Anyone seen images of Nokton 58mm F1.4 SLII lenses yet?

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Martyn
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Or better, does anyone have their grubby hands on this particular bit of glass?

I really want a portrait lens and this is the one I'm lusting after, but I've not seen much - it's mostly based on my unfounded expectations :)

also, does anyone know of any UK stock yet?
 
I just thought I'd add a bit more info to this thread for those that don't know about this lens... It appears to be quite good from what I've read but I'd really like to hear the opinions of people in the UK etc.

Anyway, a great link with some samples --> http://www.dchome.net/viewthread.php?tid=443740&page=1&extra=page=1#pid5299678

And a picture to provoke some shallow but happy dreams :)

nokton_58mmf1_4_c.jpg
 
Ah wow, thanks for the reply. I have been lusting after that 50mm Planar too, but I did wonder about the aperture setting - do you find that a problem or is it as simple as adjusting it in a different place? And how about focussing when its stopped down? I presume the viewfinder darkens a bit?

I wasn't sure if photozone were going to get reviews of that Nokton so that's great news - I really badly want one, not so much for the sharpness but for the distinctive character and bokeh etc.

Can you hear me Santa???! :)
 
I don't know what body you use but on the D200 you retain full metering if you use aperture or manual modes. The aperture is then adjusted by rotating the aperture ring on the lens itself. The viewfinder doesn't darken at all when you stop down, not that I've noticed anyway.

I'm guessing you already know it's manual focus only? Manual focus wide open on these lenses is pretty hard as it's such a tiny dof so it can be frustrating at times but great when you get it right

Here's a quick shot at f/4 just so you can see the bokeh, please excuse the blown highlights in the bulbs. Exif should be intact

DSC_1349s.jpg
 
Ross that is lovely and it's exactly the kind of character I love... In fact, I've just blown £230 on that 58mm 1.4 because of you... Fingers crossed!!!

I have a D80 btw so imagine it would be the same. I thought that matrix metering might be out the window and manually focussing is a pleasure imo... I know you end up with fewer keepers but for portraits and stuff that doesn't move too its well worth it I reckon.

wow, I can't believe I just bought that nokton lens. whoops :)
 
Sorry to hijack. Is it true, the lower the aperture (or smaller the f number), the clearer and / or sharper the image? For example, there is a Nikon 50mm f1.2 lens for £600!!! Why is it so expensive and what kind of photography is it best suited for?

Thanks!

Gary.
 
Sorry to hijack. Is it true, the lower the aperture (or smaller the f number), the clearer and / or sharper the image? For example, there is a Nikon 50mm f1.2 lens for £600!!! Why is it so expensive and what kind of photography is it best suited for?

Thanks!

Gary.

F1.2 would be very fast with a shallow depth of field, so you could isolate something very easily (such as just the eyes, while the ears and nose remain out of focus) so you could get good pictures in low light. Also, because of the quality of 'fast glass' they tend to be at their sharpest a couple of stops down (so f2.8 would probably be the sweet spot for this lens, but it'd probably remain super sharp up to f8-f11) and in this case that's going to mean very sharp pictures without needing to raise the ISO too much or expose for so long you'll get blurry pics...

Best suited for indoor and low lit portraits and lenses like this tend to ooze a bit of character thanks to such nice out of focus blurring characteristics but still very nice for many things thanks to it's reach and flattering compression properties.
 
F1.2 would be very fast with a shallow depth of field, so you could isolate something very easily (such as just the eyes, while the ears and nose remain out of focus) so you could get good pictures in low light. Also, because of the quality of 'fast glass' they tend to be at their sharpest a couple of stops down (so f2.8 would probably be the sweet spot for this lens, but it'd probably remain super sharp up to f8-f11) and in this case that's going to mean very sharp pictures without needing to raise the ISO too much or expose for so long you'll get blurry pics...

Best suited for indoor and low lit portraits and lenses like this tend to ooze a bit of character thanks to such nice out of focus blurring characteristics but still very nice for many things thanks to it's reach and flattering compression properties.


Can you get an F1.2 lens with automatic focus built in? What about zoom?
 
not that I know of but a lens like that is a joy to focus anyway. Plus the DOF is so shallow it's better that you choose rather than the camera - most people would AF on the nose otherwise and lots of shots would get wasted when the eyes are all important.

I'd love that lens but the nokton will fill the gap for me hopefully... we'll see I suppose :)

as for zoom, there's no chance of a zoom lens that quick and it wouldn't have such specific characteristics either. Prime lenses always get nicer results with very few exceptions I expect.

Are you tempted by the lens on ebay? I was looking at it earlier too :)
 
Here's another shot to show the tiny dof and off-focus creaminess at f/1.4

Behold, the air conditioning remote control on my desk

DSC_6441s.jpg
 
I'm not sure if I imagined it but didn't Canon make a f/0.9 at one point?

All this talk of Zeiss and Nocts has me drooling, I keep an eye out for second hand Zeiss lenses but they go for such high amounts it's scary, sometimes more than a new lens (which is just daft)
 
I'm not sure if I imagined it but didn't Canon make a f/0.9 at one point?

All this talk of Zeiss and Nocts has me drooling, I keep an eye out for second hand Zeiss lenses but they go for such high amounts it's scary, sometimes more than a new lens (which is just daft)

There is some seriously good old glass out there and thankfully most people aren't willing to manually focus so it leaves it available for the rest but it still fetches silly money. The results of some are amazing though... I guess you just need to know what's what but its tough with so many lenses out there.

My old man has a 75-150mm series E lens which is so nice, and it's not fast either, something like f4-5.6 so I'm looking for one of those too - fingers crossed ebay lets one go cheap :)

Also have you seen the rodenstock heligon F/0.75 lens? That's pretty seductive looking even if it is a bit silly I still want it!! haha

http://www.naturfotograf.com/nikon_S3_rev_04.html
http://www.pbase.com/regit/heligon (y)

Actually while searching I bumped into this Kowa 65mm 0.75 thing too and that's got me salivating too

http://www.muellerworld.com/dsc5071/kowa_lens-6.3.jpg

EDIT - check this out, a flickr group with all pics at less than f/1.0 - http://www.flickr.com/groups/15112916@N00/ :)
 
There is some seriously good old glass out there and thankfully most people aren't willing to manually focus so it leaves it available for the rest but it still fetches silly money. The results of some are amazing though... I guess you just need to know what's what but its tough with so many lenses out there.

My old man has a 75-150mm series E lens which is so nice, and it's not fast either, something like f4-5.6 so I'm looking for one of those too - fingers crossed ebay lets one go cheap :)

Also have you seen the rodenstock heligon F/0.75 lens? That's pretty seductive looking even if it is a bit silly I still want it!! haha

http://www.naturfotograf.com/nikon_S3_rev_04.html
http://www.pbase.com/regit/heligon (y)

Actually while searching I bumped into this Kowa 65mm 0.75 thing too and that's got me salivating too

http://www.muellerworld.com/dsc5071/kowa_lens-6.3.jpg

EDIT - check this out, a flickr group with all pics at less than f/1.0 - http://www.flickr.com/groups/15112916@N00/ :)

:nuts:

Ive got a warm sticky mess in my pantaloons now!

:bonk::love:(y)
 
One question that has suddenly popped in my head is whether the metering systems on modern SLR/DSLR bodies can cope with a <f/1.0 lens. I've just had a quick shufty through my old f90x manual and it's lowest aperture setting is f/1. So I presume not only are we in the manual focus zone but also having to manually calculate exposure too?
 
Whoohoo - I got it this morning :D

nyepresentue6.jpg


I'll try and get some decent pics although usually useless with new gear, especially on a busy day like today... still, at least I'm not back at work quite yet :)

So far it seems sharpest at f/2.5 but I've only had a chance to hand-hold and although it's easy to MF, I know that I have a katz eye screen on the way so I really want to use it in combination with that. Anyway - lovely it is in the hand :D
 
OK, its been a bit hectic lately but seeing as there are so few images out there showing this lens and what it's like I thought I'd post a couple of crappy shots, but wide open so at least you can get an idea of what to expect... I'll try and get some 'out of focus' stuff like the remote control/laptop Ross posted up at some point too but you can get an idea of how it renders stuff from the images below :)

The above shot (previous post) was taken with it at f2.5 which is why its only the box and cap, and that f stop is probably where it start becoming very sharp but even at f/1.4 I'm quite impressed at this bit of glass... check out the following pics which are clickable so you can see them in their full size (3-4MB's each) and actually make a fair judgement.





Also, I should add that it's a pleasure to use - aside from being all metal, its got such a nicely damped feel to it. It's got a lot of distance to turn focus from one extreme to the other which means it's not exactly 'snappy' but I don't think you'd want a portrait lens like this any other way tbh - it's everything I hoped for :)
 
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