Re: [Leica] Nokton first impressions... and possibly last.

[Stephen Gandy <Stephen@CameraQuest.com>]

you are not the first person I know of who did not like the 50/1.5 bokeh.

but then, it's really your fault, for taking pics,  instead of memorizing lens
reports.

personally, I prefer the lens tests.   I mean, why bother with images when it's
so much easier to look at lens reports and pretend someone else knows what MY
lens is doing ??   it even saves me the cost of film and processing.

I would write more, but I haven't finished framing all the latest lens tests.

Stephen Gandy

>
> << J Deadman writes:
>
> << Well, I guess I've shot around ten or twelve rolls with this lens now and
>  ... it's a tough one. Most of the stuff I've shot has been family stuff
>  which I don't like to put on the web, so it's hard to illustrate the points
>  I'm about to make.
>
>  First, the good things: it's as well made as my other Voigtlander lens (the
>  75, which I love to bits), it handles well, and for such a fast lens it
>  behaves impeccably when shooting against the light. The focus throw is nice
>  and snappy. As for sharpness, well, check out Erwin's figures. It's as sharp
>  as I will ever need a lens to be.
>
>  Are you detecting reservations? You sure are.
>
>  There is something about this lens that I don't like. Frank Dernie said he
>  didn't like the bokeh, and I agree. It's just... not right. If I had to give
>  it a name it would be 'technical' or 'cold'. In a 1.4 lens this is a
>  disaster. The 75 has great, chunky bokeh.
>
>  The 50 is... smushy, but not in a good way.
>
>  It's depressing to buy a lens (having shot some stuff with it in the shop
>  and developed it) and then get the growing feeling, which I now have, that
>  this is not a lens I can live with. I know others (BD, right?) like the
>  Nokton, and in many respects I can see why. It's sharp, even wide open, it's
>  flare-resistant, it's cute, the pictures it takes are really 'modern'
>  looking (ie they look like current-generation lens shots). And it's cheap.
>  But it's a definite case of the MTF charts and the price tage not telling
>  the whole story. The 'character' of this lens is all wrong, IMHO. Sad, isn't
>  it?
>
>  Anyone want to buy one, near mint, boxed, etc?
>
>  --
>  Johnny Deadman >>