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Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35/1.4

LJL

New member
Well, I think the color, contrast, controlled DOF, and detail this lens and you capture seem to be working quite nicely. I am a tad biased, as I have the CV 35/1.2 Nokton and enjoy the softness wide open. Your new 35/1.4 looks to retain some of that on the more open shots, and then gets nicely crisp when you start to stop it down. This, to me, is a really nice combination. There appears to be a tad less micro contrast compared to what I have seen from the Leica 35/1.4, but I think this "classic" is exactly that....good at creating a very "classic" look. Thanks for sharing these.

LJ
 

Terry

New member
Maggie,
I haven't paid Steve the rest yet (was hoping to see shots). Was also thinking about the hood etc. What have you done about coding? Filter?

Can't actually look closely at the pictures till I get home on a big screen.
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
That's a nice collection and looks relevant to my questions as well. Does Flickr have a way for me to see the EXIF? It's hard to judge these without knowing aperture and shutter speed (Oh, I forgot, aperture in the EXIF, what's that?)

To rephrase the question, what aperture were you using for the indoor, store interior and outdoor shots? Which shots were taken wide open?

thanks,

scott

edit: I see, down on the lower right in individual picture mode, there is "additional information" and the EXIF comes up. It seems the outdoor shots were 1/1000 sec at ISO 320 and cropped to 2500 x 1600 before uploading. Sounds like f/8 or f/5.6. Right?
 
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P

poboxnyc

Guest
Just bought an M8 and thinking of getting this lens only for the 1.4 as portrait specific lens.

How does the lens perform wide open? I don't expect it to compare to the Leica lens. Looking really for a feeling rather than pure optical performance.

thanks
 

Maggie O

Active member
I got the standard, multiple coating version.

Most of the inside stuff was taken at either 1.4, 2 or 2.8. The landscape shots were at either f11 or f16. The shot of the sign was at f2. The cattails were at either f2 or f5.6.

Cattails, f2:



Cattails, f5.6:



Domino, f1.4:



I just shot a focus test of some soup cans and will be posting that later.
 

Maggie O

Active member
Maggie,
I haven't paid Steve the rest yet (was hoping to see shots). Was also thinking about the hood etc. What have you done about coding? Filter?

Can't actually look closely at the pictures till I get home on a big screen.
Terry, I got the hood, but I haven't had the mount coded. I'll probably send it to Milich to be milled, though.

The current files are as-is out of the camera, no cornerfix applied. Vignetting doesn't seem too bad, but I'm not shooting against snow or anything where it'd really show.
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
Resized, not cropped.
Sorry, I misspoke.

The reason for wanting to know the f/stop is that the Zeiss "classic" lenses change their character very dramatically from wide open to one or two stops down, going from soft to sharp and contrasty. If this lens exhibits such a cross over it would be nice to know it, and know where it occurs.

scott
 

LJL

New member
The shot of Domino, the dog, has that soft characteristic swirl in the OOF areas, not unlike the CV 35/1.2 Nokton, and even the Leica 50/1.0 Noctilux. However, the Nocti does not have that extra bit of contrast/bite wide open that this Nokti has. The cattails at f2.0 may be the breaking point, as the bokeh starts to shift a bit there to something a bit more angular. (Check the OOF bent reed on the left side of the image....it has a bit more pronounced OOF look, rather than the more blurry look at f1.4) The background at f2.0 on the cattails still has just a bit of the softness to make it pleasing. Just an observation. Looking like a very nice little lens.

LJ
 

Maggie O

Active member
I'd say that this lens, unlike, for instance, my CV 35mm Ultron f1.7, stays sharp and contrasty in the in-focus areas and retains its contrast in the OOF areas, too, whereas the Ultron is medium contrast and very sharp in-focus and rapidly becomes softer and less contrasty in the OOF areas.
 

Nick_Yoon

New member
I've only made a few test shots so far with this lens (MC). All at 1.4 with the M8, at or near minimum focusing distance - tough backgrounds. No judgement on the bokeh yet, will do more shooting first.







 

Maggie O

Active member
Here's a pair of photos for comparison, both lenses 35mm, both wide open.

Ultron 35/1.7:



Nokton Classic MC 35/1.4:



An additional 25 photos have been added to my Nokton Classic Set at Flickr. (Or will be shortly, depending on when you read this.)
 

Maggie O

Active member
The Nokton @ f2:





And here, @ f1.4:





I followed Terry's lead and took my M8 to lunch with my sister and parents!
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
Can one of you lucky folks with new CV 35/1.4's shoot a flat textured surface at 1.4 and a high shutter speed, so that we can see how sharp and contrasty the center and corners are when the lens is wide open? A brick wall would do just fine,but I am sure you can find something even more visually appealing.

thanks,

scott
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
Re: further request

Maggie --

For the obsessed pixel-peepers, could you upload one or two raw files to Yousendit and share the links? You're posting resized jpegs on Flickr, so a lot has already happened to the file before we see it. Cases of most interest would be:
f/5.6 outdoors with objects at various distances;
the classic brick wall, bulletin board or wall of books at f/1.4 and tripod;
and pictures somewhat like your cattails in which there are fine details backlit such as tree branches against a medium tone sky. (at f/5.6, not at f/11, so that there is no possibility of diffraction limiting the sharpness or obscuring any CA)

If you share the raw file, it is possible, thanks to Cornerfix, to know the aperture used. Flickr's exif reading is a mixed bag. I can see your firmware level, ISO, number of shutter activations, and software used to create the Jpeg, but the shutter readout is not convincing, and the aperture and focal length are a complete mystery.

Sean is off to Florida and motorcycles, so we are probably a month away from seeing his detailed test of this lens. In the mean time, you are the expert.

thanks,

scott
 
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Maggie O

Active member
Oh lordy, Yousendit is evil. Luckily, I've got webspace galore. I'm uploading two of the cattail .DNGs, one at f2 and one at f5.6., right now to my Dot Mac Public Folder.

I'll see if I can squeeze in a boffin shot or two during the day here and I'll put it in the same place when I can.

Also, I uploaded one of my soup can focus test shots.
 
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