Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Noctilux 50mm f/1.2

Ernst Leitz · Leica M · 1966 · Aspherical double Gauss

Also known as: Leitz Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 · Noctilux 1.2/50 · Noctilux f1.2 aspherical · ノクチルックス 50mm F1.2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 Leica M 1966–1975 — 2,450 lenses (Leica Wiki), in four blocks
  1. Leitz Photographica Auction 41 sold a chrome prototype, serial 663 and dated 1964, for €360,000 including buyer's premium, under an estimate of €400,000–500,000. Production examples in auctions 41 to 48 made between €15,600 and €36,000, and a 'Photokina' example reached €40,800.
  2. Thorsten Overgaard's Noctilux history gives production as 1,700 lenses, against the 2,450 the Leica Wiki serial blocks total.
  3. Overgaard names Gerd Bergmann as the one man at Leitz able to figure the two aspherical surfaces, on a single manually operated grinding machine with the final polish done by hand.
  4. The Leitz catalogue number is 11 820. The auction catalogue for the 1964 prototype records that Helmut Marx used an Elliott 402F computer for the ray tracing.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Two aspherical surfaces, ground and polished individually rather than moulded
  • Series 8 drop-in filters, which need the dedicated hood to hold them

Noctilux 50mm f/1.2:

  • Engraved LEITZ WETZLAR NOCTILUX 1:1.2/50
  • Series 8 filters — not a threaded fitting
  • 16-blade aperture with half and full stops

Serial-range notes

2176701–2176900
200 lenses in 1966, the first block.
2254401–2255400
1,000 lenses in 1968 — the largest single run, and 41% of the model.
2556551–2557550
1,000 lenses in 1973, five years after the previous block. Nothing was numbered for this lens between 1968 and 1973.

Specifications

Formula
Aspherical double Gauss
Designed by
Helmut Marx — optical design — filed 25 April 1964 · Paul Sindel — optical design
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/1.2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
16
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
61 × 60 mm
Weight
470 g
Years manufactured
1966–1975
Country
Germany
Material
Black anodised aluminium outside, bronze and stainless steel inside

What reviewers say

History

The first Noctilux is the first production camera lens with aspherical surfaces, and the reason there are only 2,450 of them is that in 1966 an aspherical surface had to be ground and figured by hand, one at a time, by someone who could tell by measurement when it was right. Helmut Marx and Paul Sindel filed the design in April 1964; Leitz put it on sale in 1966 at a price that reflected the labour.

What the aspherics buy is control of spherical aberration at f/1.2, which is where a conventional fast fifty of that era smears highlights into soft discs. The Noctilux is not clinically sharp wide open by later standards, but it is orderly in a way its contemporaries are not, and it holds its correction across the frame rather than only in the middle.

Leitz gave up on the method rather than the lens. The f/1 Noctilux that replaced it in 1975 is entirely spherical, using high-refractive-index glass instead of hand-ground surfaces to get a stop more light — a decision about manufacturability, not optics. Aspherical surfaces only returned to Leica’s catalogue once they could be moulded, twenty-five years later, by which time the letters ASPH had become a selling point rather than an admission of how much work was involved.

The production record is four blocks and a long silence. Two hundred lenses in 1966, 250 in 1967, a thousand in 1968 — and then nothing until another thousand in 1973. Five years in which Leitz numbered no Noctilux at all, on a lens that stayed in the catalogue throughout.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Noctilux 50mm f/1.2? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $8,200 across 44 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $5,600–$9,900). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $8,200.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$8,200$5,600–$9,90044
2026-09-06$8,200$5,600–$9,90044

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 94 more listings

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH · Noctilux-M 50mm f/1 · Light Lens Lab 50mm f/1.2 ASPH "1966"

Sources (4)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.