Voigtlander 21mm f/1.4 ASPH Nokton Lens – VM Mount

The Voigtlander 21mm F1.4 Nokton Aspherical VM is a large  maximum aperture manual focus  lens  optimized for the  imaging sensors of VM-mount  digital  cameras. The  21mm focal length covers an angle of 90.3°to create a super dynamic perspective.

Generally the wider a lens gets, the deeper the depth of focus of the lens; however, with the NOKTON 21mm F1.4 Aspherical VM-mount lens, the extremely large maximum aperture for a super wide-angle lens enables imaging that utilizes “bokeh”(out-of-focus blur). The lens utilizes a floating mechanism to maintain excellent imaging quality throughout the focusing range from close distance to infinity.

Furthermore, the lens features aspherical optics to eliminate distortion and chromatic aberrations in addition to enabling a compact optical design despite the large maximum aperture.

This lens is specially designed for manual focusing coupled precisely with the camera’s optical rangefinder system. Compared with a single lens reflex camera finder, the rangefinder focusing system focuses wide angle lenses with much more precision, enabling the photographer to use the shallow depth of focus offered by the large maximum aperture with peace of mind. The lens couples with the camera’s rangefinder from infinity down to 0.70m (differs depending on the camera) and features a helicoid that enable the lens to focus down to a minimum focus distance of 0.50m. The feature really shows its strengths when shooting using a camera with live view functionality. The included bayonet type rectangular hood is stylish, effective at shielding stray light and can be easily attached to and removed from the lens.

The NOKTON designation is only given to high-speed lenses in the Voigtländer lineup with a maximum aperture of F1.5 or faster. When the first NOKTON was released in the 1950s, it was positioned as a lens that enabled images to be captured even in low light. However, with constantly improving imaging sensor sensitivity, the advantage of a high-speed lens nowadays is the ability to use as a means of photographic expression the out-of-focus bokeh created by opening the aperture.