Home»All Photographs»ANALOG & DIGITAL»Gear: Voigtländer µFT 17.5mm Nokton (quick tests)

Three quick tests of the Voigtlander 17.5mm Nokton F0.95 lens, shot in an improvised manner, upon the lens' arrival in my office. Totally boring subjects. Excuse me... ;-)
All shots with Auto WB at ISO 200 on Olympus E-M5, with tripod, and with a progession through the nine full-stop aperture values (note the post-its in the images).
Some variation in ambient light is possible, because it is a day with light influenced by sun and clouds through the windows. Apertures of F8 and smaller seem to look cooler, but that may be a coincidence.
All frames shot in RAW, with standard (unsharpened) conversion to 3200x2400 JPGs in Faststone Viewer freeware. No PP or corrections whatsoever. Normally I would lift exposure probably half a stop.
The first test shows sharpness in the center and edges/corners in the focal plane (roughly at least). The books on the bottom shelf are slightly set towards the back.
Sharpness at F0,95 is acceptable or even good in the center, and much less in the corners. Vignetting is evident wide open. Frames are fully usable at F1.4, certainly at F2 and tack sharp edge-to-edge at F4.
The second test shows focus fall-of from center to front and back for the various apertures. Not much comment necessary.
The third test shows DOF and bokeh in a setting where the main subject (center) is at roughly 1 meter and the plant in the background another 1 to 1,5 meter further away.
The main feature of this fast lens (low light capability) is harder to illustrate: I make an effort to do that with the very last image. More info included in the caption to that image.