Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 MFT - Review / Test Report - Sample Images & Verdict
Lens Reviews - (Micro-)Four-Thirds

Sample Images

Here're some RAW-converted images taken with the Panasonic GF-1. Please note that the aperture values are actually estimated. The lens does not provide any EXIF data and we had too much fun in the field so we didn't bother writing down the settings. :-)

Click on a thumbnail to view the original file (opens in a separate window). Please note that the originals are FULL SIZE samples (=several megabytes) thus requiring a significant amount of bandwidth so please take care of the limited resources here.

Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/0.95
Exposure 1/320s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/0.95
Exposure 1/1600s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/0.95
Exposure 1/800s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/4
Exposure 1/1600s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure 1/1600s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 100
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/0.95
Exposure 1/2500s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/0.95
Exposure 1/1600s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/0.95
Exposure 1/1600s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 200
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/1.4
Exposure 1/1000s
Make Panasonic
Model DMC-GF1
ISO Speed 100
Focal Length 25mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure 1/4000s

Verdict

The Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95 MFT is an extreme design. This has both advantages as well as drawbacks. Technically the lens is capable of delivering a sharp image center at very large apertures but the borders are fairly soft here. In the field this is probably not a big issue regarding the typical shallow depth-of-field applications. The quality is fine at f/2 and really excellent across the entire image field from f/4 to f/8. There's quite a bit of light falloff at f/0.95 and to a lesser degree at f/1.4 but we expected worse actually. The quality of the bokeh (out-of-focus blur) is generally impressive although you can push it into producing some less than pleasing highlight artifacts at f/0.95 (see the sample image with the fence for instance). Bokeh fringing is visible at large apertures but this is true for the vast majority of ultra-large aperture lenses. Lateral CAs are minimal and there isn't really any significant amount of distortion to worry about either. Apropos - unlike other MFT lenses the Nokton does NOT rely on image auto-correction simply because theres's no electronic coupling. This shows that such measurements are not needed assuming that you design is simply decent enough.

The mechanical quality is outstanding thanks to an all-metal lens body and a dampened focus ring. Only a weather sealing is missing here. The lack of AF may be a show-stopper for some but due to the magnified Live-View/EVF option in micro-four-thirds cameras manual focusing is actually fairly easy. It slows you down, of course, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing anyway. We enjoyed our time with the lens and while it may not be the very best lens that we've ever tested it is certainly worth a very serious look. And finally there's now speed in MFT country albeit at a high price.

Optical Quality:
Mechanical Quality:
Price/Performance:
      
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