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

Nokton 50mm f/1 Aspherical

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2022

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1 Aspherical VM · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1 Aspherical VM · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.0 VM · NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical · Voigtlander 50mm f1 Nokton Leica M · Cosina Voigtlander Nokton 50/1 VM · CV Nokton 50mm 1.0 VM · Voigtlander 50/1.0 VM · フォクトレンダー ノクトン 50mm F1 · フォクトレンダー NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical VM · コシナ フォクトレンダー NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
VM (2022–) Leica M 2022 — —
  1. Every specification is from Cosina's Japanese and English product pages. Cosina describes one GA (ground aspherical) element at the first surface; phillipreeve.net counts three aspherical surfaces in the design, and Cosina's page does not give a total.
  2. The $1,799 US price appears in both the phillipreeve.net and Steve Huff reviews; the ¥225,000 yen price is Cosina's.
  3. Cosina's page lists 484g; phillipreeve.net weighed 482g.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Rangefinder-coupled from infinity to 0.9m, camera permitting — the f/1.1 stops at 1m, the f/1.2 reaches 0.7m
  • Twelve straight aperture blades, f/1 to f/16

VM (2022–):

  • Engraved NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical; the ground-aspherical first surface is the visible front element
  • 62mm filter thread on a 73.6mm barrel, 55.0mm long, 484g; reversible metal bayonet hood in the box

Specifications

Formula
9 elements in 7 groups, ground aspherical (GA) front element, floating mechanism
Construction
9 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/1–f/16
Diaphragm blades
12
Min. focus
0.9 m
Dimensions
73.6 × 55 mm
Weight
484 g
Filter
62 mm
Years manufactured
2022
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated
Original price
¥225,000 excluding tax (2022) (today ¥239,000); $1,799 in the United States

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Chromatic aberration
purple fringing open
Vignetting
heavy optical vignetting
Flare & ghosting
poor without hood
Coma
significant wide open
Distortion
low
Optical formula — 9 elements in 7 groups, ground aspherical (GA) front element, floating mechanism

History

Cosina announced the Nokton 50mm F1 Aspherical on 10 December 2021 and released it on 26 January 2022 at ¥225,000 excluding tax, or $1,799 in the United States — the fastest lens the company has made for full frame, and a direct challenge to the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/0.95 at a seventh of its price. It does not replace anything: the f/1.2 Aspherical of 2018 stayed in the catalogue beside it, and the two are meant as a pair, the f/1.2 the smaller all-rounder and the f/1 the specialist. Cosina’s page explains the design choice that makes the lens possible at 55.0mm long. The first element is a GA — ground aspherical — lens made in house, which is harder to control in manufacture than a moulded aspheric but can be made from high-melting-point, high-index glass that moulding cannot handle, and that in turn lets the formula stay simple: nine elements in seven groups, with a floating mechanism to hold the wide-open drawing at close range. Twelve blades keep highlights round, the aperture runs f/1 to f/16, the close focus is 0.9m with rangefinder coupling to that distance where the camera allows, the filter thread is 62mm on a 73.6mm barrel, and the weight is 484g. A metal bayonet hood that reverses for carrying is included. Cosina says the short barrel was chosen to limit finder blockage on a rangefinder and to balance on the body. There is one VM version, black, and it is current; the E-, Z- and RF-mount lenses of the same name are other products.

The reviews agree on what it does and split on whether it is the one to buy. Bastian Kratzke’s review on phillipreeve.net calls it the actually fastest M lens — it transmits more light than most f/0.95 M-mount lenses — and finds it out-resolving the Leica 50mm 0.95 Noctilux, with exceptional contrast at portrait distances even at f/1, low distortion and often pleasing bokeh; against it he lists optical vignetting worse than the Nokton 50/1.2’s, significant coma and colour fringing wide open, poor flare resistance without the hood, and field curvature that turns the bokeh unfavourable at longer distances, and concludes that the lighter 50/1.2 remains the better lens overall. Keith Wee, on a Leica M10-R, rates it one of the sharpest f/1 fifties ever made, credits the floating elements with holding contrast close up, and reports that it outperforms the Noctilux 0.95 at close distances at $1,799 against $12,995 — with purple fringing wide open and the warning that focusing an f/1 lens on a rangefinder takes patience and practice. Steve Huff, shooting it mostly on a Nikon Z8 and a Leica SL2-S, puts it among the great fifties, smaller than the Noctilux and $9,000 cheaper, with the glow he says the 2009 Nokton 50/1.1 never had. Fred Miranda’s review, widely quoted for finding it sharper than the Noctilux across the frame at close and long distance, could not be reached from here and is not cited.

Buying one means accepting the physics of f/1 on a rangefinder. The depth of field at 0.9m is a few millimetres and the 73.6mm barrel with its hood covers a corner of the 50mm frame on any M or Bessa; every reviewer who shot it on a rangefinder says the same. Check that the reversible hood is present, since it came in the box and is the difference between usable and poor flare behaviour on Kratzke’s testing, and confirm that the rangefinder agrees with the lens at f/1 at close range, which is where a misadjusted body or lens shows first. There is no earlier version and no II, so a listing describing either is describing the f/1.2.

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 50mm f/1 Aspherical? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,400 across 20 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $1,200–$1,500). First day tracked.

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

Show 13 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 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1.1 · Nokton 50mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical

Sources (7)

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.