50 f0.95 in 2008: the last 50 Noctilux, still available today. Nikon, an impressive 58 f 0.95 Noct . A beast weighting almost 2 kg, costing over 8000 € and unmatched optical performances. Canon made new professional lenses for their new mirrorless mount: the new 50 and 85 f1.2 Even Sony joined the race with the beautiful Sony 50 f1.2 GM.

Beside the historical big names, several smaller, niche brands made several, interesting, products. Such as the Mitakon 50 f0.95 ( made for different mounts ), the 7Artisan 50 f1.1, etc, etc

In a very quick, continuously changing, and interesting market, Cosina Voigtlander made its moves. And, interesting, it’s one of the few brands making lenses with proprietary glasses.

The last years were amazing for Cosina-Voigtlander. They’ve build some of the finest lens available worldwide. For example, talking about the Sony mount, the Voigtlander 50 f2 Apo Lanthar is one of the few lenses which can go beyond the resolution of the amazing Sony A7R4 sensor, a 61 mp astonishing camera. Even working at its widest aperture, at f2.0. In a very small, lightweight and compact package. Or the new 21 mm f1.4 Nokton, a real reference in that focal length. An incredible ultra sharp lens, with extremely low chromatic aberration.

So I’m very curious to see how good can be this new Voigtlander. It’s an high end lens, it’s going to compete with the best lenses in its class, not the cheapest alternatives, as we’re speaking about optical performances. But with a very interesting price of 1750 € ( in Italy, VAT included ) it’s way cheaper than most of its alternatives.

Compared to the stellar Voigtlander 50 f1.2 it is way bigger and heavier. But It is “short”, so its weight is extremely well balanced on a Leica M11. The front element can’t be small, since it’s an f1.0 lens.

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