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

Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2017

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Voigtländer Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical VM · Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.2 Aspherical Leica M · Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 Nokton · Cosina Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2 · CV 40/1.2 Nokton · NOKTON 40mm F1.2 Aspherical · NOKTON 40mm F1.2 Aspherical VM · NOKTON 40mm F1.2 Aspherical II · Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical II VM · Nokton 40mm F1.2 40 Jahre · フォクトレンダー ノクトン 40mm F1.2 Aspherical VM · ノクトン 40mm F1.2 アスフェリカル · フォクトレンダー NOKTON 40mm F1.2 Aspherical II

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical VM (2017) Leica M 2017–2024 — —
Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical 40 Jahre (2018, 50 pieces) Leica M 2018–2018 — 50 (Japan Camera Hunter — single source)¹
Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical II VM (2025) Leica M 2025 — —
  1. The 40 Jahre edition rests on Japan Camera Hunter's 2021 article alone: the 50-piece figure, the black paint and nickel ring, and the sale at the 2018 ICS fair at Matsuya Ginza. Cosina's own pages do not list it. Single source, unconfirmed.
  2. Specifications for the 2017 lens are from Cosina's discontinued-products page, for the II from Cosina's current Japanese and English pages. The family-level spec row carries the 2017 figures; the II differs only in size (ø61.8 × 44.7 mm), weight (267 g), angle (54.7°) and hoods.
  3. Not the same lens as the E-mount Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical (2017) and its SE version (June 2020 – January 2023), which are re-optimised for Sony's sensor stack, weigh 340 g, focus to 0.35 m and take 58 mm filters; nor as the later RF, Z and X-mount versions. Listings for those are excluded from this family.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • VM bayonet, rangefinder-coupled from infinity to 0.7 m; a separate focusing range down to 0.5 m for live view. Brings up the 50 mm frame on every Leica M and the 40 frame on a Leica CL, a Bessa R3A/R3M or a Minolta CLE
  • 52 mm filter thread, ten straight blades giving decagonal highlights from f/2 and sunstars stopped down
  • No focusing tab — a knurled ring only, which Bellamy Hunt missed and compared to the Dual Range Summicron's feel
  • Cosina introduced a metal 40 mm brightline finder with the 2017 lens for bodies without a 40 frame

Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical VM (2017):

  • Engraved NOKTON 40mm F1.2 Aspherical with no II; ø60.8 × 43.3 mm, 315 g — the heaviest of the three
  • Bayonet hoods LH-8 (shared with the 35mm f/1.2, per CameraQuest) or the later LH-10, both sold separately
  • Angle of view 55° on Cosina's sheet, against 54.7° for the II

Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical 40 Jahre (2018, 50 pieces):

  • Black-paint barrel, nickel filter ring and a 40 Jahre engraving — the ICS × MG 40th-anniversary edition¹

Nokton 40mm F1.2 Aspherical II VM (2025):

  • Engraved II; ø61.8 × 44.7 mm and 267 g, 48 g lighter than the first version despite being fractionally larger
  • Takes the new slotted bayonet hoods LH-14 (compact) or LH-15 (long, vintage style), both reversible for carrying, both sold separately

Specifications

Formula
8 elements in 6 groups, two double-sided aspherical elements (four aspherical surfaces)
Construction
8 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/1.2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
60.8 × 43.3 mm
Weight
315 g
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
2017
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated
Original price
¥120,000 (2017, tax excluded); the II ¥125,000 (2025) (today ¥132,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
fringing at f/1.2
Vignetting
moderate wide open
Flare & ghosting
well controlled
Optical formula — 8 elements in 6 groups, two double-sided aspherical elements (four aspherical surfaces)

History

Thirteen years after the all-spherical Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4, Cosina answered it with the opposite kind of lens. The Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical of November 2017 has eight elements in six groups, two of them aspherical on both faces, and it was built to be used wide open rather than to glow there. Cosina’s own line, printed on the 2017 page and again on the 2025 one, is that it is the brightest rangefinder-coupled 40 mm lens ever made; the US importer, who had been calling the f/1.4 the fastest 40 for full-frame 35 mm since 2004, handed the title over that winter. At ¥120,000 it cost more than twice the f/1.4, and it weighed 315 g to the older lens’s 175.

It arrived in the middle of Cosina’s f/1.2 wave — the 35mm f/1.2 was already in its second version, and a 50mm f/1.2 followed — and it is the one that made the wider audience take Voigtländer seriously again. Steve Huff, reviewing the E-mount version first, admitted he had expected soft, muted, wonky-bokeh old-school Voigtländer and got modern colour and sharpness instead; when he then put the VM lens on a Leica M10 he found it quite a bit smaller than the Sony version and thought it drew shallower. David Braddon-Mitchell’s long review on phillipreeve.net is the measured one: sharp centrally from f/1.2 with violet axial fringing that clears by f/2, soft corners until f/5.6, field curvature worth focusing around at the outer midfield, and a focus shift large enough that he advises focusing at the taking aperture or at least at f/2.8. He calls the result a delicious balancing act, not an APO-Lanthar but faster and smaller than any lens that beats it, and pretty much the only game in town for a fast 40. Bellamy Hunt, shooting the 50-piece 40 Jahre edition, would have believed the bokeh was Zeiss.

Three variants, one optical design. The 2017 lens ran until July 2024 and took the LH-8 hood shared with the 35mm f/1.2, or the later LH-10. In 2018 a black-paint, nickel-ringed 40 Jahre edition of fifty was sold at the International Camera Fair at Matsuya Ginza in Tokyo, a collaboration with the International Camera Society; that rests on Japan Camera Hunter’s report alone. The II of June 2025 keeps the formula, the f/22 minimum, the ten blades, the 0.5 m close focus and the 52 mm thread, but drops the weight to 267 g in a barrel a millimetre larger each way, and takes new reversible hoods, the compact LH-14 or the long vintage-style LH-15. Cosina’s 2020–23 SE version in E-mount, and the RF, Z and X-mount lenses that share the name, are different lenses with different specifications and stay off this page.

Buying: it is VM only, so no adapter, but the frame lines are the recurring complaint. On any Leica M it brings up the 50 mm frame, and the 40 mm field runs some way outside it; both Hunt and John Scott would rather have the 35 lines, and both point to the filed-tab hack that gets them. On a Bessa R3A/R3M, a Leica CL or a Minolta CLE the 40 frame comes up on its own, and Cosina sold a metal 40 mm brightline finder for everything else. The rangefinder couples only to 0.7 m; the ring keeps turning to 0.5 m, which is for live view or a mirrorless body and will simply be out of focus through the patch. Expect the focus shift, check for the missing focus tab if that matters to you, and note the II’s lighter weight and different hoods when a listing does not say which version it is — the engraved II and the LH-14/LH-15 hoods are the tell.

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 Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $700 across 20 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $600–$880). First day tracked.

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

Show 29 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: Nokton 21mm f/1.4 Aspherical · Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 · Nokton 50mm f/1.1 · Nokton 50mm f/1.2 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.