Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SL II Lens Review

Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SL II Performance

Sharpness in the centre of the frame already approaches excellent levels at f/1.4, although performance towards the edges of the frame falls way behind, only producing fair levels of clarity. Stopping down improves performance across the frame, with sharpness peaking between f/4 and f/5.6 in the centre of the frame. Stopping down to between f/5.6 and f/11 results in outstanding sharpness across the frame.

MTF

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 Nikon D600 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are well controlled, with fringing only just exceeding half a pixel width towards the edges of the frame between f/1.4 and f/2. This low level of fringing will be very difficult to spot, even in images with areas of high contrast towards the edges of the frame. 

CA

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 Nikon D600 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners is very pronounced, as you may expect from a lens with a fast maximum aperture like this optic. The corners are 2.56 stops darker than the centre of the frame at maximum aperture and illumination is visually uniform across the frame when stopped down to f/5.6 or beyond.

Imatest detected 1.16% barrel distortion, which is an extremely low level of distortion, which will be difficult to spot, unless you specifically go looking for it. If absolutely straight lines are paramount, you'll be glad to know that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make applying corrections in image editing software straightforward.

Contrast is good, even when shooting into the light at maximum aperture. No hood is supplied as standard with this lens but a Voigtlander metal screw-in type hood can be obtained for around £40.

Value For Money

The Nikon version of this lens costs around £400 from RobertWhite, which seems like a bargain when compared to Nikon's AF-S 58mm f/1.4G lens, which costs around £1450, even though this Voigtlander optic lacks autofocus. When compared to Nikon's standard 50mm f/1.4 lens, which costs around £280 the price seems less exceptional.

Canon camera owners will naturally compare this lens to the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, with silent ultrasonic autofocus for around £235.

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