Yukosteel posted a Voigtlander 35mm F0.9 Nokton Aspherical disassembly guide on their site which you can read here. Yukosteel didn’t completely disassemble the lens to avoid messing up the alignment of glass, but they were able to come to some interesting conclusions:
I’m not surprised to see that Voigtlander 35mm F0.9 Nokton Aspherical lens has very advanced build with extremely high machining quality of all parts. It is quite complex lens optically and mechanically and its proper maintenance and even basic cleaning requires highly skilled actions. I would not recommend to perform any DIY cleaning and repair even if you have good experience working with lenses – it’s one of that more rare cases when I’d personally ship the lens to service center instead of attempting to repair it myself.
The build is very robust and solid, lots of large durable bolts are used to hold precisely machined parts together, and inner frame is all crafted from thick metal. Lots of brass is used for helicoid guiders including FLE mechanics, and aperture transmission is beautifully crafted too.
Personally I think the weakest spot of this lens is its electronics which may get potentially damaged or broken over decades of intense use, but that will not affect mechanical and optical performance of Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F0.9 in any way, so in general it’s very reliable tool that can serve for generations if properly maintained.
Voigtlander 35mm f/0.9 Nokton Aspherical:
B&H Photo / Adorama
