One of the joys of modern mirrorless cameras is they can be adapted to use the millions of old 35mm film lenses out in the world. Some of these old lenses have can produce amazing portraits with a depth and character that most new designs lack. The Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.2 lens is a hybrid of vintage design and modern touches. It is being manufactured today and has a Canon RF mount and electronics that communicate with the camera. It is a manual focus and manual aperture control lens and fits directly on my Canon R5 camera.
But is the Nokton 40mm f/1.2 good for portraits? Many photographers will say 40mm is too wide and prefer 85mm of higher focal length lenses. But we’ve never been traditional so why not 40mm for portraits?
To find out, we met Nataly on the shores of the Fox River for some sunset portraits. Our first set was taken on a boardwalk – with a little deer in the background. This set was all taken at f/1.2 which is the widest aperture for this lens (and any 40mm lens that we know of).
At f/1.2 the Nokton has beautiful rendering, her face nicely focused with a fall off to a creamy background. Nataly “pops” in these photos. We also love the colors of the Nokton lens – the sunlight really captures the gold, yellow and blues in her outfit.
In our next set we explored different apertures. We must comment that the main point of buying an f/1.2 lens is to take photographs at f/1.2… What does that aperture do for us? Large apertures (small “f” numbers) give us more light and less depth in the focus. The extra light makes better photographs in low light – less noise and less shutter blur. The reduced depth of focus blurs the background (more bokeh) and gives us attention on our portrait subject. You can see these impact clearly in the series below. Nataly really pops in the f/1.2 photo and the background is creamy and almost swirls. You can also see the light drop off in the corners from the open aperture. At f/2.8 she is more in focus and so is the background. By f/5.6 almost everything is in focus.
What have we learned?
The Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.2 lens is a beautiful portrait lens!
You can do beautiful portraits with a 40mm lens.
The f/1.2 aperture is perfect for portraits; the rendering is beautiful and the background so very dreamy
You can see more of our work with Nataly on Nataly’s Page You can also see our other modeling work on the Main Modeling Page. We’ve also done Victorian style photography with Nataly on our companion site Sun and Silver.photo
