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Still a Killer
The Nokton 1.5 was first manufactured at the time of the Prominent. It was the first of the postwar
lenses using rare-earth glass for speed. In Leica mount, it is a collector's daydream; in Prominent mount, it is a bargain.
It delivers unusually beautiful images. Give a print to some friends and watch their eyebrows turn into McDonald arches.
Below is a picture taken in the new park across First Avenue from the United Nations in New York. I
was shooting in late summer as the sun dropped behind apartment towers to the west. This image shows the resolving
powers of the Nokton. Note fine details in the bark and foreground greenery.
This is strong performance at f2.
By studying the out-of-focus foliage in the background, you can glimpse the bokeh of the Nokton. To
better judge this, however, I made the following shot with the Nokton wide open at 1.5. The wide aperture, of course,
allows for maximum bokeh.
The results are controversial. You can see distortion in the points of light, but the painterly effect
is not without beauty.
Here's an example of Nokton performance in enlargement. The shot was enlarged from half of a 35mm
frame. I find the softness pleasant in a portrait, particularly with someone this age. The shallow depth of field
resulted from my being close to the subject, not from a wide aperture. The aperture was actually f 5.6.
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