The Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1.1 ($1,000) is a poor man’s version of Leica’s $11,000 Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. lens, but that’s not a bad thing. It doesn’t capture quite as much light as the Noctilux, and sharpness suffers at its widest apertures, but shooting at such a wide aperture on a full-frame camera produces a look that’s distinctive enough to make you forgive these shortcomings. If you’re looking for a lens that’s more clinically sharp, consider the Zeiss Planar T* 2/50 ZM ($680.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , which earned Editors’ Choice accolades, or the pricey Leica Summiux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. ($3,844.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) .

The Nokton ($999.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)  isn’t that big by SLR standards, but it’s large compared with other rangefinder lenses. It measures 2.7 by 2.3 inches (HD), weighs 15.1 ounces, and supports 58mm front filters. If you want to shoot at the widest aperture on bright days, you’ll want to buy a neutral density filter to block out some light. A metal lens hood is included. The Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. captures about half the light at its maximum aperture, but it’s smaller (2.1 by 2.1 inches) and lighter (11.8 ounces), and supports smaller 46mm filters.

The lens is built for use with Leica M-mount rangefinder cameras, and supports coupled focus to 1 meter. It can also be used, via a mechanical adapter, with most mirrorless cameras, including full-fame models like the Sony Alpha 7R ($1,654.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , APS-C bodies like the Fujifilm X-E2 ($899.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , and Micro Four Thirds bodies like the Olympus OM-D E-M10 ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . When used with those models, you’ll be able to focus via Live View, which is a very different experience when compared with using it with an optical rangefinder focus mechanism like the one you’ll find in the Leica M (Typ 240) ($4,999.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) .

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The Nokton’s all-metal design gives it a much different feel from most modern lenses. The manual focus ring turns smoothly and includes a distance scale in feet and meters. A depth-of-field scale, with full-stop markings from f/4 down to f/16, is printed on the barrel. The aperture is controlled by a narrow ring at the front of the lens, and can be set in half-stop increments from f/1.1 through f/16. The lens can focus to 1 meter, which is typical for a rangefinder lens with this large of an aperture, but f/1.4 and f/2 50mm rangefinder lenses typically focus a bit closer, to 0.7 meter.

If you’re buying a lens like this, it’s likely with the intention of shooting at f/1.1. That can be tricky, as the depth of field is so shallow that it’s pretty easy to miss focus by just a hair. I opted to use an EVF with the Leica M when I was out working with the lens in the field, as I was pretty sure that my rangefinder calibration was slightly off—a narrower aperture can hide a slight misalignment, but there’s no margin of error at f/1.1. If you’re using the lens with a Live View camera, magnification and focus peaking aids are a necessity for getting shots perfectly in focus at its widest aperture.

I used a full-frame Sony Alpha 7 body to test the Nokton in the lab, as its Live View focusing is a lot nicer to use than that of the Leica M, which assured an accurate focus. At f/1.1 the results are soft, even when perfectly focused. Imatest(Opens in a new window) shows a center-weighted sharpness score of 1,096 lines per picture height, which is a lot less than the 1,800 lines that we like to see. Performance is even across the frame. All of the sample images in this review were shot at f/1.1.

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As you narrow the aperture, the center sharpens quickly, but the edge performance actually drops of a bit. At f/1.4 it scores 1,817 lines using a center-weighted metric. The center third of the image is quite sharp, 2,354 lines, and the middle third is a little soft at 1,494 lines. The outer third of the image is softer at f/1.4 than it is at f/1.1, showing just 645 lines. The lens continues to sharpen as you narrow the aperture—at f/2 it shows 2,291 lines, it improves to 2,542 lines at f/2.8, and to 2,690 lines at f/4. The edges hit 766 lines at f/2, 1,077 lines at f/2.8, and 1,525 lines at f/4.

At f/5.6 the lens is finally sharp from edge to edge, with a center-weighted score of 2,828 lines and edges that are just shy of 2,000 lines. At f/8 the lens shows its sharpest performance, 2,847 lines, before diffraction sets in and starts to reduce the resolution at f/11 (2,753 lines) and f/16 (2,519 lines). There’s a very modest amount of barrel distortion, 1.1 percent, which is on the low side for a wide aperture 50mm lens.

The Voigtander Nokton 50mm F1.1 is capable of capturing images with an insanely shallow depth of field, but it lacks the clinical sharpness at wider apertures that’s common in modern lenses with less ambitious apertures. At its widest aperture, its images are on the soft side, but they have a look that you’re not going to get with a lens that doesn’t capture as much light. The Nokton isn’t a one-trick pony, as it gets noticeably sharper as you stop down, and is a solid performer at f/2 and an excellent one at f/5.6. If you use a rangefinder or mirrorless camera and want to shoot images at apertures wider than f/1.4, the Nokton is a solid choice at a reasonable price. It’s not the equal of Leica’s f/0.95 Noctilux by any means, but it’s also priced about $10,000 less. If you want a lens that’s a bit smaller, less expensive, and sharper, our Editors’ Choice Zeiss Planar T* 2/50 ZM is the way to go. If your needs move beyond f/2, the Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. offers a nice compromise. It’s incredibly sharp at f/1.4 and a lot smaller than the Nokton, and while its $4,000 price tag is less than half that of a Noctilux, it’s still a lot to pay for a lens.

Thanks to Photo Village(Opens in a new window), Voigtlander’s U.S. distributor, for loaning us this lens for review.