Voigtlaender Nokton Classic Lens 40 mm / F1.4

I simply love this lens. I also own the new 40mm 1.2 sony mount and have tested it side by side to the 1.4 and while I know this sounds crazy...the difference is only slight. This lens performs beautifully!! Worth every penny and then some. Small, elegant, built like a fine machine.I have owned 3 of these (gave them to my kids) and bought new, I think there is a chance the newer the better.The iq and rendering just seems amazing in the one I just tested.I know some reviewers have given it bad marks on bokeh etc... however but man, when you slow down (or use the techart AF adapter) and get the focus just right this lens is simply amazing.

I seriously love this lens for the price. It's a light-gathering monster, and it's so compact that it doesn't interfere with the viewfinder. Optics are quite clear and sharp. It's not as tack-sharp as my Leica 35MM lens, but it's also a fraction of the cost, and, wide-open, it works in very low light.Build quality is very good. Focus ring is smooth and has clear locks stops end to end. Aperture ring clicks at each stop and doesn't stray.Uses the same standard 39mm filter size as most lenses for these M series bodies.I hope to get many years use of this lens.

I recently acquired a slightly used Leica M-E (the last M9 variant with the CCD sensor), and was looking for a budget starter lens.I have tried the excellent Voigtlander Color Skopar 35mm F2.5 Pii lens. It is slightly sharper wide open in the center and has better corner performance at all apertures than the Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4. However, the maximum aperture of F2.5 on the Skopar was a bit slow for low light photography, which is why I decided to get the Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4.I had gotten used to 40mm field of view with a Panasonic 20mm on my Olympus Pen-F and Fuji 27mm f2.8 pancake on my Fuji X-M1. I find this to be a very practical focal length for everyday use.The Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4 is quirky and I certainly agree with Ken Rockwell's review of this lens. Having said that, the performance of this lens is excellent with the 18MP CCD sensor of the Leica M-E.One of the quirks, when using the optical viewfinder on rangefinder cameras like the Leica M series, there is a focus shift at F2.8 and F4 when focusing on near objects within 2 meters. This focus shift is not present at F1.4 and F2, and starts to go away at F5.6. I read about this in the Leica forums, and confirmed it is there in my copy of the lens. (This issue will not be seen when focusing with the EVF in mirrorless cameras.)Even though the lens is slightly soft wide open at F1.4, I was able to take very pleasing portraits of my wife at that aperture. It looks dreamy and the vignetting is pleasant. Stopping down to F2 makes it pretty sharp.I had to apply a couple of tweaks to make this lens work well on my Leica M-E. I found these solutions online in the rangefinder forums. (These tweaks are NOT required for mirrorless cameras, as the focusing is done using live-view.)This lens brings up 50mm frame lines automatically on Leica rangefinder cameras (except the CL). In order to bring up the 35mm frame lines, it was necessary to file the shoulder of a tab (pointed to by the red arrow in the picture) of the rear lens mount. I used a finger nail file to file off about 0.5 - 0.8 mm. It took just 2 - 3 minutes. Now, the 35mm frame lines appear automatically when mounted on my Leica M-E. (If you are attempting this, I recommend inserting the lens into a ziploc bag, and cutting a small opening on the ziploc bag for the tab that needs to be filed. This will prevent filings from falling on the rear part of the lens.)There is a slight back-focus issue on Leica M digital bodies. Evidently the Voigtlander Nokton Classic lenses are calibrated for Leica M film cameras, and therefore will back-focus slightly on the digital M cameras. To overcome this, I applied copper foil tape (2.6 mil = 66 micron total thickness) to the rangefinder cam of the rear of the lens. (The RF cam is the outer black cylinder that surrounds the rear lens element, as shown in the picture with the copper foil tape applied.) It was first necessary to clean the RF cam using a q-tip to remove any lubricant. The adhesive on the copper foil holds it pretty secure after running the flat tip of a screwdriver on the surface.The back-focus issue is now gone and I am a happy camper!Here is the link to the copper foil tape I used:https://www.amazon.com/Tape-Conductive-Thickness-Shielding-Electrical/dp/B07TZNX87T/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=apt+copper+foil+tape&qid=1619392451&sr=8-3

This lens has the ability to take some beautiful shots. The quality is pretty amazing for it only being $400.Another huge advantage to this lens is the fact that your getting it brand new. You don’t have to worry about using a lens from an older era which is pretty common for film cameras.I’ve only ran a few rolls of film with this lens so far, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I attached some of my test shots with it for reference

I'm a big fan of the 40mm focal length for any camera, even though it makes no sense on Leica M due to the lack of proper viewfinder frame lines (honestly a very overblown issue by camera forums I’ve seen online when researching this lens, you can still take pictures completely normally).The 40mm focal length is wide enough for general use like 35, but long enough that it isolates portrait subjects nicely like a 50mm against the interesting blurred background character of this lens. It's not a uniformly creamy, ethereal bokeh--you can see what's going on in the background, but everything just has an interesting form and character to it while remaining blurred enough to not interfere with the subject of your pics. It’s a solid compromise. I use it for street and portraits with no major drawbacks.The lens cap is delicate and can be bumped off super easily, as it just doesn’t bite very hard to the lens. The aperture ring is too easy to accidentally turn when trying to focus, so you'll for sure think you're shooting at 1.4 sometimes, only to find your ring got bumped to 2.8 or 4 or something; whatever. Put the cap back on if it gets knocked off, twist the ring back where you want it when you notice it's wrong, and keep taking pictures.It's $500, and it feels just about right for the price. I'm always underwhelmed with similarly priced or more expensive modern Nikon lenses by comparison in terms of tactile feedback and feeling the value of the lens in terms of build quality and materials, but I pick up the Nokton and I feel it, I click it on, and I am satisfied. The value, for me, is there.This is mounted on my Leica M-E. My first outing, I took some very boring pics as seen in this review, purely just to see what this lens felt like. It vignettes wide open at 1.4 with all the factory camera settings in place; I dig it. I like natural in-camera vignetting like this; it’s really moody and interesting to me. A lot of people will complain about that, and that's understandable. Not everything should have a moody German Expressionism-ish slant to it.Overall, I'm happy with this lens. It's good. 4 stars is good, 5 stars is great. This is good, Leica lenses are great, so I think 4 stars is logical.