The Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.2 Nokton is a lens, which I always found to hit a sweet spot: a very fast lens that is also sharp with very nice bokeh in a compact package at a still somewhat reasonable price.
This is why I did not expect Cosina to release this more complex Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton so shortly after.
Going by price and technology (grinding aspherical, floating elements) this is Cosina’s flagship fullframe lens, so let’s find out what it is capable of in this review. This lens will be reviewed on the 42mp Sony A7rII and the 24mp Leica M10.
Sample Images
Leica M10 | Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton | f/1.0Leica M10 | Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton | f/1.0Leica M10 | Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton | f/1.0Leica M10 | Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton | f/1.0Leica M10 | Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton | f/1.0Leica M10 | Voigtländer VM 50mm 1.0 Nokton | f/1.0
We have seen macro lenses with 1:2 magnification, 1:1 magnification, and even with 2:1 magnification. What if you want to have a lens that goes further and has greater magnification? The cool thing about macro at 3x-5x is that you can take any random ordinary everyday object and make it highly interesting.
For a long time the only available lens that had a magnification greater than 1x was the Canon MP-E 65mm, and not only that, it also could go up to 5x magnification. A long time a matter of envy for all non-Canon users, until mirrorless cameras and adapters made it possible to adapt that lens to other brands, but it was the only option and expensive. This is where the Laowa 25mm f2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro comes in handy. A small lens that has a whopping 5X magnification, costs half and does not need any adapters as it comes in almost all popular mounts. Let’s see how good this little wonder is!
AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G on Nikon Z7II Mirroless Camera
The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G, a popular full-frame standard lens, and an equally popular portrait lens on an APS-C camera, is the last 50mm lens designed and made by Nikon with the Nikon F mount in 2011. Thus, Nikon had put all its knowledge, technology, and experience from decades of producing 50mm lenses in F mount into making this lens. The optical design was new by then and it was the first Nikon 50mm lens with an aspherical lens element, not even the much more expensive Nikkor 50/1.4G had such an element (58mm lenses not counted). Nikon did not make much fuss about this lens as they did not want to undermine the market for the much more expensive 50/1.4G. The price was set to just over $200 new and I see that you can buy a used one for under $100 today. It should be a bargain for such a fast lens, if it is good. Let’s see about it!
The lens was tested on 46 Mp FF Nikon Z7II, 24 Mp FF Nikon Z6, and 24 Mp APS-C Nikon D7200 cameras.
For one decade (2008-2018) the Leica 50mm 0.95 Noctilux-M Asph was Leica’s most expensive M-mount lens and it is still the fastest lens in their line up to this day.
Now in 2023 there are many f/0.95 lenses from China available for your mirrorless camera of choice, but in 2008 – when most people were using (D)SLRs – this was a unique offering and something you could only find in the M-system.
But is this lens (still) worth the asking price? Let’s try to find out. This lens will be reviewed on the 42mp Sony A7rII and the 24mp Leica M10.
While the Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL is one of my favorite lenses, I am very well aware that a 9mm fullframe lens is not for everyone and most certainly a niché lens, which is why I was very much surprised to see 7Artisans offering their own 9mm 5.6 lens. Who makes the better 9mm 5.6? Let us try to find out in this review!
The optical and most of the mechanical construction of this 7Artisans 9mm 5.6 lens is identical to the Brightin Star 9mm 5.6, which features an additional rear filter thread, so be sure to check out its review as well.
Sony α | Leica M | Nikon Z/F New articles every week
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