Photography Diary | Voigtlander Nokton 35 1.2 Aspherical II Lens

Modern lenses have more perfect optical performances. In contrast, vintage lenses or the characters of imperfections become a distinctive flavor.

This 35 Nokton II has a painterly look with swirly bokeh that is not perfectly round, a bloomy glow, and lower contrast at f/1.2, along with the associated colour fringing at high contrast edges similar to a Noctilux.

The charm of a large aperture lens is indeed its light-gathering capabilities in dark situations, and the play of focus and blur, where depth is depicted, like a cinematic frame. People find this look intriguing as we can’t see the world this way with natural vision.

On a full-frame sensor, blur is more contrasted due to the wider field of view, it can focus down to 0.5m which exaggerates the depth. See the images below of the branches, it’s like a virtual fog machine was on with the perceived depth in a 2D photograph. They are shot on the Leica SL2-S to take advantage of the close-focusing feature.

I purchased this lens about 10 years ago based on the recommendations made by Steve Huff. Although I ended up getting the 35 Summilux as well like him, I kept this lens for its vintage flavour. It’s a bit of a beast to carry due to the size and weight, but just pretend it’s a Noctilux - as mounting it on the M8 with the cropped sensor is about equivalent to a 50mm, call it the poor man’s Noctilux as you can enjoy some of those lens characters. Below are images shot on the Leica M8.

As visible, the painterly and cinematic feel is created by the lens. Below are some images and a crop to show the character of the bokeh balls and blur.