Voigtlander Nokton 25mm F/095 Type Ii Lens for Micro Four Thirds Review

Photographers are a weird agglomeration of people, at least some of us are.

We want the latest cameras and the astonishing autofocus arrangement. And however we notwithstanding buy transmission focus lenses to use on our latest state of the fine art cameras. The lens I'm reviewing this time is a manual focus lens specially designed for the micro four thirds system, the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 lens.

Olympus and Panasonic accept released a number of actually nice prime number lenses. They deliver great image quality with super fast autofocus speed. Unfortunately most of the fast prime number lenses are f/1.8 or slower. While f/1.8 isn't really boring, the minor micro iv thirds sensor means depth of field and low light performance are simply equivalent to a f/3.half dozen lens on a full frame sensor camera. And that'southward why a lot of micro four thirds users are looking for something faster than f/i.8, something a lot faster. The Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 is the remedy for users who has the need for speed.

Voigtlander currently makes iii micro iv thirds lens, the 17.5mm f/0.95, the 25mm f/0.95 and the 42.5mm f/0.95. (And they just appear the 10.5mm f/0.95 at Photokina 2014 when I'm writing this review) Unlike some other ultra fast micro four thirds lens which were originally designed for other lens mounts, the three Voigtlander lenses are all specially designed for the micro four thirds cameras just.

The Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 was the commencement of the trio that was released. It's equivalent to a 50mm f/1.viii lens on a full frame camera. When I say equivalent, I mean equivalent in terms of view angle and depth of field. The calorie-free gathering power is still f/0.95, two stops faster than f/1.8.

Build and body design

First thing I want to say virtually the Voigtlander is, the build quality is absolutely fantastic! Information technology's old school build quality, hand fabricated, pure metal construction, really high quality! There are some very nice micro 4 third lens. For instance the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 is a beautiful lens with excellent build quality. Merely put them adjacent, there is just no comparison. The Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 simply a much more solid lens.

The lens weights at 435g and is 70mm long, it is heavier and bigger than most of the micro four third cameras. The weight (assuming coming from it's pure metal construction) makes the lens feel really dense and sturdy. But because of that, if y'all mounted this lens on a smaller micro four tertiary cameras, information technology feels quite unbalance and weird.

Merely if this lens is mounted on a larger camera, such as my Olympus OMD East-M1, the philharmonic feel perfectly balanced and just amazing to hold and shoot.

The lens feel actually balanced with my OM-D EM-1, but information technology won't be the case if yous have a smaller micro 4 thirds photographic camera

Designed as a transmission focus simply lens, the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 has a long focus throw, exactly 270 degree from nearest to infinity. This allows easy and precise transmission focus operation. And boy oh boy the focus ring is buttery smooth, information technology makes you lot want to go on turning information technology for no reason. I knew I did that all the fourth dimension.

The lens comes with a nice metallic lens hood and a special lens cap for information technology as the lens hood is larger in bore. Even though I'1000 a big fan of lens hood, I don't really use the supplied lens hood as its not a reversible or collapsable i and really increased the length and size of the photographic camera quite a bit.

The re-create I'thou reviewing is the 2nd generation of this lens. As far every bit I know, the only changes compare to the original version is the discontinuity ring. You can exist switch from the normal mode to a click less mode that is useful for videographers.

Picture Quality

Now permit'due south exist clear most one affair get-go, people who purchase a super fast lens like this because they desire to shoot at wide open up. While it's true that we shouldn't abuse the large aperture when shooting, there really is non much indicate to buy a f/0.95 lens if you rarely shoot at f/0.95. Merely go buy a Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 and Olympus 25mm f/1.8 as they are cheaper, smaller, lighter and have autofocus.

So in terms of picture quality, the most important thing is it'southward wide open up performance.

At maximum aperture, the image quality is ok, but far from perfect. Information technology'due south not really that sharp, and you tin can see quite a flake of light bloom around high contrast areas. But proceed in mind this is quite normal for most of the super fast lenses. Even the lens with a much higher price tag has like problems and the Voigtlander 25mm isn't doing too bad in comparison.

To be honest, I actually promise the lens is softer and has more than glow and renders a dreamy await like some of the old lenses.

Or maybe it'due south just me who wants to have more glow and imperfection, and so anyway, at f/0.95 the sharpness near the center of the frame is not too bad, much better than what I thought information technology would be. It'due south when y'all start moving to the edges then the sharpness starts to drop dramatically. Cease downwardly to around f/two and the center sharpness improves significantly. The corner sharpness as well improves when you lot end downwards just you need to stop down to effectually f/4~5.half-dozen if corner sharpness is important to you.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95
You need to terminate down quite a bit if sharpness is important to you.

Not surprisingly vignetting and coma are both quite obvious at broad open. I don't actually listen as I bought this lens mainly for shooting portraits and some arty photos. I didn't discover too much colour fringing. Chromatic aberrations are fairly well controlled.

The Voigtlander 25mm can focus down to 17mm. It's not good enough for macro shots yet only it does give you a pretty decent maximum reproduction ratio of 1:3.9. The images go really soft when shooting close objects and you lot need to finish downward quite a bit if you want to bring some sharpness dorsum.

Olympus OM-D Due east-M5 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95
You can get pretty close with the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95

The lens flare quite easily when there is a strong light source in front end. So be careful if you desire to shoot images with strong backlit.

At maximum discontinuity, the bokeh is smooth, not exactly creamy as there is a pocket-sized amount of halo around the edges of the bokeh only information technology's not besides bad. There is also a scrap of true cat's eye bokeh (rugby ball shape) near the edges.

While the bokeh is of circular cicular shape (or rugby shape) at f/0.95, one time y'all stop downwards to f/one.4, the bokeh turns into decagon shape. If y'all desire smoothen circular shape bokeh, yous accept to shoot at broad open up. Overall, the quality of the bokeh is pretty good, only it could become slightly nervous as well.

And if yous love having starburst in your photos (nighttime landscape photographers?), then you'll be very happy with this lens. Merely stop downwardly the lens slightly and yous'll accept some crazy starburst. Yous don't need to stop down to f/11, even f/one.4 volition practice the trick.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95
Starburst!

Manual Focus

The biggest question or worry I accept with the Voigtlander is non then much about it's weight, price, or film quality. It's the transmission focus, or more precisely, my ability to manual focus especially when shooting at f/0.95 that I'm mostly concerned about.

Information technology turns out that manual focus is a lot easier than I thought, at least with my Olympus OM-D EM-1. Peaking on the EM1 is really not accurate enough for this lens so I use the magnifying view to aid the focusing. But even without the help of the magnifying view, I can still get reasonable practiced results by just using the EVF at normal view. It's only when I'm shooting close distance at broad open up, the DOF becomes really narrow, then I have to switch to magnifying view to make sure I boom the focus. But basically as long as I'm non shooting a moving target, and then I can get very adept and accurate focus even at maximum aperture.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95
Manual focus is easier that I expected

Conclusions

The Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 is a beautiful lens. It's not very often you'll see a pure metal lens like the Voigtlander these days and even more than rare ane with such a low price. Yep I said depression price and I know the price is about $1000US. Merely any decent f/0.95 lens would toll you a lot more than than what Voigtlander is asking for. And fifty-fifty without the f/0.95 super fast aperture, the build quality alone is worth the price tag.

While the image quality is only acceptable, and not excellent at broad open. The important thing is, it allows micro four thirds users to do things that was impossible before.

Firstly, it allows you to shoot under very low light, something I previously have to rely solely on my total frame DSLRs. Y'all can lower your ISO past two stops compare to shooting with a f/1.viii lens. That is plenty to make up the difference between the full frame sensor and micro four thirds sensor.

Secondly, it allows you to create narrow depth of field shots that was previously non possible because of the smaller micro 4 thirds sensor. Want a bit of separation between your subject and the background? The f/0.95 aperture will help you to practice it.

Yet this is not a lens I would recommend to everyone. It is a bit likewise heavy for a lot of micro four thirds users, and unless yous are using one of the larger micro iv thirds camera, the Voigtlander would make your camera experience really unbalanced. Also manual focus really is non the easiest thing to do if you are shooting a moving object. And yes the prototype quality at f/0.95 is not really that great.

But to me, all of these doesn't matter. I actually enjoy shooting with this lens. I don't heed the below average picture quality at f/0.95. It feels awesome just to agree it and play with the focus ring. This lens gives me back some of those raw, direct control that is lost in the modern cameras. I can now get a shot under depression lite instead of nothing at all and I got some pretty bokeh also.

Peradventure it's the photographer's romance?

Richard

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Some more sample photos

All taken with the Olympus OM-D Due east-M1 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95

Unfortunately the camera doesn't record the aperture value and then i don't listing any shooting information this time

Olympus OM-D Due east-M5 + Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95