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

Nokton 50mm f/1.2 Aspherical

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2018

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.2 Aspherical VM · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm F1.2 Aspherical VM · NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical · NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical II · Voigtlander 50mm f1.2 Nokton Leica M · Cosina Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.2 VM · CV Nokton 50mm 1.2 VM · Voigtlander 50/1.2 VM · Voigtlander 50/1.2 VM II · フォクトレンダー ノクトン 50mm F1.2 · フォクトレンダー NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical VM · コシナ フォクトレンダー NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical II

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
VM (2018–2024) Leica M 2018–2024 — —
VM II (2025–) Leica M 2025 — —
  1. Every specification in the table is Cosina's own, from the discontinued-products page for the first version and the current page for the II. The $1,059 US price is Steve Huff's figure from September 2018 and rests on that one source.
  2. The lens exists in Sony E (2019), Nikon Z, Canon RF and Fujifilm X mounts as separate products with different barrels, sizes and prices — the E-mount version is 434g with a 58mm filter — and those are not variants of this family.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Rangefinder-coupled to 0.7m, where the f/1.1 stops at 1m and the f/1 at 0.9m
  • 52mm filter thread on a 63.3mm barrel, against 58mm on the f/1.1 and 62mm on the f/1
  • Twelve straight aperture blades; the f/1.1 has ten

VM (2018–2024):

  • Engraved NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical with no II
  • 49.0mm long, 347g; hoods LH-8 (compact) and LH-10 (deeper) sold separately

VM II (2025–):

  • Engraved NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical II
  • 50.4mm long, 322g — 25g lighter and 1.4mm longer than the first version; hoods LH-14 (compact) and LH-15 (long, vintage-style) sold separately

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss derivative — 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
12
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
63.3 × 49 mm
Weight
347 g
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
2018
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated
Original price
¥135,000 excluding tax (2018) (today ¥147,000); $1,059 in the United States at launch

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Spherical aberration
moderate focus shift
Vignetting
strong wide open
Flare & ghosting
well controlled
Coma
average
Optical formula — Double Gauss derivative — 8 elements in 6 groups, two double-sided aspherical elements (four aspherical surfaces)

History

Cosina announced the Nokton 50mm F1.2 Aspherical at CP+ in February 2018 and shipped it on 13 September that year at ¥135,000 excluding tax — the same price as the all-spherical f/1.1 it would replace, which Cosina kept in the catalogue for another fourteen months before ending it in November 2019. The brief, in Cosina’s own words, was to design the traditional professional fast standard — the 50mm f/1.2 — with current technology: eight elements in six groups, two of them double-sided aspherics for four aspherical surfaces in all, twelve blades in the interest of round highlights, f/22 at the small end, 0.7m close focus with rangefinder coupling all the way, a 52mm filter thread on a 63.3mm barrel, 49.0mm long and 347g. Every one of those figures is a step down in bulk from the f/1.1 — 58mm filter, 69.6mm across, 428g, 1m close focus — and Cosina made a point of it, stating that the short barrel was there to keep the rangefinder’s view clear. The metal bayonet hoods LH-8 and LH-10 were extras. It came in black only; the Sony E version of 2019 and the later Nikon Z, Canon RF and Fujifilm X lenses that share the name are different products with different barrels and are not covered here.

The first version ended in July 2024, and on 23 May 2025 the Nokton 50mm F1.2 Aspherical II took its place at the same ¥135,000. Cosina’s page for the II repeats the optical specification of the first lens line for line — 8 elements in 6 groups, four aspherical surfaces, 12 blades, 0.7m, 52mm, 63.3mm across — and does not say what was recomputed, if anything; what the page does record is a lighter barrel at 322g, 1.4mm more length at 50.4mm, and a new pair of hoods, the compact LH-14 and the long vintage-style LH-15. The engraving is the reliable marker: the II says II.

Reviewers have been unusually united. Bastian Kratzke on phillipreeve.net calls it the best all-rounder among M-mount fifties, better than the Nokton 50/1.5 and, in practice and in value, better than a Noctilux 0.95, with smooth bokeh, good sharpness at portrait distances and at infinity, and excellent flare resistance; what he holds against it is focus shift on stopping down, ordinary coma and colour correction, 3.3 stops of falloff wide open and the 0.7m limit, and he notes that its optical vignetting is better controlled than the faster f/1 Nokton’s. Flavio Bosi put a number on the focus shift on a Leica M240 — no more than 2cm at f/2.8, very good for a fast lens with no floating element — and found the wide-open image detailed with little spherical aberration, the bokeh smooth with few onion rings, and green fringing that clears by f/4. Steve Huff’s first look, on a Sony A7R III at $1,059, said the rendering was a spitting image of the 40mm f/1.2 Nokton’s and that the lens blew away the old 50/1.1 in colour, contrast, micro-contrast and size. The dissent is Hamish Gill’s, and it is about taste rather than quality: after nearly a year on an M240 and a Hexar RF he found it small for an f/1.2, well made, creamy wide open and noticeably sharper than his Zeiss ZM Sonnar by f/2 with far less focus shift, and sold it because that precision was not what he wanted from environmental portraits.

Buying one is mostly a matter of which version and whether the hood is included, since neither the LH-8 and LH-10 of the first lens nor the LH-14 and LH-15 of the II came in the box. The focus shift is real but modest; test it at f/2.8 on a rangefinder against the f/1.2 focus and expect a couple of centimetres. On an M6 or M7 and on the Bessa R2A/R3A and R2M/R3M the 63.3mm barrel intrudes into the 50mm frame far less than the f/1.1 did, which was the point of the redesign.

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

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $860 across 22 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $780–$1,000). First day tracked.

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

Show 25 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 50mm f/2 Aspherical · Heliar Classic 50mm f/1.5 · Nokton 21mm f/1.4 Aspherical · Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1.1 · Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical

Sources (9)

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.