Markus Wachter on the new Voigtländer Nokton VM 50mm f1.0 lens
by Christopher Osborne.
We spoke to fashion photographer and Voigtländer ambassador Markus Wachter on his experience shooting with the Voigtländer’s new Nokton VM 50mm f1.0 lens.
I spoke to fashion photographer and Voigtländer ambassador Markus Wachter on his experience shooting with the Voigtländer’s new Nokton VM 50mm f1.0 lens.
Markus tested this lens both on his Leica M film camera and on his Canon R6 via an adapter so that it was tested in both the film and digital worlds.
“The lens produced fantastic results on both cameras”, Markus notes. “There are two reasons for using a lens like this. It works well in low light situations, although focussing at f1.0 is a challenge. The second reason to use a lens like this is as a portrait or fashion lens”.
“This lens is the perfect lens for taking portraits. At f1.0 and f1.4, the lens shows a beautiful softness. The image is not unnaturally contrasty and is very smooth. The result is very flattering as wrinkles and lines disappear. The bokeh has a beautiful creamy feel and doesn’t look artificially swirly. The lens has a slightly warm feel and renders with a slight yellow hue. Open the lens up to f2.8, and the lens becomes insanely sharp”.
“The build quality is great. The focus and aperture rings are smooth. The lens is not too big and heavy, and the viewfinder blockage is acceptable”.
Voigtländer latest Nokton 50mm is the eleventh iteration of this lens. The overall package is not that big which means that the lens barely shows in the corner of the viewfinder. Voigtländer’s have achieved this small form factor by grinding the front element which enables a much higher refractive index of glass to be used. This lens is designed to compete against Leica’s Noctilux 50mm f0.95 lens, and Markus feels that the result is between 50mm Noctilux and a pre-aspherical 50mm Summilux lenses.
In Markus’ eyes, Voigtänder has achieved a slightly better result in a smaller package.
Film developed & scanned by Urbanfilmlab: https://urbanfilmlab.com https://www.instagram.com/urbanfilmlab
Model Chiara Christmann: www.instagram.com/chiara_1808
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