Cosina has announced two new lenses for the Nikon Z mount mirrorless system. One is an extremely impressive-sounding Voigtlander NOKTON 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical full-frame lens. A standard field of view with an ultra-wide and bright aperture that’s anything but standard. The other is the Voigtlander SUPER WIDE-HELIAR 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical lens, which is also full frame, offering an extremely wide field of view. The lenses aren’t entirely new. The Nokton 50mm f/1.0 is already available in Leica M mount. The Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 is also available for Sony E mount. But the addition of another mount expands the possibilities for Nikon Z mount shooters – even if they are both manual focus lenses.
Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical
The Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical lens was released for Leica M mount in September 2021. It’s taken a little while to shift over to more mounts, but here we have it for Nikon’s Z mount mirrorless system. Cosina says, though, that it has been designed specifically for the Nikon Z format. Whether they mean this particular lens just happens to have a Z mount on it and you can’t adapt it to other systems or whether it means they’ve made tweaks to the lens to optimise it for the Nikon Z cameras optically is unknown. What it does have, though, are electronic contacts on the lens mount that allow communication between the lens and the camera. It’s a manual focus lens, of course, but it transmits EXIF data, such as the focal length of the lens, for in-body image stabilisation. It features an all-metal helicoid unit for focusing, which they say has been “processed and adjusted with high precision and high-quality grease” for just the right amount of torque for smooth operation when focusing.
The Voigtlander Nokton50mm f/1.0 Aspherical for Nikon Z mount will be available to pre-order soon for around $1,800. Shipping is expected to begin in February.
Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical
The Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5, like the 50mm f/1.0 above, supports electronic communication with the camera. With a 15mm lens on a full-frame body offering the wide field of view that it does, you shouldn’t really have many stabilisation issues, but it’s there. Even if you don’t need IBIS with this lens, the details of the lens are stored within the EXIF data of your images, allowing for easier searching and sorting. It’s also a manual focus lens with an all-metal helicoid focusing system. It has a minimum focus distance of a mere 12.6cm from the sensor with a working distance that lets you get as close as 4cm from the front of the lens hood to your subject. This likely isn’t going to be a common use for such a lens, but it’s nice to know you can get those close-up subjects with extreme wide-angle perspective distortion if you wish.
This lens was already released for Sony E mount back in 2016, as well as Leica M . This one’s taken a little while to come to another mount mirrorless mount than the lens above, but now it’s official. The Voigtlander Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical for Nikon Z mount will be available to pre-order soon for around $800. Shipping is expected to begin in February.
