Blog

Get a load of this eBay listing for a 5200mm, f/14 lens. Be sure to look at the bottom picture showing an SLR mounted to it.

According to Wired, a French magazine leaked details of a new Leica aspherical f/0.95 50mm Noctilux, coming in at a predictably heavy 8,000 euros.

While that’s cool and all, I’m not sure I see the point… as the article points out, the depth of field is "ridiculously small — focus on a pupil and the edge of the eye will blur". I don’t equate sharpness with goodness, but if you want to make blur, there are a lot cheaper ways to do it. Quality of blur does matter—greatly, in my opinion—but this seems like it’s going to be marketed as a tool for taking very low-light photos in. Or maybe they don’t care about the actual utility and are counting on the people who will undoubtedly buy it just because the numbers will be limited and it says Leica on it.

Also rumored to be announced at Photokina [photo equipment trade show] by Leica are:

M Summilux 21mm f/1.4, 5,000 Euros
M Summilux 24mm f/1.4, 5,000 Euros
M Elmar 24mm f/3.8, 1,800 Euros

Zeiss are [finally] releasing Canon EF mount versions of their Z series manual focus 35mm/digital SLR lenses! First out will be the Planar T* f/1.4 50mm (SRP of 579 euros) and the Planar T* f/1.4 85mm (SRP of 999 euros (both prices include 19% German VAT)).

From the current "issue" of Carl Zeiss Camera Lens News:

Carl Zeiss is expanding its successful line of SLR lenses: ZE lenses with EF bayonet for all analog and digital EOS camera models. As with all EF lenses, the new ZE lenses from Carl Zeiss transfer all information exclusively via electronic contacts. This means that all exposure modes such as programmed auto exposure, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual setting are supported. The camera’s automatic focus confirmation also remains available to an unlimited extent with these manual focus lenses. With digital SLRs, the lens data and all exposure data can also be accessed via the camera’s EXIF file. Even E-TTL flash metering is supported. The first lenses to be available will be the Planar T* 1,4/50 ZE and the Planar T* 1,4/85 ZE in the last quarter of this year. Further focal lengths will be added to the line within the next few months.

This is from month or two back, I somehow got it stuck as a draft and forgot about it. Anyway, the following large format lenses are now out of production, so whatever is left in the supply chain is it if you want to buy new:

• Fujinon-SW 90mm f/8 (shipment ended August 2006)
• Fujinon-T 300mm f/8 (shipment ended in August 2006)
• Fujinon-CMW 300mm f/5.6 (shipment ended in December 2006)
• Fujinon-SWD 65mm f/5.6 (shipment ended in December 2006)

and all of the Hasselblad XPan/Fuji TX lenses stopped shipping in November 2006:

• 30mm f/5.6
• 45mm f/4
• 90mmm f/4

Via Kerry L. Thalmann on the Large Format Photography Forum

If you’re interested in Fujinon large format lenses, check out Thalmann’s Unofficial Fujinon Lenses page. No historical information seems to be available from the manufacturer, and this is far and away the best resource I’ve seen.

MTF charts are graphs of lens resolution that are meant to give you an idea of how a given lens performs at different points across the frame. (Most lenses are sharpest in the centre and get a bit softer as you go out, and these charts illustrate that characteristic.) They’re easy to read once you understand them, but unfortunately they’re usually explained very badly.

Mike Johnston has put together the first sane and easy-to-understand breakdown I’ve ever seen. Check it out at The Online Photographer.

The title pretty much says it all! More info: Web page, PDF data sheet, and PDF user manual.

Check out this completed eBay listing for a 1800mm f/16 lens with a 2640mm image circle. Pictures on eBay. Holy shit!

Today Leica announced a new range of M-mount rangefinder lenses, called Summarit. They will be available in focal lengths of 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 90mm—all f/2.5 and coded for the M8—from the end of November, 2007 forward.

Leica’s press release:

The new class of Leica precision lenses

It is the lenses on which the legend of the Leica brand was founded. Finely crafted masterpieces - compact and practical precision optics for analog and digital photography.

With the Leica Summarit-M class of lenses, Leica maintains its tradition of producing lenses that are renowned for optical and mechanical excellence. The new family consists of four lenses and covers the most popular focal lengths in the Leica M system:

LEICA SUMMARIT-M 35 mm f/2.5
LEICA SUMMARIT-M 50 mm f/2.5
LEICA SUMMARIT-M 75 mm f/2.5
LEICA SUMMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.5

The maximum aperture of f/2.5 and the concentration on the classic and proven spherical lens design leads to a new series of lenses that now brings famous Leica quality and a superb price/performance ratio.

The launch of the Leica Summarit-M family of lenses marks the return of important Leica heritage elements. All letter and number engravings are made with the traditional “Leitz-Norm” font as originally used by Leitz Wetzlar during the 1960s, and the red button on the lens mount is now true to the original color used on Leitz lenses produced since the introduction of the M mount through the 1960s.

Lens Campaign in Leica Rangefinder System

The launch of the new Leica Summarit-M lenses is the start of a campaign in which Leica is putting a greater focus on its core competencies in optics manufacture. Leica’s high-performance optics, which are all made by hand at Leica’s main factory in Solms near Wetzlar, Germany are the fruit of many years of experience in optics and precision mechanics, unique technologies, high-quality materials and the commitment and craftsmanship of competent staff.
Steven K. Lee

“Leica users are the most demanding customers in the world of photography. To satisfy their high expectations of quality, we put a unique amount of effort into manufacturing Leica lenses. This starts with a bold idea and continues with an ambitious optical design, a selection of the best materials on the market and sophisticated production processes. Meticulous quality assurance with 100% checks is, of course, an integral part of the process. The aim of all these efforts is to create high-class photographic and phototechnical images. Corner-to-corner definition and brilliance over the entire visual field, maximum imaging performance already at full aperture and superior stray light reduction - this is what photographers like about their Leica lenses, plus a unique mechanical excellence that is immediately felt when turning the focus ring or adjusting the aperture. This gives Leica photographers decades of pleasure - and enviable photographic results,” says Steven K. Lee, CEO of Leica Camera AG.

Deliveries of Leica Summarit-M lenses are scheduled to begin at the end of November 2007.

More info here from Leica, including a PDF technical data sheet.

(Thank goodness they nailed the most important part of any imaging system: the font used to engrave the lens. Yeah, they make nice kit—even if their film loading is still in the stone age—but it’s so hard not to laugh at anybody who takes this stuff seriously. (And I’m a designer!))

Also check out Canon’s lens manufacturing video. It’s worth watching both as they use different processes.

Someone figured out how to fold a 35mm effictive focal length lens into 5mm!

Here’s the abstract of the paper Ultrathin cameras using annular folded optics, by Eric J. Tremblay, Ronald A. Stack, Rick L. Morrison, and Joseph E. Ford, from the Feb 2007 issue of Applied Optics:

We present a reflective multiple-fold approach to visible imaging for high-resolution, large aperture cameras of significantly reduced thickness. This approach allows for reduced bulk and weight compared with large high-quality camera systems and improved resolution and light collection compared with miniature conventional cameras. An analysis of the properties of multiple-fold imagers is presented along with the design, fabrication, and testing of an eightfold prototype camera. This demonstration camera has a 35 mm effective focal length, 0.7 NA, and 27 mm effective aperture folded into a 5 mm total thickness.

Unfortunatey the complete paper costs US $22 for non-OSA members, but I suspect that it’s pretty unreadable by people without advanced optical systems design training anyway. Check out this summary article at PhysOrg instead, which makes sense to the rest of us.

Via The Online Photographer