You won't be getting a Noctilux

[ralf-11]

but 0.95 f-stop is coming...

https://www.dpreview.com/news/16934...0-95-lens-for-aps-c-mirrorless-camera-systems

be interesting to see what they can do for $200

 

[Mack]

I'm sort of interested in the Voigtlander 29mm f/0.8 Super Nokton M43 Rumors mentioned.

This: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1606638-REG/voigtlander_ba363a_super_nokton_29mm_f_0_8.html

 

[DeeJayK]

Based on the quality of the other 7Artisans lenses I've seen, I'd guess that the Mitakon will retain the crown for a "value" 25mm f/0.95, even if the new entrant is $100 or so cheaper.

If I needed something faster than 0.95 (spoiler alert: I don't) I think the Kipon 40mm f/0.85 would be a more useful focal length for my needs and the price undercuts the new Voigt by a few hundred.

- K

 

[DeeJayK]

By the way, in case anyone is counting, a new 25mm f/0.95 7Artisans lens rumored/ announced today brings us to twenty M43 lenses with apertures under f/1.

Voigtländer	Super Nokton	29	0.8
Handevision/ Kipon	Ibelux (Mk. I)	40	0.85
Handevision/ Kipon	Ibelux (Mk. II)	40	0.85
Voigtländer	Nokton	10.5	0.95
Zhongyi	Mitakon Speedmaster	17	0.95
Voigtländer	Nokton	17.5	0.95
Voigtländer	Nokton	25	0.95
Zhongyi	Mitakon Speedmaster	25	0.95
Meike	MK-E	25	0.95
Venus Optics	Laowa Argus	25	0.95
7Artisans	Firefly 25mm f/0.95	25	0.95
Zhongyi	Mitakon Speedmaster	35	0.95
Meyer-Optik Görlitz	Nocturnus	35	0.95
Zhongyi	Mitakon Speedmaster (Mark II)	35	0.95
7Artisans	APS-C 35mm f0.95	35	0.95
Voigtländer	Nokton	42.5	0.95
SLR Magic	Noktor Hyperprime	50	0.95
Meyer-Optik Görlitz	Nocturnus	50	0.95
7Artisans	APS-C	50	0.95
Voigtländer	Nokton	60	0.95

- K

 

[Mack]

Took meter outside and found the Olympus at base ISO 200, a f/1.0 would make the electronic or silent shutter speed of 1/32,000 sec. properly exposed in sunlight.

Now I want a Noct! But which one? Ugh!

 

[RichardC]

Took meter outside and found the Olympus at base ISO 200, a f/1.0 would make the electronic or silent shutter speed of 1/32,000 sec. properly exposed in sunlight.

Now I want a Noct! But which one? Ugh!

Make sure you get a good selection of ND filters with it in case it's a nice day

 

[Mack]

Wonder why none of these m43 Noct critters < f/1.0 have Auto Focus? Even that $8K Nikon 58mm Noct thing is manual focus.

Maybe they can blame any bad focus on me and not their AF?

 

[DeeJayK]

Took meter outside and found the Olympus at base ISO 200, a f/1.0 would make the electronic or silent shutter speed of 1/32,000 sec. properly exposed in sunlight.

Now I want a Noct! But which one? Ugh!

It really depends on which focal length you're looking for.

I've used both the Voigt and the Zhongyi Mitakon 25/0.95 and both are good. The Voight is a bit sharper, but not enough so to justify the price & size difference for me. From the reviews I've read/seen it seems the Laowa might be superior to the Mitakon, but it's also considerably larger. The other Chinese lenses (7Artisans, Meike) are another step down from the Zhongyi, but they are cheaper still.

Ignore the two Meyer-Optik Görlitz offerings — those have been revealed to be re-branded copies of the Zhonyi lenses with much higher pricetags. The SLR Magic lens came out a long time ago and I think it's been discontinued. I don't know a lot about the Kipon, but it's pretty big and expensive.

- K

 

[DeeJayK]

Wonder why none of these m43 Noct critters < f/1.0 have Auto Focus? Even that $8K Nikon 58mm Noct thing is manual focus.

Maybe they can blame any bad focus on me and not their AF?

I think AF becomes difficult (and less accurate?) with extremely large apertures. I'm not aware of any sub f/1 AF lens.

- K

 

[Mack]

I think AF becomes difficult (and less accurate?) with extremely large apertures. I'm not aware of any sub f/1 AF lens.

- K

Time for OMD to put a AF in some fast Noct lens for bragging rights. Too many Nocts out there without it. I'd put it ahead of the pack to buy if they had one. Maybe in 35-60mm range, given more bokeh effect at the extreme end.

I think Nikon blew it with their over-priced 58mm f/0.95 Noct. For that price, it should have had AF even though their engineers said it would be too slow and larger with more weight. These m43 are large, but their prices are reasonable for their fast speed. Nikon could have added the geared external ring used for the cinema guys and put the motor there if it was a problem and called it a Cinematic lens with T-stops. People seem to accept the high cinema glass prices easier like Canon (Plug-in servo AF), Fujinon, Angenieux, Schneider, etc. Way pricey stuff, but maybe should be time for them to compete in video lenses.

Nikon engineers discussion on their Noct: https://translate.google.com/transl...nfo.xitek.com/attitudes/202005/06-345705.html

 

[Mack]

Has anyone done a review comparison of all these Nocts?

I have a Laowa 7.5mm f/2 m43 Ultralight lens for use on a drone, but found it vignettes a lot wide open. My first copy wouldn't focus to infinity so it went back. Second one same thing. Could be the drone's m43 camera setup too, but its OEM 17mm lens focus was fine as was an Olympus 45mm.

Someone on DPR put a paper shim in the rear element stack and it worked as theirs had the same issue. I did the same with a brass sheet from hobby shop I cut out. Laowa was new then and maybe they fixed that, but the vignetting is pretty bad. Don't know if the Nocts would be worse for vignetting, or which would be less prone for it.

Just learned Laowa has a Cine model of their 7.5mm with T-stops. Cine model is a T/2.1 found here: https://www.ducloslenses.com/collections/laowa/products/laowa7-5

That link has a lot of other m43 lenses and names I never heard of under their "Lenses" tab. Some tens of thousands of dollars.

 

[DeeJayK]

Has anyone done a review comparison of all these Nocts?

This video review/ comparison of the three "cheap" Chinese 25mm f/0.95 from Richard Wong is a pretty good start:

Wong's comparison doesn't include the Voigtländer, though.

This is the most thorough comparison between the Zhongyi and the Voigtländer that I could find:

This guy essentially concludes (like I have) that the Voigt is not worth the size and weight penalty over the Mitakon.

- K

 

[Mack]

This video review/ comparison of the three "cheap" Chinese 25mm f/0.95 from Richard Wong is a pretty good start:

Wong's comparison doesn't include the Voigtländer, though.

This is the most thorough comparison between the Zhongyi and the Voigtländer that I could find:

This guy essentially concludes (like I have) that the Voigt is not worth the size and weight penalty over the Mitakon.

- K

Thanks for the videos.

I saw the Laowa really did have a lot of vignetting in the first one. Much like my 7.5 f/2.0 does and sometimes it's a bugger to edit it out. Sharpness was nice, but that red ring flare that he liked with the Laowa I wouldn't. I can see why excessive focus rotation might be an issue too.

About 50 seconds in on the second video he mentions: "There is a a caveat with the Mitakon where it does not work on about five different Olympus bodies, but it does work on the Panasonics." ??? I have four different Olympus bodies and would like to know why it doesn't work on Olympus, but it does on Panasonic. No one brought it up in the Youtube comments either.

Was looking at the 7artisans 50mm f/0.95 and it too only mentions working on Panasonic bodies: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BYH1RB...90dedb4bca0e9&language=de_DE&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

So what's the m43 body difference here?

 

[DeeJayK]

Thanks for the videos.

I saw the Laowa really did have a lot of vignetting in the first one. Much like my 7.5 f/2.0 does and sometimes it's a bugger to edit it out. Sharpness was nice, but that red ring flare that he liked with the Laowa I wouldn't. I can see why excessive focus rotation might be an issue too.

I kinda liked the flare he was getting from the Laowa. I could see some creative uses for that. On the other hand, I might not like it in every situation.

About 50 seconds in on the second video he mentions: "There is a a caveat with the Mitakon where it does not work on about five different Olympus bodies, but it does work on the Panasonics." ??? I have four different Olympus bodies and would like to know why it doesn't work on Olympus, but it does on Panasonic. No one brought it up in the Youtube comments either.

Was looking at the 7artisans 50mm f/0.95 and it too only mentions working on Panasonic bodies: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BYH1RB...90dedb4bca0e9&language=de_DE&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

So what's the m43 body difference here?

Yeah, it was annoying that he mentioned that incompatibility and then never expanded on it.

Apparently issue has to do with some baffle in a handful of Olympus cameras obstructing the range of motion of the rear element of the Zhongyi lens. According to this thread on DPR the list of incompatible bodies is: E-PL6, E-PL5, E-PM2 (sorry, @John King ) and E-M5 (Mark I). I can confirm I've used it without issue on my E-M1 (Mk. I) and PEN-F along with the Panasonic GM5 and GX8.

As for the 7Artisans, I highly doubt there's any reason it won't work on Olympus bodies. I've seen lots of listings like that one you shared (particularly from the Chinese brands) that list only a handful of the compatible bodies, but I've concluded its more out of laziness/ sloppiness/ space issues than for any reason of incompatibility.

That said, the 7Artisans 25mm is not yet available, so we don't really know what cameras it fits. If there are any compatibility limitations with the 7Artisans, I would suspect it might be that same list of bodies with obstructing baffles.

- K

 

[John King]

@DeeJayK Keith, I do have my E-M1 MkI & MkII if I really wanted that lens.

TBH, if someone glued my 14-42 EZ onto the front of my E-PM2, I probably wouldn't notice ... . After all, what's the point of a tiny body if one sticks a (relatively) big lens on it?

However, if I ever do any astronomical photography again, the E-PM2 should be ideal for balance etc on my f/7 560mm refractor. None of my other cameras are really light enough.

 

[Mack]

I ended up buying the Voigt 29mm f/0.8 Noct thing. However, air is so bad outside due to wildfire smoke it hasn't seen the outside yet to see how it works at high-shutter speeds. I don''t think it is weather sealed so I'm hesitant to get ash ground into it as it's all over the car. Never thought about ash being as bad as dust or blowing sand that's more the normal in the desert.

Curious to see if I can sync it up at 1/32,000 sec. with old FP flashbulbs (i.e. A longer burn time than electronic which should cover the slow sensor scan speed of maybe 1/40 second while set to the 1/32,000 sec. high shutter speed.) using the FP bulbs as flash fill. I think it's possible with the Camera Axe thing running the sync timing.

Least it was cheaper than my $6.8K tooth implant from yesterday where some old crown chipped apart showing a cracked lengthwise molar. Damn teeth bills! Cash only! ? Dentists really got a self-propagating business model: Cavity to filling, to eventual crown, to eventual root canal which thins the tooth and yet another crown and another thinning of the tooth, which eventually leads to to a severely cracked tooth being made so thin and a root abscess, leading to a costly implant. So much for bi-annual checkups and cleanings for 40-50 years. Grrrr!!! /rant

 

[John King]

I ended up buying the Voigt 29mm f/0.8 Noct thing. However, air is so bad outside due to wildfire smoke it hasn't seen the outside yet to see how it works at high-shutter speeds. I don''t think it is weather sealed so I'm hesitant to get ash ground into it as it's all over the car. Never thought about ash being as bad as dust or blowing sand that's more the normal in the desert.

Curious to see if I can sync it up at 1/32,000 sec. with old FP flashbulbs (i.e. A longer burn time than electronic which should cover the slow sensor scan speed of maybe 1/40 second while set to the 1/32,000 sec. high shutter speed.) using the FP bulbs as flash fill. I think it's possible with the Camera Axe thing running the sync timing.

Least it was cheaper than my $6.8K tooth implant from yesterday where some old crown chipped apart showing a cracked lengthwise molar. Damn teeth bills! Cash only! ? Dentists really got a self-propagating business model: Cavity to filling, to eventual crown, to eventual root canal which thins the tooth and yet another crown and another thinning of the tooth, which eventually leads to to a severely cracked tooth being made so thin and a root abscess, leading to a costly implant. So much for bi-annual checkups and cleanings for 40-50 years. Grrrr!!! /rant

My wife has that sort of problem with her teeth. Lots of money has gone into them! She had an implant recently - cost a bomb. Better than dying of jaw infections though ...

I'm very fortunate with my teeth. Everything else about me is dodgy or buggered, but I go to the dentist about every 2-3 years, and mostly just need a descale and polish.

 

[Mack]

Zeiss f/0.7 and others:

From video, Stanley Kubrick filmed in low-lght using "three wick candles" for extra light even with f/0.7.