Nokton 50mm/f1.1 Review on the Leica M9

"Let me start this review by saying two things that I think are confusing when we read reviews of this lens on the internet or in magazines:
  1. Please don’t expect to buy a “Noctilux clone” for €1000 !
  2. Don’t expect Summicron sharpness in a f1.1 lens !"
Ok, thank you.
I'll stick with my Nokton 1.5 then.

Cheers,
Uwe
 
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yep

Uwe_Nds said:
"Let me start this review by saying two things that I think are confusing when we read reviews of this lens on the internet or in magazines:
  1. Please don’t expect to buy a “Noctilux clone” for €1000 !
  2. Don’t expect Summicron sharpness in a f1.1 lens !"
Ok, thank you.
I'll stick with my Nokton 1.5 then.

Cheers,
Uwe
Click to expand...

Well Uwe like we say in our review...this is not a lens to match everybody's taste.
I'm sure your 1.5 is sharper even if I didn't had the opportunity to use it but this Nokton gives you the chance to go to 1.1 with the creative possibilities associated to that.

Like I say...it's no my 50mm of choice to day-to-day photography, is one for some specific occasions.

Regards,

Paulo
 
I'm not sure that I agree with the "Please don’t expect to buy a “Noctilux clone” for €1000 !" premise. There has to be some limit at which pumping more money into producing a lens makes it only negligibly better. Of course we won't all agree where that limit is.

(That said, I think this review is right on the money.)
 
I also disagree with the assumption that expensive = better, but I liked the review, and look forward to trying the Nokton 1.1 out for myself when it turns up.
 
Uwe_Nds said:
"Let me start this review by saying two things that I think are confusing when we read reviews of this lens on the internet or in magazines:
  1. Please don’t expect to buy a “Noctilux clone” for €1000 !
  2. Don’t expect Summicron sharpness in a f1.1 lens !"
Ok, thank you.
I'll stick with my Nokton 1.5 then.

Cheers,
Uwe
Click to expand...

You are right about that, I have the 50mm/1.5 Nokton, and it has a beautiful render and is very sharp wide open, but it isn't f1.1 🙂

Cheers!
 
pcardigo said:
Unfortunately with didn't had the oportunity to test the Noctilux f1, but I agree, the Steve Huff comparison of the two is well worth a reading.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Actually, I kind of enjoyed that review because the images were so similar. You could almost hear his sigh of relief when the OOF highlights of the Nokton looked like stop signs at high magnification compared to the smooth round highlights of the Leica.
 
Thardy said:
Actually, I kind of enjoyed that review because the images were so similar. You could almost hear his sigh of relief when the OOF highlights of the Nokton looked like stop signs at high magnification compared to the smooth round highlights of the Leica.
Click to expand...

God forbid the Nokton being that good 😀
 
Double Negative said:
You know, I never understood that one image... The lens is supposed to be wide open - which would've rendered a round OOF highlight regardless of lens.
Click to expand...
I've always had that doubt too, because it's the only image I've seen, where the Nokton's OOF highlights have that shape wide open. I have always thought that the lens might have been stopped down a tiny bit in that image.
 
Thardy said:
Actually, I kind of enjoyed that review because the images were so similar. You could almost hear his sigh of relief when the OOF highlights of the Nokton looked like stop signs at high magnification compared to the smooth round highlights of the Leica.
Click to expand...

Haha, I thought the same thing! 😀
 
Good review, lots of pictures with the lens.

This lens is destined to be a classic. If Cosina discontinues it, prices will skyrocket. It is a much better choice than buying the Canon 50/0.95 and having it converted to M-Mount. I'll have to do a test of the Nokton vs the Canon.
 
Brian Sweeney said:
Good review, lots of pictures with the lens.

This lens is destined to be a classic. If Cosina discontinues it, prices will skyrocket. It is a much better choice than buying the Canon 50/0.95 and having it converted to M-Mount. I'll have to do a test of the Nokton vs the Canon.
Click to expand...



In that case I probably should buy one before supply dries up.
 
Thanks for the review.
A couple of comments. First - I can never understand comments on build quality. It's all subjective, I think, unless you take the lens apart and see how it is made. Some lenses feel solid, but have a lot of plastic parts and will not last as long as others. Many CV lenses fall into that category - having taking some of the apart I have better idea about the real build quality. Not to say that it stops me from having many CV lenses.
Second - while I understand why CV 50/1.1 is always compared to Noctilux, but I think that it would be interesting to compare it to M-Hexanon 50/1.2. I have this lens and I think it performs better than CV, yet doesnt cost as much as Noctilux.
 
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