I have the legendary Nokton

By NigelHAugust 19, 2021 ( 1 )

The Voigtländer Prominent is probably the best 35mm camera I have and I am beginning to use it more and more when I want to shoot in that format.

Lately I have been using it in ‘test mode’ as I have a new lens attached that I want to be sure is in good shape (which it appears to be).

I have had the Ultron lens for a while and I have been very happy with it (very very happy) and I long ago dismissed the idea of getting the very fast Nokton as they are usually way out of my price bracket. The Nokton is the ultimate Voigtländer Lens and it has a certain kudos.

Then an opportunity came my way by means of Craig’s List. I don’t generally buy cameras or equipment on CL but occasionally I check it to see if there is something interesting to consider and on this occasion someone was selling a Prominent body with a Nokton attached for way less than the lens on it’s own would be. In fact cheaper than the camera I already have. It was a no-brainer really as long as it looked in good shape; the price was just too good to pass up.

The seller was a fair drive away near Joshua Tree but at the time we were looking for a day out and JT is a favorite of ours so we decided to take a trip. It would also be our daughter’s first trip there.

We drove down that weekend and on examination I found the camera to be in pretty good order but the shutter wasn’t quite firing properly; this didn’t worry me too much as I could probably get it moving better with a clean and really I wasn’t going to keep this body anyway just the lens. But as there was an issue which the seller hadn’t identified himself he knocked another $10 off the price and ker-ching I was the owner of that fabled lens.

For many reasons I wasn’t able to test it further for a while but eventually time was available. I cleaned up the body and got it working consistently and sold that on the auction site re-cooping over half of my outlay.

I shot a black and white film first (Kosmo Foto Mono 100) to check the main concern which was focus; no issues there so I am a happy bunny. I have a top of the range lens for less than the price of a 5 rolls of film.