My M8 has the 35mm 1.2 Nokton attached most of the time now. My observations.

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eleskin

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I have a sizable M lens collection, including the Noctilux, 50mm Summicron and 35mm Summicron and I have noticed since I bought the 35mm Nokton f1.2 from Cameraquest, that lens seems to be mounted on my M8 more than any other. Who else here had this happen? My guess as to why for me is because this lens offers the best focal length and performance value of any lens I have ever bought for a Leica M in my 20 years of shooting with M cameras. Really, the sharpness is blowing me away at almost every F stop, the color ton is wonderful, and the bokeh is every bit as good as any Leica glass I have ever tried. Focus accuracy is dead on.

I asked Steve Huff about this lens and he was not that impressed with it. he felt it was not as 3D and the color was just ok and shadow areas washed out. For the life of me (and i really appreciate his reviews) i have to say he is dead wrong based on the results I am getting.

My feeling is this is the best lens I have ever bought for my M8, and remember i am comparing this to the Noctilux and Summicron standard.

I do plan on the M9 at some point (I may buy another M8 to keep me going until the M9.2 or M10) so I am wondering who on this forum has used this wonderful jewel of a lens on their M9? What do you think?
 
I have mixed feelings about this lens......I used a 28mm and a 50mm for 8 years and was always sure about what lens I wanted/needed for the photo that I wanted to take....then I bought a 35mm 1.2 and now I use it way more than my 28mm and 50mm...it has "changed" my photography in many ways.....in some ways for the better and in some ways for the worse.....

cheers, michael
 
Lovely bottle, but as I already had a pre-aspheric 35/1.4 I decided to stick with that. If I hadn't had the Summilux I might well have asked what sort of press discount I could get on the 35/1,2 I had for review.

Cheers,

R.
 
i have the lens,but have a question

i have the lens,but have a question

hi there.i have a 8.2 and just bought this 35/1.2 lens for a few months.because i am really shooting for fun so i can not provide any useful comment to you.but i have a question if i may ask:when i turn this lens at infinite,the focus ring becomes really hard when it close to infinite.it dose not happen on MP.so i searched on internet,and the information i got says voilgtlander admitted this lens has a issue with digital leica.i think the space inside the body must be different between film one and digital one.so the question is do you have this issue?and do you feel soft focus when you use this lens with the digital leica?

also this gives me another question about leica lens which is:dose the old lenses,i mean the ones without the lens code,do they fit perfectly with the new digital body?i am not talking about the mount,but the focus,the distance between the glass and the ccd.

thank you in advance.

and this is the article i searched
http://www.cameraquest.com/voigt3512.htm
 
Torchiam your lens needs adjustment for the M8!!!

Torchiam your lens needs adjustment for the M8!!!

The lens you have does not have the modification for the M8. You MUST have it adjusted with the right parts for the M8. Send it to Steve Gandy at Cameraquest for modification. DO NOT FOCUS TO INFINITY!! IT MAY DAMAGE YOUR M8!!!!

You have one of the older Noktons. The new ones are all modified for the M8/M9. This is a wonderful lens. Fix it and you will be happy!!!!
 
。。。first,thank you very much!!

the thing is i am in China,i guess you knew it because my chaos English writing.so it is hard to me to get it fixed.luckily i have mp.i guess the only thing i can do so far is to let it stay with film

but please answer my question,do you feel any soft focus with old lens in film age on M8?

thanks!
 
Old lenses and M8

Old lenses and M8

Well, I have a screw mount 50mm Summitar made in 1948-49 that focuses perfectly with the M8. So yes, older lenses will work very well with the M8. Just remember, you need a screw mount adapter for the older screw mount lenses to mount it on an M body like the M8 or any film M camera. The one I have came from China, so I am sure you can get one fast where you are.
 
The 1.2 Nokton was my primary lens on the M8.2. Loved it as my "50", the focal length I find myself using much of the time.

But I sold it when I got the M9 and bought a pre-ASPH Summilux 50mm.
 
I've purchased one twice, and sold it twice.
I did like the lens. But in the end, the size just did me in. Certainly it's not big when compared to SLR lenses - but if I want to use an SLR, I'll break out the D700.

Instead, for the M8, I'm sticking with my excellent copy of the 35/1.4 pre-asph lux.
 
Lens is perfect on the M8 in my opinion. I got to use it a little on my trip to NY, thanks to Renzsu. Was very impressed on the photos I was getting. It'll be my next purchase. Nice focal length and colors were quite excellent from what I see.
 
I have both 35 Summilux ASPH and the 35/1.2 Nokton.
Although i never actually do a side by side comparison, i can say the Nokton is not at all an inferior lens.
Sharpness is slightly better on the Summilux at 1.4 vs the Nokton at 1.2, which is not surprising. The Nokton is however sharp enough, for me at least.

What i found better on the Nokton is Flare suppression, it holds contrast way better when shooting against bright light source.
The Nokton is also a very low contrast lens, completely the otherway around compare to the Summilux.

Bokeh on the other hand is very subjective, you either like it or not, they both are different. One thing i really liked about the Nokton is that, when stopped down bokeh still retains plenty of characters (some people call it smooth bokeh, or pleasant bokeh). Where as the summilux when stopped down is more exact in the way it renders the out of focus areas.

All in all, for me the only drawback of the Nokton is the size.

On the M9 the Nokton has no color shift problem that i can notice, Vignetting is there though especially at 1.2.
 
I've been using this lens on M 8 & 9 while awaiting the new the Sumilux version. It doesn't flare like my old (pre-asph) Summilux, & it's sharp & focuses accurately.

I find, however, that its chromatic aberration is troublesome. If you print BW it won't matter much, but in color it sometimes presents what look like 'neon' red/green outlines around backlit people/objects. Can be fixed or minimized in Photoshop, but annoying.

Kirk
 
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I've had this lens since I got my M6, I later bought a 50mm Lux ASPH, but sold it again after a while because the 50mm focal length just didn't fit my style of shooting. I can't really fault the Nokton for the money, distortion is there for sure, so for architecture it's not really all that suitable. I find the size not really an issue, and the built of the lens is well done, it likes to be grabbed with that focus ring shape and action is smooth.
Best of all though are the photos.. shoot it wide open and you'd swear you've got a 35mm version of the f/1 Noctilux in your hands.
 
I love this lens. It's probably my favorite lens of anything I've got. It is big, but worth it. Nothing beats the bokeh and the color. There's a smoothness to it that can't be beat. I think the lens is even better on film than digital (at least compared to my R-D1).
 
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