Cosina launches Nokton 50mm f/1.2 for Fujifilm X-mount cameras

Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.2
(Image credit: Cosina)

Fujifilm makes its own ultra-fast 50mm lens, the XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR, but this is a pretty big lens and has a price tag to match. If you only want an ultra-fast 75mm equivalent lens occasionally, the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1.2 could be a more appealing buy.

It doesn't have the autofocus of the Fujifilm lens, but it is considerably smaller and lighter, with a length of just 49mm and a weight of 290g. Made by Cosina, the Nokton 50mm F1.2 has the construction of a classic mechanical lens, including metal helicoid focus and a direct mechanical aperture ring, but it also incorporates modern electronics for data communication between the lens and the camera body.

Many of the best Fujifilm lenses are primes, but while these often mirror the retro styling and operation of classic lenses, they are modern digital optics. The Nokton 50mm F1.2 approaches this from the opposite direction, offering classic mechanical construction wth the advantages of digital lens-body communication.

This means the lens can transmit EXIF data, offers focus check and distance display and provides information for the camera's in-body stabilization and parallax info (for X-Pro models). Some older X-mount cameras won't support this data transfer but all current models do with the latest firmware updates, and you can check a full compatibility list on the Cosina Nokton 50mm F1.2 web page (use your browser's translation feature).

The Nokton 50mm F1.2 uses a sophisticated optical construction consisting of 9 elements in 8 groups and does not rely on any in-camera corrections. It has a 12-bladed aperture ring for circular bokeh, and a minimum focus distance of 0.39m. The filter size is a modest 58mm, despite the wide maximum aperture.

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Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com