Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2010

Introduction

The Voigtlander Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SL II is a classic standard lens made by Cosina. It is not a brand new design but based on the Voigtlander Topcor 58mm f/1.4 SL which was released in very limited quantities (1600 units) back in 2003. There were probably only a handful Topcors that ever left the home market (Japan) whereas the Nokton is now distributed around the globe. The Nokton has only been revised a little over its predecessor. The most obvious difference is the new finish - it's all black now. It seems as if Cosina will release the lens in EOS mount soon but as of the time of this review it's only available for Nikon and Pentax. For this report we've simply used the Nikon version via adapter.

The build quality of the lens is superb - the outer barrel is made of metal and it's a pure joy to use the well-damped rubberized focus ring. The lens extends a bit when focusing towards closer distances. The front element does not rotate so using a polarizer remains easily possible. Typical for all Voigtlander SL lenses it offers manual focusing only.

If you like to use the Nikon version via adapter as we did you'll have to select the working aperture directly on the lens - this limitation will not apply to the EOS version (once it's released).