By Ked · June 2026
June 2026
The Leica Noctilux is the marquee "night lens" of the M system, the family of extreme-aperture primes that defined what was technically possible at the wide end of the f-stop scale. For its first fifty-plus years the Noctilux name applied only to the 50mm focal length, where it went through three distinct optical generations. In 2017 Leica extended the line to a short-telephoto 75mm; in 2021 they reissued the original f/1.2 as a limited ASPH design; in 2026 they added a 35mm wide-angle. The line now spans three focal lengths and six distinct production lenses, each with its own design philosophy, optical formula, and used-market dynamics.
This post walks through every version in order: what each one is, how to identify it, what optical choices it represents, and what they currently trade for. The detail here (filter threads, hood designs, engravings, serial-number ranges, order codes) is what separates a casual identification from a confident one when you're spending five figures on a used lens.
The first Noctilux. Designed at Leitz Wetzlar by Helmut Marx and Paul Sindel, the original 50mm f/1.2 was Leica's answer to the question "how fast can a 50mm get?" The answer involved two hand-ground aspherical surfaces, produced on a specially built grinding machine operated by a single Leitz craftsman, and the result was the first serially produced lens in the world to use aspherical elements.
Production was small and slow: approximately 1,757 examples over the lens's nine-year run. The hand-ground aspherics made the lens expensive and slow to produce, which is why production ended in 1975 in favor of the more manufacturable f/1.0 design.
Identification: the lens reads "Leitz Wetzlar" on the front (Leica was still trading as Leitz at the time), the maximum aperture is f/1.2, and, importantly, the lens has no front filter thread. Filters attach via the clip-on lens hood using the Series VIII drop-in system. An E48 UVA filter can be applied through the hood per Leica's pocket-book documentation, but there is no direct screw-in thread on the front element itself.
Pricing today is collector territory. Clean original f/1.2 examples regularly clear $40,000; boxed, low-serial-number examples with original papers and the original hood trade $60,000–$70,000+. The f/1.2 is also the most-faked Noctilux, so provenance (original documentation, serial-number verification) matters enormously at these prices.
The 1976 redesign is Walter Mandler's work at Leitz Canada (Midland, Ontario). He was the same designer responsible for the Summicron-M 50mm Type 4, the Summilux-M 80mm, and a long list of other 1970s and 1980s M-mount classics. Mandler's brief was to make the Noctilux faster (from f/1.2 to f/1.0), keep the optical performance, and eliminate the production bottleneck created by hand-ground aspherics.
His solution was to use high-refractive-index glass instead of aspherical surfaces. The resulting design has seven elements in six groups, no aspherical surfaces of any kind, and a maximum aperture of f/1.0, half a stop faster than the f/1.2 it replaced. Production scaled dramatically: where the f/1.2 made ~1,757 lenses in nine years, the f/1.0 ran for thirty-two years (1976–2008) and made many tens of thousands. This is the volume-production Noctilux and the version most working photographers actually used.
The f/1.0 went through four cosmetic and accessory variants during its production run, all sharing the same optical formula. Order code 11821 is the most common across the line.
All four variants are optically identical: same Mandler seven-element formula, same rendering character. The differences matter for handling (does the hood get in your way?), for collectibility (early E58 variants command a small premium), and for filter compatibility (the E58-vs-E60 distinction matters if you're investing in filters).
Pricing for the f/1.0 spans roughly $4,000–$9,000 depending on version, condition, and 6-bit coding presence. V4 examples in clean condition with 6-bit coding sit at the top of the range; V1 E58 examples with original bayonet hood sit slightly above that on collector demand; V2 and V3 sit in the middle.
In 2008 Leica replaced the long-running f/1.0 with the current production Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH, designed by Peter Karbe at the Wetzlar facility. Karbe has been Leica's head of M-lens optical design since the early 2000s and is responsible for essentially every modern Leica M lens.
The f/0.95 is a wholly new design. Eight elements in five groups, with both aspherical surfaces (made by precision glass molding rather than hand-grinding, which is what made them economically viable in the modern era) and glass with anomalous partial dispersion, the specialty optical glass used in Leica's APO lenses to suppress color fringing. At f/0.95 it became the world's fastest aspherical lens for 35mm photography at the time of release.
Identification is straightforward: the front of the lens reads "LEICA NOCTILUX-M 1:0.95/50 ASPH", the filter thread is E60 (same as the late f/1.0), the lens hood is built-in and pulls out from the front of the barrel, and the lens is significantly heavier and larger than the f/1.0 it replaced. All current production f/0.95 examples include 6-bit coding for digital M bodies.
This is the current production 50mm Noctilux, retailing new above $12,000. Clean used f/0.95 ASPH bodies trade in the $8,000–$11,000 range, with mint examples occasionally clearing $12,000+ when matched to specific high-demand finishes (chrome variants, anniversary editions).
Announced 29 November 2017 and shipping from 2018, the Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 ASPH (order code 11676, launch price $12,795) was the first Noctilux ever produced at a focal length other than 50mm. Designed by Peter Karbe.
Optical formula: nine elements in six groups, two aspherical elements. 11 aperture blades for round out-of-focus rendering. 0.85m minimum focusing distance, close for a 75mm. The 75mm focal length plus f/1.25 maximum aperture make this Leica's most extreme portrait lens, a working short telephoto with depth-of-field characteristics no other production 75mm matches.
The 75mm Noctilux has lower used-market volume than the 50mm; it's a more specialized lens that not every Noctilux owner needs. As of June 2026 we track 7 active 75mm Noctilux listings, with an average ask of $14,075 and a range of $7,700–$27,875. Mint-condition examples with original box and papers trade at the upper end; well-used examples at the lower.
In January 2021 Leica announced a limited-edition reissue of the original 1966 Noctilux f/1.2, modernized as an ASPH design by Peter Karbe. The optical construction "adheres closely to the original" per Leica's marketing, with imaging characteristics intended to be nearly identical to the 1966 version. It is produced with modern precision-molded aspherics rather than hand-grinding, so the lens could actually be manufactured in meaningful (if limited) numbers.
Production was deliberately constrained:
Filter thread is 49mm on the modern reissue (vs. no thread / Series VIII on the original). That's the most obvious physical distinction between the 1966 lens and the 2021 reissue. Both share the f/1.2 aperture, the 50mm focal length, and the aspherical optical approach, but they are physically and economically distinct lenses.
Used 2021 reissue pricing has been volatile: the black 1,800-piece run trades roughly $8,000–$12,000 depending on condition; the 100-piece silver heritage edition rarely appears on the used market and when it does, asks well above its $16,395 launch price (often $20,000+) on rarity demand.
Announced 29 January 2026 at a launch price of $9,650 (order code 11635), the Noctilux-M 35mm f/1.2 ASPH is the newest Noctilux and the first wide-angle in the line. It's also the fastest 35mm M-mount lens Leica has ever made.
The optical formula is dense: 10 elements in 5 groups, three aspherical elements, manufactured using Leica's Precision Glass Molding (PGM) process, the same precision-molded aspherics used in the modern APO-Summicron line. A floating element maintains optical performance across the focusing range. 11 aperture blades, 0.5m minimum focus, 416g, dimensions 50.2mm × 64.6mm: surprisingly compact for what it is.
Identification: the lens reads "LEICA NOCTILUX-M 1:1.2/35 ASPH" on the front, is made in Wetzlar, Germany, and ships in a black anodized finish. Used inventory is extremely thin because the lens just launched, so we're tracking listings as they appear. The handful of early used examples we've seen have traded between $9,500 and $11,000, essentially at or just above launch price.
This question comes up often, particularly around the misconception that there is an older "Noctilux 35mm" predating 2026. To be definitive: Leica has only produced Noctilux lenses at three focal lengths: 50mm (since 1966), 75mm (since 2017), and 35mm (since 2026). There is no Noctilux 28mm, no Noctilux 90mm, no Noctilux 100mm. Listings claiming otherwise are mislabeled at best and counterfeit at worst.
The Noctilux name is Leica-specific. Third-party lenses occasionally borrow the "noct" prefix or marketing language ("Noct-Nikkor," various Chinese-manufactured f/1.0 or f/0.95 50mm lenses), but these are not Leica products and trade in entirely separate markets.
The answer depends on what you actually intend to do with it:
Browse current Noctilux listings across all three focal lengths on UsedLensTracker. We track every active listing and identify the version, filter thread, and condition where the seller has provided enough detail.