Voigtlander Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 Manual Focus Lens for Micro 4/3 Mount
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Product Feature
- Focal length: 17.5mm
- Maximum aperture: F/0.95
- Angle of view (diagonal): 64.6deg.
- Lens construction: 13 elements in 9 groups
- Minimum focus distance: 0.15m
Product Description
The Voigtlander Nokton 17.5 mm F0.95 Focus Lens for the Micro Four Thirds system gives a 35 mm equivalent field-of-view on the system and has been designed with silent, stepless aperture control for videography. The lens offers a wider-angle alternative to the company's Nokton 25 mm F0.95.Voigtlander Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 Manual Focus Lens for Micro 4/3 Mount Review
Update: 5 Mar 2013I've been charmed by this lens. Ever since using the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 lens, I was hooked on manual lens. I love the way it handles with a dedicated aperture ring.
The 17.5mm lens is the wider and bigger brother of the 25mm lens.
The lens comes with its lens cap, a wide angle screw-on lens hood and the lens hood cap.
The build quality is excellent. The whole thing made of metal and glass. It's one of the larger and heavier lens compared to other Micro Four Thirds (MFT) lens. It weighs 540g.
The heavy weight means it's better to use this lens on a camera with a good grip. It's still comfortable enough to hang around the neck the whole day because with camera and body, it's still under 1kg.
It's also bigger. Filter thread is 58mm. I use a 8X ND filter when shooting under daylight.
This is a fully manual lens. There's no electrical contact points at the back of the lens. No EXIF data will be passed to the camera, so you'll not have information such as the aperture.
The aperture ring does 1 full stop with 2 clicks. There's a new feature added. You can make aperture ring click-less by pulling back the front dial and turning it 180 degrees. A yellow dot replaces the white dot's position, and the aperture ring becomes click-less. It's a nifty feature for video because it minimizes flicker as you change the exposure.
At f/0.95, this is a fast and bright lens, good for low light photography. The other benefit of the f/0.95 aperture is the shallow depth of field (DOF) that can be used to blur out backgrounds. MFT with their smaller sensors required larger apertures to create shallow depth of field.
I find the manual focus a joy to use. Even without the manual focus assist zoomed in mode, I can see clearly whenever the subject is in focus.
I love the photos from the lens. You can see some sample shots and video in the links I provided in the comments section below.
In terms of performance, it's quite similar to the Voigtlander 25mm lens. At f/0.95, images are slightly soft and the corners very much so. It improves quickly at f/1.4, and the optimal seems to be around f/2 and f/2.8. I usually use the lens at f/1.4. For video work, that softness is not obvious.
Vignetting is strong for this lens and only goes away at f/4. Bokeh is rendered a creamy manner.
Purple fringing at f/0.95 is quite strong also, visible even in web-sized images. It goes away around f/2.
Check out more sample shots to see if purple fringing and vignetting is going to be an issue for you. So far from the photos I've shot, I don't find it to be much of an issue.
I bought the lens for wide angle subject isolation. It's not as good compared to fullframe sensors but it's the best you can get from a Micro Four Thirds sensor. If I need the depth of field, I would have gone with fullframe, but I prioritize having a lightweight photography setup. That's the compromise. It's difficult to get a full height human standing in a sea of good blur. That's just the way it is with Micro Four Thirds. Cats and dogs, yes. Not a human.
The closest competitor lens are probably the Olympus 17mm f/1.8, Olympus 17mm f/2.8, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 and Panasonic 20mm f/1.7. But they compete because of the focal length, and they are much cheaper. Even the fastest Panasonic 20mm lens is still more than 1 stop slower than the Voigtlander. But if you already have the 20mm lens, there's not much reason to ditch it if unless you need the f/0.95.
The f/0.95 makes a crucial difference for night shoots. Once, for a trip, I chose the Olympus 17mm f/1.8mm lens over the Voigtlander to cut down some weight. BAD MISTAKE. All the photos and videos I took at night were not usable at ISO 3200 and 6400. f/0.95 is a must especially if you have no idea of the lighting conditions (at night).
Being a manual focus lens has its advantages. You can focus as fast as your hands can go, and as accurately as your eyes can see. The latter point on focus accuracy is a huge benefit when you're shooting in low contrast situations, where most AF lens will tend to start focus hunting. This lens is a pleasure to use at night.
As for the price-value ratio, it might be slightly overpriced. But I really love the photos from it. Check out the links to photos and videos in the comments section.
At a glance
+ Excellent build quality
+ External aperture ring
+ Aperture ring can be made click-less
+ Manual control of depth of field during video
+ Bright f/0.95 aperture good for low light shooting
+ Beautiful creamy bokeh
+ Great image quality
+ Comes with lens hood
- Heavy at 540g
- Big
- Edge softness when shooting wide open, not obvious for video
- Corner softness from f/0.95 to f/2
- Visible purple fringing from f/0.95 to f/1.4
- Strong vignetting from f/0.95 to f/2
- Pricey
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