Real Life Review: Voigtländer 40 mm/1:1.2 Nokton E-Mount

This is a Real Life Review of the Voigtländer 40mm f1.2 E-mount lens with the Sony A7r body. This is a really versatile lens capable of shooting a range of subjects and compositions ranging from close ups of flowers, art/sculpture, portraits/street shooting, to landscapes and architecture.

Usage Impressions

The lens is well built with a metal barrel surrounding the glass elements. It’s a bit on the large side and heavier than Sony FE primes, but feels reasonably well balanced on Sony full frame bodies. The lens also comes with a metal lens hood that is fairly unobtrusive and can be left attached for daily use. I do wonder how effective it is though since it doesn’t really provide a lot of shielding to the glass surface, but it’s probably effective as a barrier preventing the lens glass surface from being accidentally scratched.

I found it quite easy to focus, and the focusing ring is easy to turn but at the same time is not prone to accidental drift.

For the review, I used the Sony α7R as a body as I find it is a good combination between resolution and size and it works very well with manual focusing lenses such as the Nokton 40mm. However, it will also work well with any other Sony full frame body.

The camera and lens combo package is light enough to take on a walk, or a day out, or visiting a location.

Conclusion

I really like this lens a lot and feel it is a versatile lens that delivers high quality images, a pleasing bokeh, is relatively easy to use, and not too big or heavy. It is useful for a variety of situations and can work as an everyday lens to suit rangefinder style photography.

Review Situations

In this review, I tested the lens in a variety of situations, ranging from walks to shooting art or sculpture, attending events and exhibitions and general nature, landscape, street and architecture photography. Each situation is a separate article that can be clicked below.