Voigtlander Nokton 50 mm f/1.2 Aspherical review - Focusing

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Voigtlander Nokton 50 mm f/1.2 Aspherical

5 May 2020

Maciej Latałło

10. Focusing

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The manual focus ring occupies a significant part of the proper barrel as its width amounts to 29 mm. As it befits a good manual lens,on the ring you get a distance scale expressed in feet and meters; there's also a protrusion with ribs and indentations which ensures you firmer grip and more ergonomic performance. The ring moves very smoothly and is properly damped. Running through the whole distance range needs an angle of about 140 degrees, a moderately good value for a manual lens with such an aperture fastness.

Voigtlander Nokton 50 mm f/1.2 Aspherical - Focusing

Joining 50 mm focal length with a very fast f/1.2 aperture means depth of field is really shallow and you have to apply yourself to proper focusing. I think, with such an aperture fastness a longer focus throw, e.g. of 180 degrees, would be a far better idea.

Besides, the DOF scale itself shows the problem very clearly - the lowest value you get is that of f/4.0 and markings at that aperture are very close to each other. It would be nice to be able to focus efficiently also near the maximum relative aperture which is positioned over 3 EV away from f/4.0.