[séamuis]

"How can we make a lens that only 15 photographers will buy this year?"

that's genius. I really want that lens.

[Isaac314]

Nikon make popular lenses and really high end pro lenses
Olympus make expensive and super pro lenses
Canon make fast lenses
Leica make super fast lenses
Pentax make high quality glass

And you know what? the quality glass and build is the one thing that doesnt show up in the spec, and doesnt seem to show up in the price at all.

I dont know... am i wrong?

oh and thanks for the post about the 15mm, i have one of these which i inherited from my late grandfather who was a real impulse buyer
Still need to get the fungus cleaned out

I cant wait till pentax have some money again and we can see some of their actual potential again.

[thePiRaTE!!]

I suppose its not like a digital item, where a new order of magnitude can be revealed - quantam leaps in size reduction and after a year, something bleeding edge can be had for peanuts. There is a limit to how wide an aperture can be while remaining a useful object. An extreme instrument such as this will surely hold its value for decades to come (if cared for).

f1.0 is a whole stop faster than f1.4 and 0.95 is something like 10% more light again than f1.0 in photographic ratio terms and if you're asking me, 10% more bokeh is a reason to exist! I just wish I even had the option to buy it as a K-mount... I'd tempt the thought.

Edit: There is a fellow on Flickr using the Canon 0.95 and the previous Noctilux f1.0, I enjoy his stream, thought some might like to see what those apertures can do for 'backgrounds'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureancient/

[k100d]

this is one of my favourite photos that i've found on flickr
M8 + Noctilux

Flickr Photo Download:

[roentarre]

Serious too expensive and impractical to do this. Pentax makes glasses for everyday photographers. This kind of lens is more symbolic for measurebation rather than photography

[nathancombs]

i would LOVE to have a 0.96 i shoot a lot at night and that would kick ass

[k100d]

Serious too expensive and impractical to do this. Pentax makes glasses for everyday photographers. This kind of lens is more symbolic for measurebation rather than photography

sometimes when i'm bored of the dpreview and PF i wander over to RFF. some of the arguments they have on the Noct are very entertaining. even for leicaphiles it is an issue of debate.

[Abbazz]

There is a fellow on Flickr using the Canon 0.95 and the previous Noctilux f1.0, I enjoy his stream, thought some might like to see what those apertures can do for 'backgrounds'

Flickr: futureancient's Photostream

Kelly, there's also the famous Tommy Oshima with its enchanted Noctilux:

Flickr: Search TommyOshima's photostream

Cheers!

Abbazz

[Big Dave]

Here is my K100D super with a 50mm f0.95 lens.

Dave

Leica Camera AG - Photography - NEW: LEICA NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH.

50mm f0.95!

I know, that large an aperture is a bit too much to ask, but why not a f1 or even just a f1.2 with AF? Right now, only canon has something that fast! Bringing a lens like this to the table would probably make a lot of serious enthusiasts reconsider what Pentax has to offer!

But anyways... Someday I will be rich and I will buy a leica... maybe

[little laker]

Here is my K100D super with a 50mm f0.95 lens.

Dave

Dave,
I've got to ask. IS that a screwmount? And if not how on earth did you fit it?
Do you have infinity focus?
Thanks in advance.

[ChrisN]

Here is my K100D super with a 50mm f0.95 lens.

Dave

Dave, that just looks silly! It would look much better mounted on my M4.

[Ben_Edict]

The last Leica Noctilux 50/1.0 production lot was sold off for nearly 6000 Euros each. It is a lens for collectors not for users. The Pentax 50/1.2 A lens sold for roughly a quarter of that price. I have used both lenses and still own the Pentax 50/1.2. It is much more useable, than the Noctilux and the image quality is at least en par – for a quarter of the price. The final 1/2 f-stop is of not much importance anymore. It was 20 years ago, when high-speed films were still of very poor quality (does anybody remember the 3M 1000 ASA slide film?)

It is possible to build anything. It is not possible to sell anything - that is the main difference between Leica and Pentax. Leica has aimed for the last 20 yeras on selling cameras and lenses to wealthy collectors in the near and middle East and in Asia. They succeeded nicely until the economy broke down at around 2000. Leica did very nearly go bancrupt and there were several investors following each other, that pumped money into the company, just to keep a legend alive. I have no idea, hwo many decades these investors will need, to break even, but even in the current, successfull state of Leica, it will be many years.

Can anybody seriously contemplate to take the same insane business approach towards Pentax? I cannot imagine that. Pentax was always a camera make for "the rest of us", neither collectible and hardly high-end. They had and have high-end products, but they are completely unable to communicate and sell that. The K20D is the best example: people seriously complain about its price tag, which is completely unique and well below any comparable other modell on the market - but it already seems to be near the price limit, people are willing to pay for a product named Pentax. How could then a lens, only very few people actually need, be produced for a price tag, that would necessarily be far behind that limit?

Ben

[Big Dave]

It is a bayonet mount. It is off of my Canon 7S rangefinder. The outfit is about forty yeas old. The pentax mounting is temporary to experiment with. It won't focus at infinity, because the the registration distance requires 28mm and Pentax is 45mm. It just looks real wild. I need to take some shots with the Canon 7s sometime. Digital has spoiled me and I am too lazy to shoot much film anymore.

Dave

Dave,
I've got to ask. IS that a screwmount? And if not how on earth did you fit it?
Do you have infinity focus?
Thanks in advance.

[thePiRaTE!!]

Kelly, there's also the famous Tommy Oshima with its enchanted Noctilux:

Flickr: Search TommyOshima's photostream

Cheers!

Abbazz

Abbazz, great link - thanks. I'll have fun to sort through his work.

Here is my K100D super with a 50mm f0.95 lens.

Dave

I remember this from the fastest of fast thread. It looks like a camera with a windshield - and I'm jealous! If only it worked properly...

Would that lens work on modern Canon SLRs?

The last Leica Noctilux 50/1.0 production lot was sold off for nearly 6000 Euros each. It is a lens for collectors not for users. The Pentax 50/1.2 A lens sold for roughly a quarter of that price. I have used both lenses and still own the Pentax 50/1.2. It is much more useable, than the Noctilux and the image quality is at least en par – for a quarter of the price. The final 1/2 f-stop is of not much importance anymore. It was 20 years ago, when high-speed films were still of very poor quality (does anybody remember the 3M 1000 ASA slide film?)

It is possible to build anything. It is not possible to sell anything - that is the main difference between Leica and Pentax. Leica has aimed for the last 20 yeras on selling cameras and lenses to wealthy collectors in the near and middle East and in Asia. They succeeded nicely until the economy broke down at around 2000. Leica did very nearly go bancrupt and there were several investors following each other, that pumped money into the company, just to keep a legend alive. I have no idea, hwo many decades these investors will need, to break even, but even in the current, successfull state of Leica, it will be many years.

Can anybody seriously contemplate to take the same insane business approach towards Pentax? I cannot imagine that. Pentax was always a camera make for "the rest of us", neither collectible and hardly high-end. They had and have high-end products, but they are completely unable to communicate and sell that. The K20D is the best example: people seriously complain about its price tag, which is completely unique and well below any comparable other modell on the market - but it already seems to be near the price limit, people are willing to pay for a product named Pentax. How could then a lens, only very few people actually need, be produced for a price tag, that would necessarily be far behind that limit?

Ben

I agree. It seems the K-mount still attracts a lot of thrid-party attention though - I keep wishing Cosina through its Voightlander releases will address an f1.0 for K-mount, someday...

I'm considering taking on a second system just for an 0.95. Its not about the brightness or night shots at all for me, its the absolutely unique oof rendering - I would pay for that.


Kelly.

[Ben_Edict]

I remember this from the fastest of fast thread. It looks like a camera with a windshield - and I'm jealous! If only it worked properly...

Would that lens work on modern Canon SLRs?

As Dave wrote, the Canon 50/0.95 was made for a rangefinder system and its flange distance is too short to focus that lens on infinity on a (D)SLR.

I agree. It seems the K-mount still attracts a lot of thrid-party attention though - I keep wishing Cosina through its Voightlander releases will address an f1.0 for K-mount, someday...

I'm considering taking on a second system just for an 0.95. Its not about the brightness or night shots at all for me, its the absolutely unique oof rendering - I would pay for that.

Kelly, from your signature image I see, you already have a lot of the Voigtländers (how do you like them, by the way?) and I believe you would be one those few people who would actually buy a high-priced lens. But honestly, for me a 6000 Euros 50/1.0 is out of the question. Its speed advantage over my Pentax 50/1.2 is really not enought to justify that amount. I would be much more tempted by a Zeiss 135/1.8 in K-mount (it exists so far only for Sony Alpha), that would probably go for 2000 - 2500 Euros. Less money and a lens I would actually use. (I have only the old Porst 135/1.8 in M42 and use that on the K10/K20).

Ben