Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 Nokton Micro Four Thirds Lens Review

Voigtlander 17.5mm f/0.95 Nokton Micro Four Thirds Performance

For a lens with a maximum aperture of f/0.95, performance wide open is surprisingly good in the centre of the frame, just scraping good levels of clarity. Although the quality towards the edges of the frame is fairly poor, this is to be expected from a lens with such a fast maximum aperture, and may even be considered to add to the effect this lens produces.

Resolution @ 17.5mm

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 DMC-G3 using Imatest.

Stopping down just over one stop to f/1.4 improves sharpness in the centre of the frame to excellent levels and the clarity towards the edges of the frame starts to approach fair levels. Peak sharpness across the frame is achieved at f/5.6, where clarity is excellent across the frame.

Chromatic aberration @ 17.5mm

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 DMC-G3 using Imatest.

As might be expected from a lens with such a fast maximum aperture, levels of chromatic aberrations are on the high side towards the edges of the frame, exceeding one pixel width at wide apertures. As the lens is stopped down fringing improves, remaining acceptable between f/2.8 and f/11. The fringing at wide apertures may start to become noticeable in images, especially those with high contrast towards the edges of the frame.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is pretty well controlled, given the extremely fast maximum aperture. At f/0.95 the corners ar 2.4 stops darker than the centre of the frame and illumination is visually uniform with the aperture stopped down to f/2.8 and beyond.

Typically of lenses with a fast maximum aperture, slight barrel distortion is present. Imatest detected 1.69% barrelling, which can occasionally pose issues, especially when shooting close up. The distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, so applying corrections in image editing software afterwards should be a straightforward affair.

Flare and loss of contrast when shooting into the light are rarely an issue with this lens and the supplied hood does a reasonable job of shielding the front element from extraneous light that may cause issues. Contrast levels drop at wider apertures in all shooting conditions, which is fairly typical of very fast lenses and may even be considered to add to the effect produced.

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