gullevek’s blog

For a rangefinder camera 35mm is the most ideal focal length. It is the best between too wide and too narrow. With 35mm you can do easy street shooting in hyper focal, but also do some nice close ups or semi-portraits.

I own and owned a bunch of 35mm lenses, although my first rangefinder camera did not support a 35mm frameline, it was not long before I got my first 35mm lens.

So in this small text and I want to take a look at the 35mm lenses I owned and own and one 40mm lens with which all this film trouble started.

• Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4
• Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35mm f2.5 PII
• Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2
• Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.4

The lenses are listed in the order I owned and bought them. All but the 35mm/f1.4 have been sold.

Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4

When I bought my first rangefinder system I had no prior experience with any rangefinder camera. I never used one, I never held one in my hand, so buying one was reading a lot of revies and finding something which I might like. So back then I decided to go with the R3 system which has a 1:1 viewfinder and the 40mm lens which fit perfectly to it. Inbetween I sold my R3 and got a R2 because the R3 has no 35mm frameline and as I started to use more and more 35mm lenses the missing framelines were more or less annoying.

But I kept the 40mm for a very long time, because it was one of my most favourite lenses. The focal length is right between 50mm and 35mm and gives a good inbetween wide and normal style.

Built wise the lens is just as good as it gets. Full metal construction, smooth focus, click stop aperture ring. It has a nob on the focus ring because it is a very tight construction, it also has some grips on the aperture ring. This design is quite standard for those compact lenses and all but the Nokton 35mm/f1.2 have the same design.

I personally am not a big fan of this design. For the very simple reason that I always have to find the nobs without looking. I have no idea where there is no more "riffled" grip around the focus ring and on the aperture ring, there would be enough space and it would make focusing a bit more easy.

The lens is sharp wide open and has a very nice bokeh. A very nice bokeh for this price class and construction. It might not be a Leica bokeh, but you pay big bucks for it and again this counts for most of the other lenses too.

I sold this lens for the simple reason that I got the 35mm/f1.4 and just used this lens, I never touched the 40mm, so before I just collects dust I rather get some money for it and get a lens that I will use.

Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35mm f2.5 PII

My first 35mm lens for rangefinder and the smallest and a very fun lens. The design is really very small. It is the second version of this lens with M-Mount, the previous version was for screw mount and body design was more like the 21 or 24 from Voigtlaender. I actually prefer this design as it has an easier accessable aperture ring.

Although it is only f2.5, it was partly usable at night, and I got some very stunning shots with it.

This lens has no flaws whatsoever. It is sharp, compact and the perfect daylight street shooting lens. It just did not fight my style of shooting, as I do need a much faster lens and I really like some good bokeh. So once I got the 35mm/f1.2 and later the 35mm/f1.4 I never ever used this lens, so it was also sold

Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2

From the specifications this is a dream lens. Ultra fast, 35mm, M-Mount and quite cheap. So when I saw the announcement I had to get one. As this lens is quite big and long it has a proper focus and aperture ring so changing the aperture or focusing is very easy, you never have to search the knobs around the barrell.

The lens is very good wide open, sharp, with no visible glow and has a very smooth bokeh. It seemed just perfect ...

... but it was not. The lens started to disappoint me in two things. First was the size. Not the weight, but the length of the barrell. It is really long, almost too long. And too long for a rangefinder. But the most disappointing thing for me was the bokeh in light as it shows visible "onion rings". Once I saw them, I saw them everywhere. I just couldn't use it anymore. Some people really love the lens and see this as an artistic addition, but for me this was a no go.

So once the 35mm f1.4 was announced I knew I would sell this lens. It is a nice lens, I used it quite a lot, especially as it works very nice on the Epson R-D1s, but still overall it was not worth to be kept.

Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.4

This is sort of the perfect lens. The size is ideal, the contructionis good as usual, but with the usual flaws of the tiny design as the focus ring has a knob and the aperture ring has some small grips.

But the bokeh is very beautiful, it is wonderful sharp wide open. I just love it. So this is the only 35mm lens I kept. And this is also the 35mm I really highly recommend, as it is really the most ideal rangefinder type you can get for this kind of price. It might not keep up with the Leica counterpart, but if you compare the price, it definetly can do.

Bokeh compare

After I got the 35mm f1.4 I still owned all the other 35mm and 40mm lenses, therefore I did shoot a comparision to see the difference in bokeh and focal length. As you can see in the image below, allthough there is only 5mm between 35mm and 40mm, the bokeh looks really different. This is the only thing I miss a bit from the 35mm. But as I recently got the new 50mm f1.1 I am again with a lens that can create this amazing bokeh.

Voigtländer Nokton Classic, Color-Skopar, Nokton Bokeh Comparison