The once-famous Voigtländer brand has enjoyed a real resurgence under its Japanese parent company Cosina, and now sports a large line-up of premium quality manual focus lenses. The Nokton 75mm F1.5 is the latest addition, offering a fast maximum aperture and a short telephoto focal length in a compact design.
Canon has proved rather prickly about third party lenses for its RF mount mirrorless cameras but seems prepared to license lens designs that don’t conflict with its own lens range, and there’s certainly not much like the Nokton in the Canon line-up. While the best Canon RF lenses are very good indeed, they are also expensive.
You can’t always assume that older lens designs will work well on modern sensors, as we found when we tried the Voigtländer Color Skopar 35mm F2.5 on an EOS R8 body. However, the Nokton 75mm F1.5 has been designed specifically for full frame Canon RF cameras, so it’s not a generic optic that attaches via an adapter. Indeed, it boasts electronic contacts with the camera body to transmit EXIF and IBIS information (for RF bodies that have IBIS) and supports focus magnification, peaking and focus guide functions.
The Nokton uses a classic mechanical helicoid focus mechanism, and has an impressive 12-bladed diaphragm for smooth bokeh rendering. It has a manual aperture ring, but this can be de-clicked for filming, making this an old-school manual focus lens with some very modern touches.
Other specifications include a minimum focus distance of 0.5m, a minimum aperture of f/32 and a filter size of 62mm. The lens construction is 7 elements in 6 groups, including an aspheric element, and a dedicated lens hood is included.
Cosina says the Voigtländer Nokton 75mm F1.5 Aspherical RF should go on sale in April 2024 at a price of ¥135,000, which is about $906 / £711 / AU$1380.
