Voigtlander Nokton 42.5 mm f/0.95 review - Introduction

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Voigtlander Nokton 42.5 mm f/0.95

17 January 2014

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Szymon Starczewski

1. Introduction

The small Micro 4/3 sensor has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the pros is the ability to construct really fast lenses with almost all optical aberrations very well corrected. Additionally those constructions allow you to eliminate one of the flaws typical for small sensors – the problems with getting shallow depth of field.

However, what’s interesting, neither Olympus nor Panasonic have explored that possibility to the full although that second company, launching the Panasonic Leica DG Nocticron 42.5 mm f/1.2 Asph. P.O.I.S., made a big move in the right direction. Fortunately there are independent producers, sometimes quite exotic to boot, like the IBE Optics company which offers you a lens as fast as f/0.85. A much better known manufacturer, Voigtlander, has been active in that segment as well, offering already three interesting devices. In August 2010 a fast standard lens, the Nokton 25 mm f/0.95 was shown to the public, in February 2012 a wide angle Nokton 17.5 mm f/0.95 Aspherical was launched and in June 2013 that group of extremely fast lenses was complemented by the portrait Nokton 42.5 mm f/0.95. Exactly the latter instrument will be the main object of interest in this test.

We were lent the lens for testing purposes by the FoxFoto company – thank you very much!.

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You are also invited to get acquainted with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses?" If you feel it’s still not enough, please go to our FAQ section where you can find some further explanation.