Once a while, a lens or camera that I never expect to test drops into my hands and this time round, I was given the kind opportunity by Riceball Photography to test the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs for a first impressions review.
Riceball Photography is located at Peninsula Shopping Centre Singapore and the local authorised distributor for Voigtlander.
Design intent of the Voigtlander 55mm F1.2
Cosina (manufacturer of Voigtlander lenses) presents the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs as a high-quality piece of optic for Nikon Ai-S mount with an Ai coupler. The styling of the lens is reminiscent of the early days of Nikon’s SLR cameras and pays homage to the ƒ1.2 class high-speed standard lenses released in the 1960s.
An interesting note is this Voigtlander release lens seems to be heavily inspired by the released in 1981 Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.2 AI-s I have deep inside my dry cabinet.
In this first impressions review, despite the short time I have with the lens, I will try my best to share samples from using the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs in street photography and of course portraits.
I understand not all of us will be clear about what Ai or Ai-S infers, here is a good explainer by Nikon themselves if you are keen.
Designing the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs as an Ai-S mount lens makes it compatible with a wide range of cameras, from 1980s-era film bodies, to more modern Nikon DSLRs, though it will be useful to note that camera bodies with an Ai and Ai-S coupler will be capable of controlling aperture via the body.
So.. having electronic contacts and AI-s means?
Having the electronic contacts makes a real life positive difference if you are using a more modern Nikon body, say the Z5 to Z9 bodies with the FTZ adapter, EXIF information is recorded, taking you out of the brain-draining work of having to remember your settings used during your shoots.
While a full manual focus lens, the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs comes with its own updates for a few modern conveniences.
Another important point is even if you are using the most modern Z-mount bodies , you can now control the aperture settings with the FTZ adapter and setting the lens to ƒ16.
Technicalities
The Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs comes in an optical design of 7 Elements in 6 Groups featuring classical spherical elements with 9 aperture blades for a smooth bokeh effect to emphasize subjects when the aperture is wide open, seeking to produce sharpness throughout the whole image and entire aperture range.
Aperture range goes from to ƒ1.2 to ƒ16, and considering the compact form factor of 69 x 48.1 mm with a 52mm filter size at 365 grams, puts the Voigtlander 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs at a very good position if we look at size versus aperture size comparisons.
A key point to note is that despite the array of contacts on the mount, the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs is a full-manual focusing lens and does not have any electronically-enabled stabilisation, autofocus.
So, let us go with the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs on a 7:20 a.m. to early afternoon photo-journey.
Handling, Performance and Samples
As my dear friend Bobby Tonelli will likely be testing this lens on a Nikon body, I decided to go with a Leica SL body, with an Nikon (G) to Leica (L) mount adapter from K&F.
Similar to the recent releases from Cosina, the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs is extremely well built with the focus and aperture rings made of metal and featuring large, machined finger holds and a precision-machined knurled barrel.
The entire lens is finished in black with markings engraved and filled in with different colours to provide an interesting vintage vibe to the lens, one might find it ‘colourful’ but fact is the different colour lines can be useful if one bothers to learn how they correspond to certain settings on the lens.
One of most attractive part of all, in my experience of it, will obviously be the sheer compactness of this full frame ƒ1.2 lens at 365 grams.
The focus throw is pretty long, giving one accuracy across the whole focusing range of 0.45m to infinity. The focusing rings are very nicely damped and smooth with clear clicks for the aperture ring.
Image output is pleasant, and it is important to note that the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs at ƒ1.2 will not be tack sharp, howevers details are crisp and sharp once one stops down from ƒ2 onwards. There is a fair amount of purple fringing wide but again, this is easily resolved in post-processing or once one stops down from ƒ1.8 to ƒ2 onwards.
Once one moves into the ƒ4 to ƒ8 region, the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs renders details very well and sharp.
The Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs is an interesting modern interpretation of the 1981 Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.2 AI-s, and to be clear, a lens designed to be very different from say, the Voigtlander 50mm ƒ1 VM Aspherical
(my review of the Voigtlander 50mm F1 VM Aspherical is here)
Reminiscent of the Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.2 AI-s lens. The Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs will not win any contests for sharpness but can render quite soft wide open with it’s fair share of purple fringing.
As a portrait lens, the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs obviously shines. This is the part where as a portrait photographer, I will actually prefer a lens that is not pore-level sharp and actually a bit of softness in the image at wide open can bring an advantage to the image output.
The Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs’s character of tending to render soft wide open, can be seen as an advantage or disadvantage depending on how the photographer works with the lens.
Conclusions
The Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs is an interesting release from Cosina, especially for Nikon AI-s mount which has been pretty quiet for a while with Nikon’s push into Z-mount.
To use this USD799 piece of optics effectively, one will need to learn how to work with it, as like all character lenses, the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs is characterful and not designed to be another one of those ‘boring modern clinical’ lenses.
Thank you for reading.
Disclaimers.
- All product photos and samples here were photographed by me. I believe any reviewer with pride should produce their own product photos.
2. All images were shot with the Voigtlander Nokton 55mm ƒ1.2 SL IIs, mounted on the Leica SL with an K&F adapter. All the items listed here were returned within 24 hours.
*The Leica SL actually belongs to a dear friend, Sam Wong, and this is actually my 1st time using the SL despite me being so involved in reviewing Leica equipment.
3. This review is not sponsored.
4. I do not do affiliate purchase links to keep myself neutral. I write as a passion and a hobby, and I appreciate that photography brands are kind enough to respect and work with me.
5. The best way to support me is to share the review, or you can always support me by buying me a cup of coffee which contributes to my WordPress fees for running the site using the Paypal button at the bottom of the page.
KeithWee | Photography 
Hi Keith, reviews for this lens are hard to come by and I am glad you have taken the time to write one. Thank you!
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Thank you Gillman for the kind words 🙂
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Thank you Keith for this excellent and balanced review. I had a Nikkor 50mm f1.2 Ais for while but sold it and bought the nikkor 58mm f1.4g instead. It is one of my long time favorite AF lenses but apart from the 58 I use manual focusing lenses. This new CV 55mm is tempting when looking at your pictures but I am not sure it provides a significant different rendering from the Nikkor 58mm f1.4g. Any thoughts on that ? Cheers, Dirk
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Hi Dirk, that’s a very interesting question because foremost the the Nikkor 58 f1.4G is one of my favorite lenses even if I add in Z mount.
I will still say the CV55mm gives a slightly different rendering from the 58 f1.4G and it is of course much lighter on the wallet but maybe the bigger question will probably be will you be keen to adapt the lens to another system and of course, would you prefer manual focusing lenses too.
Cheers
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Keith, nice pics for a lens test! Have you applied any lens corrections? I’m interested in the level of barrel distortion. It only seems noticeable in the few close-up shots with straight lines.
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Hi! Thank you. For reviews I hardly do heavy post processing and generally go into crops, shadows and highlights when needed. There’s a small amount of barrel distortion but I recall it’s not very significant
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This is the second time I’ve read this review. I am interested in this lens as a companion to my Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 . Interested, I am shooting with the 55mm f/1.2 Nikkor non ai and ai on my Nikon Z9 . I am really enjoying the Nikkor and it’s rendering at the moment and it doesn’t cost me $800 US dollars. I do think there is a color difference or maybe advantage to the newer Voigtlanders. I love the images from the 40mm f/1.2 Voigtlander. Sometimes I’m struggling to tell which images were taken with which lens . That says a lot for an old 1960s non ai lens with a single coating.
Great job on the review and photos, thanks .
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Hi! Thank you, especially for coming back again. You are perfectly right in saying that the new Voigtlanders render color differently (I found the previous ones on the cooler side)
The Nikkor version imo still has a lot of life in it too.
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Keith it’s hard to hate on good glass of any manufacturer.
I really like the bokeh of this Voigtlander. Well many of them , the 35,40 and 55 f/1.2S the 50 f/1.0 voights and nice. I’ve read reviews of folks hating the old Nikkor 55 f/1.2’s bokeh because it’s busy. For sure in some cases but boy can it be beautiful if used right . And the Microcontrast from the 55 f/1.2 and the 50mm f/1.4 oh and the 35mm Nikkor O f/2.0 wow what a lens .
Use lenses for what they give you . It is life
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Hi Troy, good advice shared there (use lenses for what they give you). It is very true that if used right even the most plain vanilla can give outstanding results and I fully agree
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Hello,
Thanks for this review. I have just had this lens in my hands for 5 minutes.. a fellow photographer showed it to me.. and I was immediately impressed by two things (one which you didn’t mention).. The relative sharpness for an f1.2 lens is a welcome surprise (I have owned the Nikon 50 f1.2 AI-S, as well as a Canon AF 50 f1.2 L).. but what really impressed was the circular bokeh around the edges, giving the possibility, with proper framing and background, for some really interesting images. The swirly bokeh works best with branches and greenery, and is quite pleasant (if you like that sort of thing).. This lens is defintely on my Wish list!
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Hi! Thank you for sharing too, Voigtlander does make pretty interesting and good lenses too. Love the bokeh as you have mentioned too but as usual bokeh being subjective was (as you said) one thing I omitted elaborating on and I’m glad to read this
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Thank you for this review. It is mostly consistent with my view on this Voigtlander lens which I own now for a couple of weeks.
My take on this lens: My exemplar of the Voigtlander is optically better than my exemplar of the Nikkor at close to medium distances (slightly higher resolution and contrast wide open). I would say that at distances around 2-3 m the resolution around the image center is sufficient for 45 MP even at F1.2. Stopped down to F2, both lenses start to become really nice and consistent.
At far distances, the Nikkor is better than the Voiglander because the latter has rather strong field curvature which gets worse when stopping down. Therefore sharp outer edges on a flat field shot are not achievable even stopped down.
Regarding Bokeh, the Voigtlander is less “bubbly” than the Nikkor. Sometimes it is even surprisingly smooth. But of course, the Voigtlander follows a classic 7/6 design, therefore one cannot expect miracles reg. Bokeh. Outlining can be visible, longitudinal chromatic abberations as well (especially at large apertures).
Bottom line: The Voigtlander 55mm F1.2 Nokton SLIIs is in my view a modern incarnation of the venerable Nikkor 50/1.2 AI(-S) with overall slightly better optical performance and a very similar optical design.
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Lovely to read your sharing . Especially the part on the bokeh and CA.
In the end I feel that the Voigtlander 55/1.2 will be for this slice of users who know what they want and of course , what to expect from this modern rendition of the Nikkor.
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