Please post 40mm Nokton wide open photos

[Roma]

Hi everybody,
I currently use SLRs and DSLRs and finally about to try an RF for the first time. I wanted to try a G2, but really like super-fast lenses and don't hesitate using them wide-open. I'm now leaning toward Bessa R2A and will be using mostly B&W film. I love to shoot wide-angle, and will probably buy the R4A when it comes out also.

Please post your (or not your) shots with the 40mm f1.4 Nokton wide open and if you don't post a shot, at least let me know what you think about it when shot wide-open and how it compares to stopping the lens down a stop or 2.

I'm also in a dillema of either getting the single-coated or multi-coated version:bang: I've read other threads about it, but still don't know if the single-coated version is "really" that much better for black and white film, especially if I pull a little. I also don't know about the difference in sharpness between the 2 lenses (again wide-open).

Please specify if your photos were taken with MC or SC lens.

I greatly appreciate it ,
Roman

 

[dcsang]

One of my first images with the 40mm - I believe this was wide open. You don't get to see any of the "bad bokeh" that's so often talked about with this lens.

Personally, I don't have an issue with it but hey.. bokeh is subjective imho.

Dave

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

40mm f1.4 SC wide open, from about 0.7m to 1m away

 

[furcafe]

Most of my recent shots w/the CV 40/1.4 Nokton have been w/the Epson R-D1, so the DoF is different than it would be on a film body because of the 1.5 crop factor, but here's one anyway (I believe I focused on the "F"):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furcafe/162777930/

 

[RayPA]

If not wide open , then almost wide open (sorry it's so small):

 

[mich8261]

R2A and Nokton 40

R2A and Nokton 40

Roman, no picture, I haven't purchased my copy yet, but I am doing similar research. If you are interested in the 40, I think you should consider the R3A since is has the viewfinder lines for this lens. The R2A starts at 35.

 

[Roma]

Man, it's hard to judge on a PC monitor

Man, it's hard to judge on a PC monitor

Yes, of course I meant R3A. Good luck with your decision Michel!
Dave, I think people talk about the harsh bokeh when they compare this lens to the Summilux M ASPH. Well, hell, that thing is $2500 more. Plus, the only "slightly" harsh bokeh I've seen so far was against very complex background and when it's a direct comparison to the Summilux. When I see just the Nokton shots alone, they look very nice. I just don't know if they are wide-open or not.
Thanks Jon and Furcafe for the posts. Ray, I can't see your picture.

 

[RayPA]

Yes, of course I meant R3A. Good luck with your decision Michel!
Dave, I think people talk about the harsh bokeh when they compare this lens to the Summilux M ASPH. Well, hell, that thing is $2500 more. Plus, the only "slightly" harsh bokeh I've seen so far was against very complex background and when it's a direct comparison to the Summilux. When I see just the Nokton shots alone, they look very nice. I just don't know if they are wide-open or not.
Thanks Jon and Furcafe for the posts. Ray, I can't see your picture.

hmmm, now I can't see it either. It was there. It's a link to an image on my blog. I'll try again. If I'm not successful I'll post a link to it.


.

 

[luketrash]

I have 50mm f1.4 lenses on SLR cameras, but none that I can handhold as slowly. The R3A with Nokton 40mm MC lens is the first camera I've been comfortable going out at night without a tripod with.

These are all handheld:

1/30th second

1/15th second

1/15th second

1/15th second

1/8th second

1/4th second

1/4th second (test shot of my dorky self one-handed!)

 

[triplefinger]

this was at 1.4 from about 3feet away.

coincedentally, i'm selling this lens in the classifieds too.

 

[RayPA]

hmmm, now I can't see it either. It was there. It's a link to an image on my blog. I'll try again. If I'm not successful I'll post a link to it.


.

I give up! If you're interested, here's the link (there are two 40/1.4 posts. I was trying to upload the portrait from the February 14 post--it's close to wide open):TIB

.

 

[Roma]

I checked them out. Thanks Ray!

 

[cinematix]

Here's my shot. I took this in the bar in K-town, LA. The bar was really dark inside.
Nokton 40mm, ISO 3200, f1.4

 

[clintock]

It squeezes..
Here's a link that may work for a machine translated from japanese page comparing the 40s both sc and mc in various situations..

http://translate.google.com/transla...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=/language_tools

 

[luketrash]

Haha, if I ever get a Japanese guy asking me about the squeezer in my lens, I'll know what he's talking about.

So basically the single coated lens has some magenta layer, whereas the MC lens has magenta and green added?

Since I shoot in B&W and vary my process from roll to roll, I doubt I'd ever discern the difference between these two lenses.

 

[Didier]

One of my first images with the 40mm - I believe this was wide open. You don't get to see any of the "bad bokeh" that's so often talked about with this lens.

Hi Dave

I have the 40 Nokton SC, too. Before talking about it's bokeh, let me say it's my standard lens on the M6. Fast, sharp, contrasty, compact.

It's bokeh is getting, let me use a moderate term, "less attractive", when there are highlights in the background. That's the critical lightning situation for almost all fast modern lenses, including the Leica ASPH's. It can produce silly rings or silly double lines - not only with lamps in the background by night (like on the first pic), but almost everywhere at daylight, too (see the car lines and the tree leaves). With evenly illuminated, low-contrast, not highlighted backgrounds like on your pool billard table shot (a nice pic btw), you will never have any bokeh problems with almost any lens.

So if you want to estimate the Nokton's critical bokeh handling, check light situations where the lens is really challenged. I have some samples here, all shot at f1.4, the first with the R-D1, the others with color or B&W film and M6:

But you can avoid these "less attractive" OOF rendering effects just by stopping down to f2 or f2.8:

...and gone they are...

My conclusion - the Nokton's bokeh's not above suspicion in all lightning situations, but nevertheless it's a great and very versatile user lens, for a sensationally low price. I love it.

Didier

 

[Roma]

Thank you Triplefinger, Sinematix, Luke and Didier for your examples! Luke, I see how sharp this lens can be in your photos with nice rendering, but I also see Didier's point about the highlights. Damn, why can't it just be a perfect little lens? I mean it is small and 1.4. I guess the price and size of it "kinda" make it perfect, but I surely don't want those highlights to look like that. Oh well, I'll figure it out somehow. I'm open to more samples though, please, please, pretty please.

Clintock, I couldn't figure out at first about the squeezes, but did laugh once I started reading the site😀 . great reference - thank you!

 

[luketrash]

Yep, in the rangefinder format, the 40 f1.4 is great because you can shoot at slower speeds than with an SLR, and the physical size of the lens is small... I haven't shot a lot of stuff where the bokeh would come into play. And at 350 dollars it's cheap in terms of a rangefinder..

This photo was taken wide open with my 50mm f1.4 Yashinon lens in my Yashica TL Electro SLR.. I think I gave 40.00 for both it and the camera, haha..

I've been carrying my Bessa R3A around with the 40mm Nokton and the 15mm Heliar, and I like it, because I can have one lens in my pocket and hardly notice it there. With my older SLRs, the lenses are bulkier, heavier, etc...

 

[sevres_babylone]

The 40mm is on my wishlist, so thanks OP for the posting the question, thanks to those who posted samples, and thanks to Clintock for posting the link to the Japanese site with samples of both the MC and SC versions (I'd seen that site a long time ago, without the .... um... translation.)

 

[Goodyear]

I have one of the SC version sitting that I'm not allowed to touch because it's a birthday gift from my wife and my birthday isn't until the weekend...

But before I placed the order I spent a lot of time looking at images like these. The lens has a weak rep for bokeh, but in all my looking at pics I can only think of one r two where I didn't like the look of it - and even then not to extremes.

If I'd seen Luke's shots before now (I love the one of the dog), I wouldn't have waited so long to nab one.

Sockeyed's photos with this lens were also a big factor in my final decision to get one.