[Leica] Nokton 35mm F1.4 WAS 40MM NOW NOKTON 1.2 35MM

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

I've shot with the first Nokton f/1.2, and it was quite good, especially 
wide open. Not quite as convincing stopped down. OK bokeh. But big, and that 
is part of the reason why it's cheaper than Leica lenses.

The 40/1.4 had decent resolution and was a reasonable lens, but I really 
didn't like the OOF areas. The 35/1.4 just had massive  and in my opinion 
lethal amounts of focus shift, making it almost unusable on digital Leicas, 
and wasn't that hot in the OOF department either. Neither was a lens that 
served the purpose of a fast, general purpose 35 that was small. Mind you, 
the Summilux 35 pre-ASPH I had didn't really fit the bill either. It was OK 
stopped down, but wide open it was a demonstration unit for coma and 
astigmatism.

For a small lens, I now shoot with a 35 Summicron pre-ASPH. It's not as 
crisp as the ASPH, but it's quite sharp enough for me, generally has nice 
and smooth OOF areas and no bad habits. And it's small.

For a relatively inexpensive fast 35, I would look for a gen.1 Nokton f/1.2. 
You'll be a lot happier than with either 35 or 40 f/1.4, especially if you 
shoot digital.

Henning


On 2012-03-28, at 5:07 PM, Mark Kronquist wrote:

> I had both and found the 1.2 lovely but anti Leica-eqsue. Seemed huge on 
> M's
> On Mar 28, 2012, at 5:06 PM, Frank Filippone wrote:
> 
>> The F1.2 lens is 1/3 of a stop faster than an F1.4 lens.  I have an F1.4
>> lens (that needs mating to my M8 body).
>> 
>> Marginal improvement.  Not worth $1K.
>> 
>> YMMV
>> 
>> Frank Filippone
>> Red735i at earthlink.net
>> 
>>> Get the f1.2 35mm instead.<<<<<<<<<
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 


Henning Wulff
henningw at archiphoto.com