Voigtländer Nokton 23mm 1.2 Review - Stefan Czurda

Voigtländer Nokton 23mm 1.2 Review - Stefan Czurda

The Voigtländer Nokton 23mm/1.2 for Fuji X-mount is a very handy manual rangefinder lens, that looks very pleasing on a retro-styled Fuji cameras and serves numerous applications such as street photography, weddings and environmental portrait. Moreover it offers a wonderful manual focus experience.

I think I'm not the only photo-enthusiast who has been waiting in anticipation for a high quality manual lens finally be available for the Fuji X-mount. It is simply a unique style factor and a completely different feeling to work with a classic manual lens on a rangefinder-like camera.

On the Fuji APS-C X-mount system, the 23mm results in a classic 35mm focal length, taking into account the crop factor of 1.5. The small and eye-catching lens was the perfect companion for my Fuji XE-4 APS-C camera and I had the chance to test it for a few weeks during Christmas time at the end of 2022.

Here I would like to review the Voigtländer Nokton 23mm 1.2 for the Fuji X-Mount.

 

Lens Properties

The lens comprises 10 lenses in 6 groups, is exclusively designed for the Fuji X-mount, and includes an aspherical element, as well as two abnormal partial dispersion lenses for the reduction of chromatic aberrations.
With 44cm in length, the lens is very compact and weights only 230g and perfectly fits on my small Fuji XE-4 camera.


The Voigtländer Nokton 23mm 1.2 is made exclusively of metal and a small lens hood, also made of metal, is provided by the manufacturer and does its job pretty well. The aperture ring clicks very snappy in 1/3 stops and the manual focus ring shows very good haptics with a nice dampened resistance for a perfect manual focusing experience.

So the overall build quality is really excellent, as we like and appreciate it from Voigtländer.

 

Optical qualities

With a largest aperture of f/1.2, the Voigtländer Nokton 23mm is a fast lens and has a very good image quality considering its small size.
Center sharpness wide open at f/1.2 is a little soft and critical corner regions appear a little soft as well using the largest aperture. However, center sharpness gradually improves from f/2 to f/2.8, as shown on the picture below, and at f/4 the Voigtländer Nokton displays sharp and contrasty corner regions.


The sweet spot of image quality lies between f/5.6-8. At f/11 refraction comes into play which, as expected, results in decrease optical performance.

 

Color Rendering

The color representation of the lens is very similar to other Voigtländer lenses I have tested.

Other than Zeiss and Leica lenses, which display a more neutral color rendering, the Voigtländer Nokton f/1.2 shows rich and slightly warm colors paired with a good amount of contrast and decent micro contrast. Of course, color rendering strongly depends on the applied color profile used on the Fuji camera.
The following images show a picture of a sunny city landscape in three different color profiles (Fuji film simulations), that I frequently use on my Fuji XE-4.


Astia Film Simulation

 


Classic Chrome Film Simulation

 


Classic Negative Film Simulation

 

Bokeh

A 35mm focal length paired with a very fast aperture of f/1.2 is a decent tool for nice foreground-background separation.
On the following pictures, near and far distance bokeh at f/1.2 is shown.

 


Near distance bokeh

 


Far distance bokeh

 

Near distance bokeh at f/1.2 show significant cat eyes structures and far distance bokeh looks a bit nervous for me.
Interpretation of the bokeh, of course, is always very subjective, however, for me it is probably not a strength of the lens.

 

Vignetting and Distortion

Wide open at f/1.2 and f/1.8, the Voigtländer Nokton 23mm shows significant vignetting, which gets better stopped down to f/2.8 and almost completely disappears when stopped down to f/4.

 


Vignetting at f/1.2

 


Vignetting at f/2.8

 


Vignetting at f/4


Also, the lens shows moderate barrel distortion, which can be easily corrected using a lens correction profile available in Lightroom.


Vignetting and distortion before Lightroom corrections

 


Vignetting and distortion after Lightroom corrections

 

Chromatic Aberration and Backlight

I found the lens pretty well corrected in terms of chromatic aberration. Even in critical light situations, I couldn’t see any dramatic purple fringing.

 


Chromatic Aberrations

 

Also, the Voigtländer Nokton 23mm shows good performance in backlight situation. Flaring is definitely present, but in my opinion pleasing and ads some nice character to the lens.


Flaring

 


Conclusion

In summary, one has to attest the lens a very good optical performance, if one can live with a slightly lower sharpness up to f/2.8. For me personally, the Voigtländer Nokton 23 mm is non-clinical character lens and definitely changes the way you shoot with a Fuji cameras.

Fuji has always made rangefinder-style cameras, but has only built very modern autofocus lenses and unfortunately withheld manual lenses that simply provide a completely different shooting-experience on a Fuji camera.

Now with manual Nokton 23mm available for the Fuji X-mount, we get a very handy manual rangefinder lens, that not only look very pleasing on a retro-styled Fuji cameras, but also serves numerous applications such as street photography, weddings and environmental portrait together with an wonderful manual focus experience.