Voigtlander Nokton 40mm 1.4

[Andy K]

I am considering buying one of these as my 'always on the camera' lens for my R3M.

I would be interested in hearing the experiences of any owners of this lens. In particular I would like to hear opinions of the advantages/disadvantages of the single-coated versus multi-coated versions. If anyone has examples of photographs made with either version for comparison it would be great if you could share them.

Thankyou all in advance,

Andy.


Please note, I am only interested in information and comparisons between the SC and MC versions of this particular lens, so please don't take up thread space with comments about your sumi-whatever.

[Nick Merritt]

I've been looking for such comparisons myself, if only out of curiosity since I have the MC version and am happy with it. If you're looking for an "always on the camera" lens I think the MC is the version to go with, since I expect you'll be shooting color for some percentage of your work. The single-coated version is intended for a certain vintage look with black & white film, as I'm sure you know, but I expect the tradeoff is less satisfactory color rendition.

[Andy K]

Hi Nick. I shoot mostly black and white, I rarely use colour. I'm interested in seeing the difference between the SC and MC on bw film. Apparently the SC gives less contrast and therefore better shadow detail, but I'd like to see examples.

[Chazzy]

I'll be very interested in what knowledgable people have to say about this, meaning folks who have used both versions of the lens. If they can also compare to the 35mm f1.7, so much the better. Something tells me that I might prefer the single-coated version of the 40. Roger Hicks, you have written a lot about the Cosina rangefinders for Shutterbug--did you have a chance to directly compare these three lenses?

[elekm]

I would expect that a single-coated lens would give lower contrast and be more prone to flaring than a multi-coated lenses.

Another lens to consider, if you don't require the f/1.4 speed, is the f/2.8 40mm Sonnar -- a lens that I like a lot.

[buze]

I use a multi-coated Nokton model as more or less my only lens on a Leica M2. I'm very happy with it. It's small, fast, mecanicaly good and very sharp.
It works beautifully for B&W too, but it does give a more "modern" contrast curve than a single coated, low contrast lens like the Summitar.

Here is reasonably similar images feom my Flikr, first Nokton, second with Summitar. Morality, I like them both

[rich815]

I was very excited when the S.C version of this came out and bought one from the first run. It's not a bad lens at all. I found it to have very little flare issues despite people's concerns over the single-coating. Thing is even with only a single-coating it is still a modern coating and I saw little difference in the results vs. other's results from the M.C version. In fact I much preferred my older Leica lenses for a more classic B&W look such as my 90/4 Elmar, 50/2 Summicron DR and 50/1.5 Summarit. I sold it in the end as I found that although it was certainly sharp and very compact for it's speed it did not feel very well-built and the character was nothing special or unique---much preferring the character and personality of the three "classic" lenses I just mentioned. And that's not to mention it's fairly harsh bokeh wide open. A personal thing yes but few people like it, mostly the best report you hear is "not too bad".

[f/1,4]

Andy.
I bought one a year ago. Much for the same reasons that you seem to have for considering it. It is not a bad lens. Focal plane sharpness is ok. So is Bokeh exept fully open. Contrast is not too bad. The workmanship and the outer finish is wery nice.
Hard to put the finger on what is lacking in this lens, but I ended up selling it and put my Summicron 35 ASPH back on my R2A, - and now use the R3A for Summicron 50 because of the nice 1:1 finder.
It reminds me of my college days when a classmate had Nikkor lenses and I had to live with the Takumars from Pentax. No matter what trick I tried, I could never get the crispness in the pictures that he could.
Svein.

[Donald Boyd]

A friend and I switched lenses for a week. He lent me his 40mm Nokton and I lent him my 40mm Summicron. After looking over our prints we concluded the Summicron was the better lens.

[Andy K]

a classmate had Nikkor lenses and I had to live with the Takumars from Pentax.

OT but I had to respond to this. There's nothing wrong with Takumars.