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

Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2004 · 7 elements in 6 groups, all-spherical

Also known as: Voigtländer Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 · Voigtlander Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 VM · Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4 Nokton · Cosina Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.4 · CV 40/1.4 Nokton · NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 · NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 MC · NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 SC · NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 S.C. · Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 SC single coated · Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 MC multi coated · Voigtlander Nokton 40mm F1.4 Leica M · フォクトレンダー ノクトン クラシック 40mm F1.4 · ノクトン クラシック 40mm F1.4 SC · ノクトン クラシック 40mm F1.4 MC · フォクトレンダー NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 VM

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4 MC (multi-coated), VM Leica M 2004 — —
Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4 S.C. (single-coated), VM Leica M 2004 — First run limited to 500 (Cosina, 2004); a second run arrived 31 March 2005 (CameraQuest), and it has stayed on Cosina's price list since
  1. Launch date: Cosina's current product page gives 10 April 2004; Cosina's own 2004 product page was first archived on 23 September 2004, and CameraQuest, the US importer, dated the announcement to Photokina on 20 September 2004. Both are Cosina-derived; the April date is Cosina's and stands in the frontmatter, the September date is what the contemporary record shows.
  2. The S.C. run: Cosina's 2004 page says 初回限定500本 (first run limited to 500). CameraQuest's 2005 price list calls it a 1,000-piece limited production, which reads as the 500 plus the second run he reported arriving on 31 March 2005. Both are retailer or maker statements; no serial evidence.
  3. All optical and physical figures (7 elements in 6 groups, f/16, 10 blades, 0.7 m, ø55 × 29.7 mm, 43 mm filter, 175 g, 56°) are Cosina's, identical on the 2004 and current pages and repeated by CameraQuest.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 in the lowercase-classic house style, with VOIGTLÄNDER on the front ring; the only Cosina Voigtländer 40 mm f/1.4 ever made, and never sold in screw mount
  • VM bayonet (Leica M compatible), rangefinder-coupled to 0.7 m; brings up the 50/75 frame on a Leica M, the 40 mm frame on a Bessa R3A/R3M, Leica CL or Minolta CLE
  • ø55 × 29.7 mm and 175 g — a lens shorter than it is wide, with a focusing tab, half-stop aperture clicks and a 43 mm filter thread
  • MC or SC only by the name plate: the barrel, glass, weight and price are the same
  • Bayonet hood LH-5 (2004–05) or LH-6 (later), sold separately; Cosina's 2004 page describes the slots cut to reduce finder blockage

Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4 MC (multi-coated), VM:

  • Multi-coated: the standard version, black only at launch — Cosina's 2004 page priced ブラックのみ (black only) at ¥50,000
  • Product name NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 with no S.C. suffix; Cosina's current page lists it as the MC (マルチコート) version, JAN 4530076 131507

Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4 S.C. (single-coated), VM:

  • Single-coated: product name NOKTON classic 40mm F1.4 S.C. on Cosina's 2004 page, SC (シングルコート) on the current one, JAN 4530076 131521
  • Same barrel, glass and price as the MC; only the coating differs, so the name plate is the identification

Specifications

Formula
7 elements in 6 groups, all-spherical
Construction
7 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
55 × 29.7 mm
Weight
175 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
2004
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated (MC) or single-coated (S.C.), sold side by side
Original price
¥50,000 (2004, tax excluded, MC or S.C.); $349 MC / $399 S.C. in the United States (2005) (today ¥57,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Vignetting
heavy wide open
Flare & ghosting
very resistant (MC)
Coma
weak wide open
Distortion
mild
Optical formula — 7 elements in 6 groups, all-spherical

History

Cosina built the Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 for one camera: the Bessa R3A of 2004, whose 1:1 finder carries a 40 mm frame line that no Leica has. Stephen Gandy, who imported it, said plainly that Cosina’s Mr K intended the lens for his own R3A and R3M. It was among the first lenses Cosina designed for the VM bayonet rather than the Leica thread — Gandy’s 2005 list names only the 35mm f/1.2, the 35mm f/2.5 P II and this 40 as M-bayonet lenses, everything else still being screw mount — and it has never been made in any other mount. Twenty years on it is still on Cosina’s price list at the ¥50,000 it launched at, which makes it one of the longest-lived lenses the revived Voigtländer name has produced.

The design is deliberately old. Seven elements in six groups, no aspherical surfaces at all: Cosina’s 2004 page says the point was to analyse the prized lenses of the twentieth century and keep their flavour on purpose — soft and glowing wide open, sharp once stopped down, the two personalities chosen with the aperture ring. Bastian Kratzke, who measured it, found the optical layout very close to Leitz’s 35mm f/1.4 Summilux of 1960–95, and the behaviour to match: 3.6 EV of vignetting at f/1.4, weak coma, corners that need f/11 to come good for landscapes, and a focus shift that is small at f/2 but real at f/2.8 and f/4, at every distance. What it gets right is the centre from f/2 on, a flare resistance he found almost impossible to break, ten straight blades for sunstars, and a barrel 29.7 mm long and 175 g that disappears on a camera. Gandy called it the most popular Voigtländer fast lens, and for thirteen years the fastest 40 mm ever made for full-frame 35 mm, until Cosina’s own 40mm f/1.2 took that title in late 2017.

Two versions, one barrel. The standard lens is multi-coated. At the same Photokina Cosina announced a single-coated version, engraved S.C., in a first run of 500 for the Japanese market — for the users, its page said, who preferred the colour rendering of a single coating. It sold out; a second run arrived at the end of March 2005, and both coatings have been listed at the same price ever since. The S.C. is the one to check on a listing, because nothing but the name plate distinguishes it, and because the letters mean the opposite of what they mean on Cosina’s Nikon-rangefinder lenses, where SC without the stops is a mount code and the glass is multi-coated. Kratzke tested the MC and expected the single-coated lens to perform “vastly different” into the light; Gandy sold the S.C. at fifty dollars more, as the lens for black and white.

Buying: it is VM only, so it goes straight onto any M body, a Bessa R2/R3/R4 or a Zeiss Ikon with no adapter. On a Leica M it brings up the 50/75 frame, and the field of view is roughly 20 per cent beyond the 50 lines; some owners on bodies without a 40 frame select the 35 lines instead and shoot inside them. On the R3A/R3M, the Leica CL and the Minolta CLE the 40 frame comes up by itself — though Dmitry Goloub, shooting one on an R3M, found those lines so close to the edge of the 1:1 finder that composing with both eyes open stopped working. No hood is included; the LH-5 of 2004 was replaced by the slotted LH-6, and the 43 mm thread takes the same filters as the 35mm f/2.5 and 75mm f/2.5. Check that the aperture ring clicks in half stops and that the focus tab is present; expect the focus shift, and on a rangefinder either shoot at f/1.4–f/2 or learn to focus a little closer than the patch says at f/2.8–f/4.

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 40mm f/1.4
Nokton Classic 40mm F1.4 on a black Bessa R3M — the body Cosina built the 40 mm frame line into for this lens (Ryo Fukasawa, 2009) — Ryo FUKAsawa, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4
Sample frame from the single-coated S.C. version, shot by available light (uploaded 2007) — Lucertola (uploader, author assumed), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $330 across 46 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $310–$380). First day tracked.

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

Show 131 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: Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 · Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 · Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1.1 · Ultron 35mm f/1.7 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.