A Micro 4/3rds lens that is faster than your eye has been announced by Noktor. Shoot by the light of one candle? That is how fast this lens is! Is it real? Is it available? At an introductory price of $750 this is a very interesting story.
The Noktor HyperPrime 50mm f/0.95 lens is marketed as the fastest Micro 4/3rds lens available at this writing. Certainly these numbers compare with the legendary lens offerings of the past. Only Leica currently offers a ‘regular’ photographic lens of this speed. The Leica Noctilux, if you can get one, is priced north of $10,000USD!
Noktor 50mm F/0.95 Hyperprime Lens
A movie film camera optics producer, Angenieux, has made a F/0.95 in years past. This and a few other select special units have entered in to legend. Canon produced a F/1.0 and even a F/0.95 in a rangefinder mount in past years. One of the great stories of cinematography is how the film Barry Lyndon was planned to be shot with available light, if only the technology was available. Stanley Kubrick the director found surplus Leica F/0.7 (!!) units from NASA and had them made into cinema camera lenses. This and the current previously mentioned Noctilux lenses are some of the few ever made in super/hyper fast forms that didn’t display serious distortion.
Noktor HyperPrime Lens Front
Samples from the lens are available via Noktor’s website hosted on Flickr and video on Vimeo. These limited, very low light urban shots if not extraordinary, certainly are interesting in both what they do, and do not, show about the lens performance. Obvious signals to the origin of the lens are contained in the out of focus areas and the distortion that indicates that this is not an aspherical lens! The video sample currently available was made with a Panasonic Lumix GH1.
Noktor HyperPrime 50mm f/0.95 Specifications
| Focal Length | 50mm |
| Aperture | F0.95 – F16 |
| Autofocus | No |
| Min. Focus Distance | 0.6m |
| Lens (Elements) | 8 |
| Lens (Groups) | 7 |
| Weight | 480g |
| Mount Type | m4/3 |
| Filter Size | 62mm |
Noktor Mount Image
Noktor lists only a micro four thirds mount yet adds a survey question on the webpage about future customer desires regarding specific mounts. An added clue about this lens unit in this is that one option is for the PL Cinema mount. This could explain the perspective of the sample images, the strange shape of the aperture highlights (not rounded but looks like a specific aperture shaped for video/cinema auto exposure), and the construction 0f the lens from the Noktor provided photographs. An Asian manufacturer has made a similar lens for film that may have been modified for the four thirds mount and even ‘sped up’ to the sub F/1.0 number with a larger prime focusing aperture/pupil.
Is there a downside? Yes. There is little real current information on the company. Noktor, the company, appears to be based in the greater Atlanta, Georgia, USA area with a phone number and contact information in the community of Woodstock. The web presence and ‘pre-order’ information at this time are limited. The only method of obtaining one of these fast hyper lens units at this time seems to be to place a full deposit of $750 via the web pay service PAYPAL for delivery as mentioned in April 2010.
Speculation abounds across the web and film/photography community about this product. Moderately acceptable performance from such a lens could make the micro four thirds an even hotter product for 2010.
Related Links
Noktor Ultra Fast Lenses
All Micro Four Thirds News and Articles
Olympus and Four Thirds Camera Forum
Digital SLRs Forum
Leica Camera Home
NOKTOR has updated the website with a bit more information. Details include that this lens is being manufactured by GOYO Optical, Inc. of Japan.