Impossible may be possible? Nikon f/0.7 lens patent for the Nikon 1 system.
The Japanese blog Egami (Click here) spotted a new Nikon patents containing a couple of new Nikon 1 lens specs. We have the 10mm f/2.8, the 32mm f/1.2 and the 7-13mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. But the patent discloses a surprise….drumming….Nikon unveils that lenses up to f/0.7 aperture are possible! Of course this is a patent and you know well that 90% of the stuff they describe will never become real. And honestly don’t know how much sense a lens like this would make. Anyway, I know of one lens, the Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 used by Stanley Kubrick (more here on Wikipedia). And at f/0.75 aperture you can find plenty of lenses on eBay (Click here).
So is the impossible…possible?
Phill
12 months ago |Wow! I wonder what depth of field that would produce? Bokeh may be possible on the Nikon 1 system yet
theprov
7 months ago |The same depth of field of an equivalent focal lenght F2 lens on a 35 mm.
Dummy00001
12 months ago |Instead of patenting, they should have produced some more interesting pancakes for the system. And pancake zooms too.
Given the depicted size, if I were to buy the Nikon 1, it would be probably the last lens I would consider.
MJr
12 months ago |What is the depicted size ?
Zonkie
12 months ago |F/0.7 looks overkill. However, to become relevant the Nikon 1 system does need some very fast lenses. Something like f/1.0, with good performance wide open. Is that even possible?
Pete2
12 months ago |stupid lens for the wrong system. it’s like the nice pirelli commercial “power is nothing without control”. do you remember?!
Ken R
12 months ago |No! Not stupid at all to have a much faster lenses. May I remind you that with smaller than full frame sensors it is an absolut must to have faster lenses (compared to full frame) to obtain the same shallow depth of field. Sure, 0.7 is super fast and probably 1.0 would also do it. But generally faster lenses than 3.5 or 2.8 are much appreciated with smaller sensor sizes.
Steve
12 months ago |The Nikon 1 is the wrong system to choose if you want shallow DOF. People need to choose the system that makes sense for what they want. Don’t buy the Nikon 1 for something it was never meant to be. There is no purpose in putting huge native lenses on the Nikon 1.
Mathias
12 months ago |You make it sound as if DOF were the only thing to consider when deciding which camera (system) to buy into. That is just not the case. People may have bought the Nikon 1 because of reliabity and compactness, because of styling and performance. They might have gotten it as a present, they might have bought it before knowing what DOF even is. It’s not like Nikon 1 buyers generally hate shallow DOF. Only few people put DOF at the top of their priority list. There are so many more things to consider. So saying that Nikon 1 users shouldn’t “be allowed” to get a lens which allows a shallow DOF is kinda weird in my book. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have such a lens available as an option, to expand the versatility of the Nikon 1 system.
spam
12 months ago |+1, really good answer
Dummy00001
12 months ago |> to obtain the same shallow depth of field.
The m43 has some “hyper” primes – f/0.95 – and either the lenses need to be stepped down or the images need to scaled down to web size to get rid off the softness. There were also floating videos of adapted f/0.75 lens: it was like the radial smooth, but without the Photoshop.
IOW the extreme f-numbers lead to IQ loss.
Ken R
12 months ago |I know pictures can be very soft with fast lenses. I own some old and fast lenses like the Rayxars etc. and they work perfect with my GH2. Not everything has to be tack sharp all the time
viking79
12 months ago |Most of those are not that great of lenses though. I am sure a new Nikon design 0.7 for a small sensor would be pretty good.
Sahaja
12 months ago |Whether they are made by Nikon or anyone else the only thing very fast lenses are really good for is shooting in very low light or for very narrow depth of field.
At normal apertures a lens design with a more moderate maximum aperture is likely to be far better – and will cost far less money.
crazydoctor
12 months ago |are you kidding? even with f0.7 it will suck at having bokeh unless it’s a very long range. it will also have very bad performance wide open unless it cost one arm.
Random Poster
12 months ago |Good for bragging right.
Gabe
12 months ago |Instead focus on DOF or bokeh, how about insane low light performance with its speedy phrase/contract detection hybrid AF for snapshot?
spam
12 months ago |Fast lens means more light to the AF-system, which btw switch to contrast detect in low light.
Matt
12 months ago |Who ever said it was impossible? Lenses already exist for years that are even faster then f0.7. The smaller the sensor, the more it becomes possible / viable to create such lenses.
However, making such a lens for this system will be expensive and very niche, and the people interested in such a lens are not the same people interested in the camera that goes with it.
Camaman
12 months ago |Whats the problem You get more photos at base iso and more blur of course.
But the lens will suck at 0.7 naturally…
tom
12 months ago |f0.7 for Nikon 1 implies aperture of 22.66 mm, which is coincidentally about f0.95 for M43.
Jimbo..
12 months ago |Great… this will be just the excuse needed to charge a thousand dollars when actually the DOF affect is still that of a $200 lens on other system formats.
It’s a cool design but I smell a fish in this recipe. _Only_ time will tell!
JekyllAndHyde
12 months ago |the fastest lens came from Zeiss: (scroll down)
http://www.westlicht-auction.com/index.php?id=215778&acat=215778&_ssl=off
zebarnabe
9 months ago |There is a 81mm f/0.38 from American Optical
nugat
12 months ago |The “Kubrick” lens story:
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/ac/len/page1.htm