It’s official! The new Nokton 35/1.2 Asph. II is coming!

After recently having discontinued their very high-esteemed and popular Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical M-mount lens, Voigtländer announced that they were working on a successor which was to be released in the second half of 2011. On this year’s CP+ in Japan, the new Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical II was officially presented.

Picture courtesy of Cosina/Voigtländer

According to photoscala.de, the new version is much more compact than the original Nokton 35/1.2. This is probably due to an overhaul of the optical formula, which was needed because the glass of the aspherical lens element was no longer obtainable. The new version also focuses closer, to .5m instead of .75m. A retail price has not yet been announced, but I reckon it will be about the same price as the old version (~ $ 1200/€ 900).

February 10th, 2011, 11:04 am | , | News | Leave a comment |

UPDATED: Bad news … Nokton 35/1.2 discontinued

This is bad news. Cosina have listed the Nokton 35/1.2 as officially discontinued. Which means prices will go insane once leftover stock will be sold out.

So, if you were fondling with that lens, get one now. You might not want to wait much longer …

I really don’t understand why they discontinued such a great lens. But then, they also discontinued the 50/1.5 Nokton, which is also a great lens. But maybe this means something new and even more exciting is going to come?

Edit: A fellow dpreview Leica Talk Forum user suggested their reason for not producing the lens any longer could be that it was no longer “economically feasible”. Whatever that means in this special case …

UPDATE: As per this post to dpreview’s Leica Talk forum, the reason for discontinuance of the lens in that the aspheric lens element which is used in the Nokton 35/1.2 is no longer available. However, Cosina are allegedly working on a new Nokton 35/1.2 II with a different aspherical element. The new lens is expected to be released this summer. So, not so bad news after all, huh? :-)

January 15th, 2011, 8:45 pm | , | News | Leave a comment |

Two reviews worth noting: Nokton 25/0.95 and Heliar 75/1.8

The latest review of the Voigtländer Nokton 25/0.95 lens for Micro Four Thirds comes from Peter Lück, whose site I found recently and who regularly posts great reviews and articles about Micro Four Thirds and Leica(-related) gear, comprising wonderful images showing off his great photographic skill. Anyway — he praises the Nokton for its very good build quality and very good optical qualities, calling it a “gift” to Micro Four Thirds users, as compared to a Leica Noctilux or Canon 50/1.2 this lens is a bargain with an unbeatable value-for-money ratio.

Link to Peter Lück’s article.

The lastest review of the Voigtländer Heliar 75/1.8 M-mount lens comes from Ancient City Photography, the blog of NYC-based photographer Tony Ventouris. The new Heliar 75/1.8 has the same great build quality as the aforementioned Nokton (I tried them both at photokina — this is the quality we will also see in future Voigtländer products), and is also very good optically. The design is spherical, and thus a tad soft wide open, but there is enough sharpness to achieve during processing. Then again, you might actually want this slight softness when shooting portraits with it. Stopped down it becomes critically sharp.

Link to ACP’s article.

November 14th, 2010, 11:59 am | , | Reviews | One comment |

UPDATED: Voigtländer Ultron 40/2 SL II reviewed by LensTip

The Voigtländer brand is probably best known for their rangefinder products, such as the Bessa R film cameras and Leica screw- and M-mount lenses. But did you know Voigtländer also had a range of SLR lenses? Indeed so!

LensTip picked out one of these, namely the Ultron 40mm f/2 SL II Aspherical, which is available in Canon, Nikon and Pentax mount. For their review, they chose the Nikon mount version and tested it on a Nikon D3x, where not only the lens is used to its full potential (being designed for full frame), but also eventual shortcomings will be revealed due to the D3x’s 24.5 megapixel resolution.

The Voigtländer Ultron 40/2 SL II Aspherical lens. Picture courtesy of Voigtländer.

The Ultron 40/2 SL II, like all Voigtländer lenses, is (almost) completely manual in operation, which means that you have to focus it by hand. The aperture, though, can be controlled by the camera body, which means that you will still be able to use the P, A (Av), S (Tv) and M modes on your camera. Alternatively, you can select the aperture manually using the lens’ aperture ring. Also, the Nikon mount version has a built-in CPU that communicates the lens’ settings to the camera body.

If you want to know how the lens performs in terms of build quality, resolution, and overall optical qualities, please read the review @ LensTip.

Note: The official Cosina website lists the lens as “Production Discontinued”, which means you will only be able to acquire it new as long as stocks remain.

UPDATE: Another review of the lens — this time in Canon EF mount — can be found on Peter Lück’s website. It features some very nice pictures taken with an EOS 5D Mk II. (English translation here.)

November 14th, 2010, 10:00 am | | Reviews | 2 comments |

Voigtländer Color-Skopar 35/2.5 reviewed by Ancient City Photo

Another lens review today! This time, it’s Ancient City Photo’s take on the Voigtländer Color-Skopar Pancake II 35mm f/2.5 M-mount lens, one of the smallest 35mm lenses currently available, and one of the more interesting 35′s for Leica M mount cameras. While being only a “slow” f/2.5, this lens is incredibly small, and incredibly good. On a first glance one would probably heavily underrate it (such as I did), but it is in fact highly regarded by many M shooters, and rightly so, as ACP’s review proves with formidable pictures.

Link: Voigtländer CP 35/2.5 P II review @ Ancient City Photo

P.S.: The lens seems to be unavailable at the moment. B&H list it as back-ordered, and it is currently not featured on the Voigtländer website. Considering the size of Cosina, I assume they are currently concentrating on the production of other lenses (such as the new Heliar 75/1.8 M and Nokton 25/0.95 MFT), and factory stocks have been sold out. I do not believe they took it out of their program, considering how popular it is.

November 1st, 2010, 8:14 pm | | Reviews | Leave a comment |
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