Introduction
The Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III Nokton is already the third iteration of the world’s fastest 35mm M-mount lens. What has changed compared to the predecessors? How does it compare to the competition? Is it any good? Let’s find out together in this review.
Lens is being tested on 42mp Sony A7rII, 24mp Leica M10 and film cameras
Last Update: September 2023 (samples, coma section, conclusion)
Sample Images
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Specifications / Version History
As the name suggests the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III Nokton is already the third incarnation of this lens.
- Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 Nokton
490g, 10/7 design, MFD 0.7 m - Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 II Nokton
471g, 10/7 design, MFD 0.5 m - Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III Nokton
332g, 9/7 design, MFD 0.5 m
- Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 Nokton
As you can see the guys at Cosina have done a pretty good job at reducing the weight (and also size) of their 35mm f/1.2 lens. I am reviewing the latest MK III version here which has the following specifications:
- Diameter: 60.8 mm
- Field of view: 61.5° (diagonally)
- Length: 50.5 mm (+ adapter)
- Weight: 332g (without hood and caps + adapter)
- Filter Diameter: 52 mm
- Number of Aperture Blades: 12 (straight)
- Elements/Groups: 9/7
- Close Focusing Distance: 0.50 m
- Maximum Magnification: 1:11 (measured)
- Mount: Leica-M
You may also have a look at the official page.
You can usually find the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III on CameraQuest, B&H, Robert White, amazon.com or ebay.com/ebay.de for about $1049/1199€ (affiliate links)
Disclosure
The Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III Nokton was kindly provided free of charge by Robert White/Flaghead for reviewing purpose for a duration of 4 weeks. I have since bought my own copy of this lens from a german retailer.
Handling / Build Quality
So far none of the Voigtlander lenses disappointed in this category and this holds true for this new 35mm 1.2 III as well. The focus ring has perfect resistance and travels ~130° from the minimum focus distance (0.5 m) to infinity.
The aperture ring has 1/2 stop click stops which I think is a good compromise. It travels about 120° from f/1.2 to f/22.
Most parts seem to be made from metal and all markings are engraved and filled with paint.
From the Voigtlander E-mount lenses we are used to a metal hood being in the package, this is unfortunately usually not the case with the M-mount lenses and the 35mm 1.2 III is no exception.
Considering the specifications we are dealing with a very small lens here, this becomes very obvious when we compare the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III to the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art.
But the new VM 35mm 1.2 III even compares favourably to the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.7, having the same length and being only a bit bigger in diameter and 95g more in terms of weight.
Vignetting
light falloff
Wide open there is strong light falloff of roughly 3.3 EV, stopped down to f/2.0 this improves to 2.3 EV, stopped down to f/2.8 it is 1.9 EV and still 1.8 EV at f/8.0. These values are high but comparable to the competition in this class.
It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.
color cast
I did not notice obvious color cast issues with this lens on either camera (Sony A7rII and Leica M10).
optical vignetting
Very fast lenses often show optical vignetting. Without going too much into technical details optical vignetting leads to the truncation of light circles towards the borders of the frame.
In the center of the frame almost every lens will render a perfect circle, but only lenses with very low optical vignetting will keep this shape in the corners.
So in the following comparison we move from the center (left) to the extreme corner (right) and see how the shape of the light circle changes.
I was quite surprised to see the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III shows pretty much the same performance as the huge Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art.
The difference between 12 straight (Voigtlander) and 11 rounded (Sigma) aperture blades is very apparent though. Interestingly Cosina decided not to use the amazing aperture diaphragm from the Voigtlander 50mm 2.0 Apo-Lanthar E here.
We further see, that onion ring structures are not really a problem.
Sharpness
Focus shift
50% crops, A7rII
Unlike e.g. the Voigtlander 50mm 1.2 this 35mm 1.2 III shows almost no focus shift. Good news for rangefinder users!
infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)
In the center the resolution at infinity is okay at f/1.2, but we can see quite a bit of glow (spherical aberration) and also purple fringing. Midframe and corners are rather soft here.
The center starts to show really good resolution figures at f/2.0, but midframe and corners really need f/8.0 to show good performance.
Performance here is comparable to the Voigtlander 40mm 1.2 E, but luckily I don’t see such an abrupt drop in sharpness in the extreme corners.
The Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art plays in a league of its own here though, showing better across frame sharpness at f/1.2 than the Voigtlander reviewed here at any aperture setting.
infinity (24mp Leica M10)
Some M-mount wide angle lenses show significantly different (better) performance when used on a camera with a thinner sensor stack. Interestingly this is not really the case here.
When comparing to the Sony A7rII we have to take the lower resolution of the Leica M10 into account of course.
The corners may look slightly less mushy at wider apertures on the Leica M10, but the midframe shows a similar drop in sharpness.
Stopped down the differences are minor, I would also recommend to use f/8.0 for best across frame sharpness on the Leica M10.
True infinity might have been a tiny bit behind the hard stop when the lens is used on my Leica M10, therefore the minor difference in sharpness in the center at f/1.2 and f/1.4 between Sony A7rII and Leica M10.
portrait distance
For portraiture it isn’t so important how flat the field is, it is more interesting to see what the sharpness is like when focused at different parts of the frame to take field curvature out of the equasion.
This is what I did here, I refocused for every shot to get the best possible result at different locations in the frame (center, inner midframe and outer midframe).
Focus distance was roughly 1.0 m and the head on the note is more or less the size of a human eye.
I will compare it directly to the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art and to the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.7 + 5m PCX.
Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III <—> Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art
100% crops, f/1.2, A7rII
Now this is also for those, that wonder why the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art is so big while the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III can be so small: a lenses’ quality is defined by more than the specification sheet.
The Voigtlander lens seems to be a unit focus design optimized for a certain focus distance which is probably around 1.5 to 2.0 m.
At maximum aperture it is a bit soft at 1.0 m and there is noticeable falloff to the corners.
The Sigma on the other hand always shows an impressive performance at f/1.2, no matter what distance or where in the frame you check.
The Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III should not be dismissed here though, for a lens this small the performance is quite respectable and will often give satisfactory results in the real world.
I also checked the performance here on the Leica M10, no differences.
Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III @ f/1.7 <—> Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.7 + 5m PCX @ f/1.7
100% crops, f/1.7, A7rII
The Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.7 + 5m PCX shows – again – a remarkable performance here, as it easily beats the new VM 35mm 1.2 III stopped down to f/1.7 while being wide open everywhere in the frame.
close (0.50 m, 1:11)
100% crops from center, A7rII
Close focus performance is an area where the smaller fast lenses like the Voigtlander 40mm 1.2 E or 50mm 1.2 E struggle, as they don’t feature a floating elements design and the Voigtlander 35mm 1.2 III behaves very similar.
Performance wide open at the minimum focus distance ain’t that great (unless you are after a dreamy look).
But stopping down to just f/2.0 improves the performance significantly.
If you are looking for a 35mm 1.2 lens that performs great at every distance have a look at the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art.
Flare resistance
As always evaluating flare is a complex matter since you can get any lens to look bad if you push it hard enough and a slight change of scenario will affect results a lot.
But in fact it is very hard to make this lens look bad. Already previous Voigtlander lenses like the 50mm 1.2 have surprised us with a surprisingly good flare resistance and this holds true for the VM 35mm 1.2 III.
I am showing you some of the worst case examples here and I really had to push it to create some ghosts.
Even with the sun close to the corner of the frame (where many lenses struggle) the performance is still good:
So, not having a hood in the package isn’t a big deal here.
Coma
The other fast Voigtlander lenses are not exactly famous for great coma correction at wider apertures and the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III is no exception here. Coma starts to look okay from f/2.8, but there is noticeabe astigmatism present at this aperture, so better stop down to f/4.0 if possible for taking pictures of scenes like these.
100% crops from extreme corner, focused on corner, A7rII
We know that a different filter stack can have an effect on the off center performance of a lens, so I also had a look how it performs on the Leica M10.
100% crops from extreme corner, focused on corner, Leica M10
At f/1.2 and f/1.4 the differences are minor compared to the Sony camera, but on the Leica M10 the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III shows less astigmatism at f/2.8, so I would be okay with using f/2.8 instead of f/4.0 here.
Leica M10 | Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III | f/1.2
I always find actual stars less demanding than blue hour cityscapes, so even though the M-mount cameras are not exactly the primary choice of astrophotographers (for a number of reasons), I also used this lens on the Leica M10 to take some pictures of the milky way and it performed better than I would have expected.
Distortion
Sony A7rII | Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III | f/8.0
The distortion of the Voigtlander VM 35mm 1.2 III is really nasty, as it is very wavy and also not very low and easily visible with straight lines running through the picture. In Lightroom there is no profile for the MK III M-mount version available but you can use the profile for the E-mount version, as I did for the comparison above. This profile corrects the distortion really well.
Bokeh
For most interested in this lens the bokeh rendering will be a very important aspect, as the maximum aperture makes it a great choice for taking environmental portraits. Therefore we will have a look at the bokeh rendering at different distances, compare it to other 35mm lenses and also have a look whether there are differences when the lens is used on a Leica or a stock Sony camera.
Close distance
At closer distances very smooth, no complaints.
Mid distance
Still very smooth, cat’s eyes are clearly noticeable in scenes with point light sources in the background though.
Long distance
The strong optical vignetting in combination with filter stack induced field curvature leads to not so nice corner bokeh at these distances, when the lens is being used on a Sony camera with its thick filter stack. Something we have seen with many small rangefinder lenses in the past when used on a stock Sony camera.
Have a look at the “Compared to Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art (Long Distance)” section at the end of this chapter where I investigate this a bit more.
Compared to Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art and VM 35mm 1.7 + 5m PCX
Overview
Corner Crops
What did we learn from this comparison?
When the VM 35mm 1.2 III is used on the Leica M10 the corners look slightly smoother than on the A7rII.
Off center the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art shows significantly cleaner, smoother bokeh, this is very apparent in the corners.
VM 35mm 1.2 III looks very similar to the VM 35mm 1.7 + 5m PCX when stopped down to f/1.7.
Compared to Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art (Long Distance)
Overview
Corner Crops
The picture of the cannons from the “Long distance” section lead me to make this comparison.
In the past we have often seen worse bokeh in the corners when using rangefinder wide angle lenses on Sony cameras due to filter stack induced field curvature.
In the beginning I thought this lens may be less plagued by this, as sharpness wise there was only little difference between Sony A7rII and Leica M10 at infinity, but this scene clearly shows this behaviour is still present in this lens’ design.
The E-mount version of this lens, namely (Read more…)