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

Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical

Cosina Voigtländer · LTM + Leica M · 1999

Also known as: Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f1.5 Aspherical LTM · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.5 L39 · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Leica screw mount · Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f1.5 VM · Voigtländer Nokton Vintage Line 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Voigtlander Nokton Vintage Line 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical II · Cosina Voigtländer Nokton 50/1.5 · CV 50/1.5 Nokton · Nokton 50/1.5 ASPH · NOKTON 50mm F1.5 Aspherical · NOKTON 50mm F1.5 Aspherical VM · NOKTON Vintage Line 50mm F1.5 Aspherical · NOKTON Vintage Line 50mm F1.5 Aspherical II · NOKTON 1:1.5/50 · フォクトレンダー ノクトン 50mm F1.5 アスフェリカル · フォクトレンダー NOKTON 50mm F1.5 Aspherical · ノクトン ヴィンテージライン 50mm F1.5 · フォクトレンダー NOKTON Vintage Line 50mm F1.5 Aspherical II

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical, Leica screw mount, silver (1999) LTM 1999–2009 — —
Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical, Leica screw mount, black paint (1999) LTM 1999–2009 — —
Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical VM, later filed as Vintage Line (2013) Leica M 2013–2020 — —
Nokton Vintage Line 50mm F1.5 Aspherical II VM (2020) · 8 elements in 7 groups, aspherical Leica M 2020 — —
  1. The family-level spec row carries the 1999 screw-mount lens. The 2013 lens shares its 6-element, 5-group formula, f/16 and 10 blades but focuses to 0.7 m, takes 49 mm filters, measures ø53.8 × 45.7 mm and weighs 220 g black or 293 g silver; the 2020 II is 8 elements in 7 groups, 12 blades, 43 mm filter, ø55.3 × 36.9 mm, 198 g or 255 g. All from Cosina's pages.
  2. Whether the 2013 lens is optically identical to the 1999 one is stated three ways: Cosina says the 1999 optics were re-produced with the basic design untouched and the coatings strengthened; CameraQuest inferred a slight modification from the smaller filter; phillipreeve.net calls them the same optics with rumoured coating changes. Cosina's statement stands here.
  3. Launch month for the 1999 lens: October per Cosina's discontinued-products page, November per CameraQuest's contemporary report. The 1999 US price is not in the archived record; the earliest CameraQuest list found, April 2001, gives $425.
  4. The same 1999 optical block was re-mounted for the Nikon rangefinder as the S Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical of 2003, catalogued separately as s-nokton-50mm-f15: one design, three mounts, and only the S will focus correctly on a Nikon body.
  5. Cosina's description of the design motif — a West German Leica-thread Nokton 50mm F1.5 of about 1951 — refers to the original Voigtländer Nokton, made mainly for the Prominent; that 1950s lens is a different family and is excluded from this page's listings.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Three generations under one name: the 1999 lens has a 39 mm screw thread and a 52 mm filter; the 2013 lens a VM bayonet and a 49 mm filter; the 2020 II a VM bayonet, a 43 mm filter, 12 blades and the engraved II
  • The 1999 lens brings up the 50/75 frame on a Leica M through the standard screw-to-M adapter, and mounts directly on a Bessa L, R or T and any Barnack Leica; the VM lenses need no adapter and will not fit a screw-mount body
  • Rear elements do not protrude deeply, so the screw-mount lens clears the meter cells of an M5 or CL (CameraQuest)

Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical, Leica screw mount, silver (1999):

  • 39 mm screw thread with the rangefinder cam; silver chrome barrel, engraved NOKTON 50mm F1.5 Aspherical
  • 52 mm filter, 0.9 m close focus, ø60 × 54.5 mm with the screw-in hood fitted, 243 g — the largest filter and longest close focus of the three
  • Half-stop aperture clicks and a scalloped focusing ring styled after the 1959 chrome Summilux (CameraQuest)

Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical, Leica screw mount, black paint (1999):

  • Black paint over brass — it wears to brass at the edges with use, unlike the anodised black of the 2013 lens (35mmc)
  • ¥3,000 dearer than the silver lens on Cosina's list: ¥68,000, JAN 4530076 130401

Nokton 50mm F1.5 Aspherical VM, later filed as Vintage Line (2013):

  • VM bayonet, engraved NOKTON 1:1.5/50 on the front ring in the 1950s style; 49 mm filter, 0.7 m close focus, ø53.8 × 45.7 mm
  • Silver: chrome-plated brass, 293 g, ¥125,000, JAN 4530076 130425. Black: black-anodised aluminium, 220 g, ¥100,000, JAN 4530076 130432 — a 73 g difference that identifies the finish blind
  • Screw-in metal hood included, wider than the barrel at about 60 mm (phillipreeve.net)

Nokton Vintage Line 50mm F1.5 Aspherical II VM (2020):

  • Engraved II; a new 8-element, 7-group design with 12 aperture blades, 43 mm filter, ø55.3 × 36.9 mm — 9 mm shorter than the 2013 lens
  • Three finishes: silver or black aluminium at 198 g (¥100,000); nickel-plated brass with black paint at 255 g (¥115,000), the nickel model ended January 2023
  • Two coatings, MC or SC, marked on the lens; the SC ended April 2022. JAN 4530076 132412 silver MC, 132436 silver SC, 132429 black MC, 132443 black SC, 132450 nickel MC, 132467 nickel SC
  • Hood LH-6 (¥6,000) sold separately, shared with the Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss, 6 elements in 5 groups, one double-sided aspherical element (1999 and 2013); 8 elements in 7 groups (2020 II)
Construction
6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.5–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.9 m
Dimensions
60 × 54.5 mm
Weight
243 g
Filter
52 mm
Years manufactured
1999
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated (1999, 2013); the 2020 II in multi-coated (MC) or single-coated (SC) versions
Original price
¥65,000 silver / ¥68,000 black paint (1999, tax excluded); $425 in the United States (2001 list) (today ¥72,000–¥75,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Vignetting
noticeable wide open
Flare & ghosting
reports disagree
Coma
weak below f/4
Distortion
slight barrel
Optical formula — Double Gauss, 6 elements in 5 groups, one double-sided aspherical element (1999 and 2013); 8 elements in 7 groups (2020 II)

History

In January 1999 Cosina put the Voigtländer name on a Leica-screw-mount camera for the first time in that name’s history: the Bessa L, a body with no rangefinder at all, sold with a 15mm and a 25mm that needed external finders. It was a curiosity until August, when Cosina announced three more lenses — a 35mm f/1.7, a 75mm f/2.5 and this one — and the curiosity became a system. Stephen Gandy, who imported the line into the United States, called it the first quality screw-mount lens range since Canon stopped making theirs in the mid-1970s, and made the safe bet that modern designs with multi-coating would outperform any of the old Leitz, Nikkor or Canon screw-mount glass. The Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical was the lens that proved it: the fast normal every Barnack Leica, and every M through an inexpensive adapter, had been waiting forty years for. The Bessa R with a rangefinder followed in March 2000, and the rest — the R2, the VM bayonet, the whole modern Voigtländer line — followed that.

The name is old and the glass is not. Nokton is Voigtländer’s title for its f/1.5-and-faster lenses, first used in 1950, and Cosina’s 1999 page explains it as the lens for available light, from the nocturne. Behind the 1950s barrel — a scalloped focusing ring and half-stop clicks styled, in Gandy’s words, after the chrome Summilux of 1959 — is a double Gauss of six elements in five groups with one element aspherical on both faces, plus what Cosina calls ultra-high-index glass, correcting spherical aberration and coma to high order and with a front element enlarged so that the corners keep their light wide open. Ten blades, f/16, 0.9 m close focus, a 52 mm filter that sits inside the screw-in hood, 243 g. Silver at ¥65,000 or black paint at ¥68,000 — the paint over brass, which wears to the metal with use — and $425 in the earliest American price list in the record, from 2001. Cosina dates the launch to October 1999; Gandy’s contemporary page says November. Production ended in March 2009.

Reviewers of the screw-mount lens agree on the centre and argue about the light. Hern Tan on 35mmc, shooting the black one on film, finds it razor sharp inside the depth of field in a thoroughly modern way, the out-of-focus areas melting away with the odd swirl in grass, and flare so well controlled that he trusts it with a lamp in the frame. James Klotz, three years into owning one on an M9, found it prone to veiling flare and never took the hood off — a hood that intrudes into a 0.72 finder, which both of them note. Both find a slight barrel distortion, and both call it underrated against the C-Sonnar and the Summilux. Gandy’s user reports rated it the equal or better of the pre-aspherical Summilux design. Kratzke’s measurements of the later VM lens fill in what film hides: very good centre sharpness from f/1.5, soft corners from field curvature at wide apertures, weak coma below f/4, and noticeable vignetting that is gone by f/4.

The 1999 optics had two more lives. In 2003 Cosina re-mounted the block for the Nikon rangefinder as the S Nokton, catalogued separately on this site. In June 2013, answering what it said were many requests for a reissue, Cosina put the lens back into production in VM mount, its barrel now a homage to the West German Nokton 50mm F1.5 of about 1951 for the Leica thread: knurled brass in chrome at 293 g, or black-anodised aluminium at 220 g, focusing to 0.7 m, with a 49 mm filter and a screw-in hood in the box. Cosina says the basic optical design was untouched and the coatings strengthened for digital sensors; Gandy read the smaller filter as a slight change of formula; Kratzke calls the optics the same with rumoured new coatings. Steve Huff, unboxing the chrome one at $1,049 in 2013, thought it got close enough to a $3,995 Summilux for most people. That lens ran until February 2020 and is now filed by Cosina under its Vintage Line, a name that did not exist when it launched. The Nokton Vintage Line 50mm F1.5 Aspherical II of October 2020 keeps the styling and the name but not the glass: eight elements in seven groups, twelve blades, a 43 mm filter, a barrel 9 mm shorter at 36.9 mm, 198 g in silver or black aluminium or 255 g in nickel-plated brass with black paint, and a choice of multi-coating or single coating. The SC ended in April 2022 and the nickel finish in January 2023; the aluminium MC lenses are current.

Buying: decide which of the three you are looking at before the price makes sense. A screw thread, a 52 mm filter and 0.9 m on the distance scale mean 1999; a bayonet with a 49 mm filter and NOKTON 1:1.5/50 on the front ring means 2013; a bayonet, 43 mm filter and II means 2020. The 1999 lens needs a screw-to-M adapter on an M body, and the standard 50/75 adapter brings up the right frame; on a Bessa L, R or T and on any Barnack Leica it mounts directly, and its shallow rear clears the meter cells of an M5 or CL. None of the reviews read for this page measured focus shift on the 50, but Kratzke’s finding on the all-spherical Nokton 40mm f/1.4 — little shift at f/2, real shift at f/2.8 and f/4 — is the caution to carry to any fast double Gauss on a rangefinder: shoot wide open where the patch and the plane agree, or check the plane on live view before trusting f/2.8–f/4 up close. Check the aperture ring, which Tan found knocked out of position in a bag more than once, and on a black-paint 1999 lens expect brassing that is wear, not damage.

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 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical
The 2013 VM lens in black, with its screw-in hood and the push-on cap that fits over the hood; the front ring reads NOKTON 1:1.5/50 (Dllu, 2015) — Dllu, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical
The 2013 Nokton 50mm f/1.5 VM (centre) between a Heliar Classic 75mm f/1.8 and a Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 III (Dllu, 2017) — Dllu, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $580 across 33 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $500–$730). First day tracked.

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

Show 77 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 · Color-Skopar 50mm f/2.5 · Heliar 50mm f/2 (Heliar Classic) · Heliar 50mm f/3.5 · Heliar Classic 50mm f/1.5 · Nokton Vintage Line 28mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Nokton Vintage Line 35mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1 Aspherical · Nokton 50mm f/1.1 · Nokton 50mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton Vintage Line 75mm f/1.5 Aspherical · S Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Ultron 28mm f/1.9 Aspherical · Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical

Sources (16)

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.