Panasonic Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 ASPH. Lens Review

Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 ASPH. Performance

During testing, this lens displayed characteristics typical for a fast aperture prime lens, with centre sharpness being high, improving as the aperture is stopped down. Even so, sharpness in the centre of the frame is already excellent at maximum aperture, with clarity being very good towards the edges of the frame. Stopping down to between f/4 and f/8 produces peak performance across the frame. Here sharpness is outstanding from edge to edge.

MTF @ 42.5mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Panasonic Lumix G3 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are extremely well controlled. Fringing is at its most prominent at f/16, where it is still well below half a pixel width, and therefore nothing to worry about.

Chromatic aberration @ 42.5mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Panasonic Lumix G3 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the edges of the frame is well controlled, especially for a lens sporting such a fast maximum aperture. At f/1.2 the corners are 1.67 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved when stopped down to f/2.8 or beyond.

Distortion is extremely well controlled. Imatest could only detect 0.544% pincushion distortion, which will be extremely difficult to spot, even in images with straight lines parallel to the edges of the frame.

No issues with flare were encountered during testing and only a slight loss of contrast can be seen when shooting into the light at maximum aperture. A deep, metal, circular hood is supplied with the lens, which does an excellent job of shading the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues, as well as protecting the lens from bumps and scrapes. Additional sample photos can be seen here.

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