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

Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2008

single source, unconfirmed via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 · Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 VM · NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 · NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 II · NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 SC · NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 MC · Nokton 35mm f/1.4 SC · Nokton 35mm f/1.4 MC · Voigtlander 35/1.4 Nokton · CV 35/1.4 · フォクトレンダー ノクトン クラシック 35mm F1.4 · フォクトレンダー NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 VM · ノクトン クラシック 35mm F1.4 II

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
VM Classic SC (2008–2019) Leica M 2008–2019 — —
VM Classic MC (2008–2019) Leica M 2008–2019 — —
VM Classic II, SC and MC (2019–) Leica M 2019 — —
  1. Family-level weight is the current II (189g); the 2008 lenses weigh 200g. Every other figure — eight elements in six groups, ten blades, f/16, 0.7m, 43mm filter, 55mm by 28.5mm — is shared by all three rows.
  2. Dates, prices and the March 2019 production end come from Cosina's Japanese product pages, read through machine translation; the 2008 date and the specification are confirmed by CameraQuest's archived page, the 2019 changes by DC Watch. The March 2019 end month rests on Cosina alone.
  3. Cosina states no production figures.
  4. The Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 sold for Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon RF is a different lens family with the same name and is not part of this entry.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Leica M bayonet only; the mount brings up the 35mm frame on the M6 and later bodies, and the lens is small enough to leave the finder almost clear
  • Aperture ring with two protruding ears, a focusing tab, and a bayonet for the LH-6 vented hood sold separately
  • SC versions are marked S·C in blue; MC versions carry no coating mark
  • The II carries the numeral on the front ring; the first version has none

VM Classic SC (2008–2019):

  • Single-coated: a blue S·C on the barrel, and a distinctly lower-contrast, warmer look into the light
  • 200g; engraved NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 with no numeral

VM Classic MC (2008–2019):

  • Multi-coated, no S·C mark; the higher-contrast, more flare-resistant of the pair
  • 200g; same barrel and optics as the SC

VM Classic II, SC and MC (2019–):

  • Engraved NOKTON classic 35mm F1.4 II; still offered in SC and MC
  • 189g against 200g, in the same 55mm by 28.5mm barrel
  • A recomputed eight-element design that cuts the focus shift with aperture and the waviness of the field between centre and edge

Specifications

Formula
Eight elements in six groups, symmetrical, no aspherical surfaces
Construction
8 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
55 × 28.5 mm
Weight
189 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
2008
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-coated (SC) or multi-coated (MC), buyer's choice, on both generations
Original price
¥75,000 before tax (2008), the same for SC and MC and unchanged for the II of 2019 (today ¥84,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
purple fringing
Spherical aberration
glow wide open
Vignetting
strong at f/1.4
Coma
pronounced in corners
Optical formula — Eight elements in six groups, symmetrical, no aspherical surfaces

History

The Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 is the small one. Five years after Cosina had made the fastest 35 in the world, it went the other way: an eight-element, six-group symmetrical design with no aspherical surface, built to be a modern lens that draws like the fast 35s of the 1960s, in a barrel 55mm across and 28.5mm long that weighs 200g and takes 43mm filters. Cosina put it on sale in February 2008 at ¥75,000 before tax, in Leica M bayonet only, and CameraQuest listed it at $579 in the United States after announcing it that January — a millimetre shorter than the 40mm f/1.4 Nokton Classic and 25g heavier, with the same ears on the aperture ring, the same focusing tab and its own bayonet for the vented LH-6 hood. Camera-wiki dates it to 2008 as well.

What was new was the choice of coating. Every lens came either single-coated, marked S·C in blue on the barrel, or multi-coated, at the same price. Gandy’s page put it plainly: the SC for colour and a little more shadow detail in black and white, the MC for the most flare prevention and slightly higher contrast. Cosina’s own words are that the MC gives neutral colour and the SC a classical tone. In practice the MC is what most English-language reviewers bought — Matt Osborne chose it for colour work on a Leica M2 and called the lens a mini Noctilux, harsh bright-edged bokeh and all, at half the price of anything comparable from Leica. The other thing every review of the first version mentions is focus shift. The spherical aberration that gives the glow at f/1.4 moves the plane of focus backward as the lens stops down, so a rangefinder-focused frame at f/2 to f/4 lands behind the subject; Osborne noted the shift and ignored it because he shoots at f/1.4, and Luke Taylor’s verdict on version 1 was a solid, well-rounded choice that is not the sharpest lens wide open, dreamy at f/1.4 and much better by f/4, at $325–425 used.

Cosina answered the shift in the II, announced on 7 May 2019 and released on 12 June at the same ¥75,000. The product page describes the change as a redesign to reduce the movement of the image plane with aperture and the waviness of the field between centre and edge, in the same eight-element, six-group layout and the same barrel, 11g lighter at 189g; the first version had ended in March 2019. Flavio Bosi, who named his blog after the fault, found the II MC spot on wide open and only very slightly shifted at f/2 — a non-issue where the first version had been a real-world problem — tack sharp by f/2, with purple fringing gone by f/4 and coma still pronounced in the corners at f/1.4. Finding Range saw the field curvature and astigmatism much reduced and the character intact, $649 and imperfect in the way that makes it perfect. What no reviewer claims for either generation is clinical performance wide open: the centre is good at f/1.4 and the edges are soft, the highlight discs carry a bright ring, and the vignetting is strong. That is what Classic means on the barrel.

Buying one means reading two engravings. The front ring says II or it does not, and the barrel says S·C in blue or nothing. A first-version lens is the one with the focus shift, and a rangefinder shooter who works at f/2.8 should either want the II or test a version-1 copy at that aperture; a shooter who lives at f/1.4 will not see the difference, which is why the first version holds its used price. The SC is worth seeking out for black and white and for a warmer, lower-contrast look into the light; the MC is the safer choice for colour and backlight. The LH-6 hood was always extra. The lens sold in Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon RF mounts under the same name is a separate, larger design and is not what a VM listing means. Cosina has published no production figures for any version.

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 taken with the Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4
A first-version Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 adapted to a Sony NEX-5N in 2012 — the aperture ears and focusing tab show clearly — Eduardo Merille, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $470 across 38 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $440–$500). First day tracked.

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

Show 120 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical · Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 · Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton Vintage Line 35mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 · Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical · Ultron Vintage Line 35mm f/2 Aspherical

Sources (10)

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.