Voigtländer Nokton Vintage Line 28mm f/1.5 and Fujifilm X-Pro2
The Voigtländer Nokton Vintage Line 28mm f/1.5 Aspherical adapted to a Fujifilm X-Pro2 using a K&F Concept adapter
Street Photography With the Voigtländer Nokton 28mm f/1.5 (M-Mount) and a Fujifilm X Series Camera
We wrapped a 24-day trip to France and Italy at the end of June and for this trip, I only brought two lenses, the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.2 and Nokton 28mm f/1.5.
I have grown fond of the Voigtländer Nokton Vintage Line 28mm f/1.5 Aspherical lens and upon my return, I decided to take it out for a quick street photography session here in Vancouver.
For the France/Italy trip, I used my Leica SL2-S but in this post, I will showcase a few images from my X-Pro2 and Nokton 28mm f/1.5.
On the X-Pro2 you get a full-frame equivalent field of view of approximately 43mm.
Build Quality and Handling
The following two paragraphs are copied from my review of the Nokton 28mm f/1.5 where I tried it on the Nikon Zf and Leica SL2-S but the same would apply here.
The Nokton 28mm f/1.5 (M-Mount) feels great on the X-Pro2. The focus ring is smooth and the aperture ring has a good feel. I went for the type 1, matte black version which weighs a mere 8.8 oz, 250 g.
The Nokton 28mm f/1.5 has the benefit of having a focus lever as well as room for a “normal” focus ring, meaning you focus the lens as you would with a range finder camera, or if you are used to conventional lenses, there is room on the lens barrel to focus the lens as you would without the focus lever.
Zone Focusing
I started my session using the OVF (optical viewfinder) on my X-Pro2 wanting to mimic the Leica M experience with a clear optical viewfinder.
For this to work I had to use zone focusing and started at f/8. This worked well for a few photos but when I got too close to my topic the the distance was off by a bit but I still found the images usable in some cases.
After a while, I switched to the EVF (electronic viewfinder) and experimented at different f-stops, from wide open to about f/5.6. I found it relatively easy to focus with the EVF, even without focus peaking, and at the end of the day, this would be my preferred method when using the X-Pro2 with the Nokton 28mm.
The frame lines are not accurate on the X-Pro2. The crop is a bit tighter than the frame lines in the OVF would make you believe.
Final Thoughts
In a pinch, the Nokton 28mm f/1.5 is a legit alternative to Fujifilm’s XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR as long as you do not mind manual focusing. Recently, I also tried the Voigtländer Ultron 27mm f/2 for X-Mount and I would probably prefer this for an X-Mount camera.
The Ultron 27mm f/2 for X-Mount has electronic contact giving you EXIF information and other benefits but not on all X-Series cameras. For more on the Ultron 27mm, check my review here:
Voigtländer Ultron 27mm f/2 - Review
Please keep scrolling for more sample images from the Nokton 28mm f/1.5 on the X-Pro2.
The photos in this post are made using the following photography gear.
Links to my reviews:
