The Leica Noctilux - Noctilux, if you have some rudimentary knowledge of Latin
or some expert knowledge of Google Translate will know that in English it roughly translates to
'night light' (not the thing in your kids bedroom). It also means the bloody expensive one with a really
large aperture. This one right here is my own, obviously, this is the second time i've owned
it - bought one sold it regretted it bought it again and here we are. For a bloody expensive
large aperture lens this presents really quite good value for money...sort of. Well in the world
of Leica it is especially so if you bought one in 2002 for 1500 pounds and given the value today it
would have been better than putting your money in a savings account. Yeah although yours is only the
cheapo one isn't it? What do you mean "cheapo one"? That's the one point one isn't it? Dan there's no 1.1
that's the Nokton - that is the cheaper one. Yes. There are no cheapo Leica Noctilux options
but there are options: the OG 50 millimeter f 1.2 from 1966 designed by Helmut Marx - not abrasions
on your protective headwear - this lens is a legend and legendary status comes from
firsts: first Noctilux; first production lens ever with aspherical elements, two of them - one on the
front one on the back - if you can find one it's available for a legendary price but why so much?
well the aspherical elements were made on machine operated by hand and only one pair of hands were
capable of that: Gerd Bergman, so if he was on sick leave or away on holiday, no one else
was making them, so not many were made at all, hence legendary price. It's a fantastic option
for those who like to buy a lens to admire in your display cabinet, for those who want to take photos
just get the modern remake. Yes, Leica do evolve at glacial rate but with this they thought
it was best to regress and made a modern remake of the original formula just not made by Gerd. Not
many things are made by a Gerd anymore definitely not with this optical wonder of the modern world
the Noctilux 50 millimeter f0.95 aspherical it's a third of a stop faster than f1 but in my opinion
apart from the obvious brag ability it really isn't all that. Well, that's the zero nine five
but I actually think the f1 is the finest Noctilux it looks better and it's cheaper than the zero
nine five don't buy the zero nine five save yourself i'll tell that to mr whatever his name
is it's in the top of here let me just pay for it look at the invoices there so don't tell him hello
he's probably got them all anyway probably has
yeah he just wants that specific serial number the modern 50 millimeter f 1.2
aspherical is good wide open and the 0.95 is a fantastic performer too it's just that
the one in between is the very essence of what a Noctilux should be they got the formula just right
in 1975 with a lens designed by Ferman bloke Dr Walter Mandler and Made in Canada
hello i am a german lens engineer where are we hold on right there nichols believable
canadian guy jordan you're supposed to be german oh good day walter sorry you just
caught me about to have breakfast of course i'm having 100 authentic
which is french a because our canadian country is bilingual anyways i've just been given or building
all those canuck lenses that my legendary canadian craftsman skills allow me to do but
what was that lens design you want to talk to me about i have designed a 50 millimeter 1.0
lens that will not look like shizuo idol oh take off your keener that's crazy talk that's going
to create quite the kerfuffle when they find out how many loonies that's going to cost dave
it's going to be uber amazing so finish up your breakfast yo wowie that sounds really
good honestly i can't do this anymore this script is ridiculous it's stupid it's making money we put
this on pancakes we cook with it once while the states makes plenty of meals and if kai
doesn't like himself that's what you get when you plump for the first canadians that you asked for
should have held out for mckinnon and matty right ah never mind at least we got to learn a
little bit about canadian culture now it's time to learn a little bit about the nokilux f 1.0
okay deep breath are you ready for the geeky bit there are four versions of the 50 millimeter f1
version one which i had previously has e58 or 58 millimeter filter thread version 2 same
thing same optical design but with e60 or 60 millimeter filter in version 3 same thing and
same optical design with a different hood design clip on instead of bayonet see what i mean by
slow evolving and the version 4 yes same optical formula but with built-in hood in my opinion the
version 4 looks the best with the built-in hood and also because at least it comes with the hood
quite often the previous versions don't come with hood and they will set you back a bit of money to
source one but having said that i never find that it really flares much without a hood anyway
otherwise it doesn't really matter which one you go for they're pretty much all the
same although there's probably some minor copy to copy variation and some might have a problem with
a fungal infection yuck but before you splash the cash just be minded of a few things though
now when you're using the Noctilux on a rangefinder camera you have to be very careful
and very precise with the focusing because wide open and at its closest focusing distance
of one meter yes that's not all that close at all the depth of field is about one centimeter
how's around that peaking is on full but depth of field is so shallow i can't actually see
which bits are in focus probably around there even at longer distances is not easy now f1 it's
still going to have a thin depth of field which can also make foreground elements look a bit odd
when they're so blurry if you're using air f1 it's very much about the subject i took on my
first ever trip to new york and if you take photos like this well it could be anywhere
right and if you have a large distance between subject and background at f 1.0
you might end up making it look like your subject has been keyed onto the background
check that out and one thing you may have noticed right there is the light fall off it's a full
three stops under compared to the center of the frame vignetting is intense it does get worse
when you put a filter on which is what you'll need to do when you shoot in a daylight yes
the lens is called night light but if you only buy lens just to shoot at night you won't use it much
would you some say the vignetting is worse with the e58 because of the smaller filter thread but
i couldn't see the difference both that's bad but when i mean bad i mean
bad ass sure alomo camera will vignette too but this is posh light falloff
vignetting with the jazzles these dark corners are designed in germany and made in canada
yes vignetting is usually seen as undesirable but it is part of the challenge that f1 not
two likes is like a necessary compromise for reaching that f1 mark and that is cool
and it really draws you into what's in the center of the frame and most likely you want
to frame your subject sort of in the center because it's really quite soft in the corners
from the center of the imaging plane the sharpness circle is about nine millimeters either side of
that so about 18 millimeter circle the rest of it is gooey softness and with the lower contrast and
soft vignetted corners you don't really want to put your subjects near there besides just focusing
with a rangefinder patch and then reframing at close distances can easily put the subject out
of focus but look if you can say a big fu to the rule of thirds you'll be rewarded with some of
the most unique looking images ever it reaches some limits at f 1.0 but that adds to the charm
especially given that it is a blindingly good lens wide open where this lens shines is closer
focusing a lot of fast 50s of that time wouldn't produce the goods close up like not deluxe does
now a lot of standard prime lenses have optimized performance at infinity so close up performance is
often quite meh but the noctilux is a different beast it's a lens from the 70s that's almost 50
years ago and it looks absolutely fantastic close up wide open while it won't bring out those finer
details sharply it has plenty of contrast not as high contrast as some modern optics but enough to
give your images sufficient bite so you can have your bark with plenty of bite the center bits look
great for an old fast 50. the lines may not be razor sharp and the very fine details aren't crisp
but looks plenty punchy in those center bits just enough for it to be flattering on human subjects
but having said that this is a more versatile lens than the og 50 millimeter f 1.2 and the 50
the og lens didn't get any more refined when stopping it down this does sure you're looking
at this lens to shoot wide open with it but if you want to keep the nokilux permanently mounted
on your m and why not it's good to know that it starts losing the wild soft dark corners and
starts pushing the sharp bits out towards the edges once you stop it down a couple of stops
the 5095 is refined perhaps a bit too refined it's a bit clinical and it's huge don't get me
wrong mister it's a fantastic lens it performs excellently at f zero nine five in a very modern
way but it's like a modern golf gti faster more comfortable more refined but it will never be
as raw as rough and ready as the mark one or even mark two the f f-095 is clinically good but that
leaves me feeling a little bit cold the f1 is sort of bonkers which is good and smaller and lighter
actually you know what i take it back when i say it's very much about the subject because the
biggest thing about the noctilux is the character of the bokeh it's probably all you look at when
you look at the photos from the nokia locks bokeh unlike no other look at the shallow depth of
field goodness that looks fantastic doesn't it it isn't as well behaved as a modern made lens but a
bit of unruliness ends up making great looking bokeh it will make those subjects really stand
out pop out of your photo it's not a lens for replicating the scene as accurately as possible
it makes wobbly ethereal-looking art over your scene it's a no coin needed bokeh vending machine
dishing out gloriously unexpected gorgeous out of focus elements that will surprise you
every single time the funny thing though is that stopping it down a stop to f 1.4
the bokeh looks like any normal lens but rotating the aperture ring slightly to the right unleashes
hell it can be a well behaved lens but at the same time is capable of poking all over some
granny's purple rinse too the bokeh can verge on the jarring and focus on something a little
further away but nine times out of ten the bokeh is stunning close-up tends to look the
best the background bits have thrown so far out of focus that ends up as a dreamy creamy mess
mostly it takes what you see and regurgitates that into a seriously mushy bokefied image
those problematic specular highlights from the tree leaves that might often end up as harsh edged
balls end up looking so creamy looking and towards the periphery those bokeh balls end up looking
like rugby bokeh balls the spherical aberration helps to make them a little swirly on edges too
it's not as sharp as modern optics it's not as well corrected it does suffer from a bit of coma
and chromatic aberration but it's still very good at f1 more than adequately sharp in
the center wide open close up which is most likely how this lens will be used
it is this blend which makes it shine when shooting in the dark but produces dreamy daytime
images too it creates images that are not quite perfect and that is exactly why it is perfect
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what was that lens design you want to talk to me about i have designed a 50 millimeter one
joint that was terrible man that's like the swedish chef from the muppets just do better
you've seen strange love so many times oh yeah just try it's a bit it's got a bit too
much patina for me it's the dan chung edition actually it's not a dungeon condition because
you didn't do that should we paint it pink you buy it first in the opinion peanut butter can
you get it m9 is a good size it's not exactly very good at 6400 iso though doesn't matter get the oh
the nokti lux and that's what we're talking about today good link wasn't it yeah