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Future of Super Fast Lenses?

novice9

By novice9
in Leica M9 / M-E

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novice9

novice9

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I'm wondering what the future holds for lenses like the lux's and the nocti, even the cron's. Yes, they offer important subject isolation capabilities, but their principal appeal would have to be low light capabilities. Just wondering what folks think will happen with these lenses over the next 20 years or so. Do people think that leica ISO's will get so good that lens speed, while not irrelevant due to depth of field control, becomes much less important. So that consequently the value of these fast lenses purchased today might turn out to be far less than has historically been the case with Leica lenses? I realize this is a highly speculative question, but I thought it would be a fun and interesting one to debate. thx.

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Bo_Lorentzen

Bo_Lorentzen

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Most users purchase fast lenses to use the limited dof creatively. this may be a fashion right now, but will probably stay.

 

I used my nokton this morning at 6:45 gotta love shooting handheld at 160. Somehow I suspect that the way pixel peeping are going, there will always be a desire for a faster shutter speed at lower ISO's, short of a chip-shaker, fast lenses are the way to do that.

 

.

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jonoslack

jonoslack

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Hi There

Interesting idea.

 

Well, first of all you have to assume that still photography as we know it will continue for that long. The convergence of video and still cameras suggests to me that might not be the case.

 

Assuming that it will carry on, and assuming that you're right, and 25,000 ISO and higher become good quality and commonplace, then I guess you have to decide whether those who want the very limited depth of field will be enough to warrant the continued production of the lenses. I'm sure there would still be a secondhand market.

 

Personally I like to shoot in low light, but for me, if you took away the problem of high ISO, then I'd be using small, light and cheaper lenses and put up with f2.5 (or even f4).

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dpattinson

dpattinson

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My impression, from the discussion and what I see posted to Flickr, is that the majority of interest in fast lenses is the dof, rather than low light work.

 

Take a look at the Noctilux flickr group and it seems to me that actual low-light (that would require f1.0) shots are in the minority.

 

I think it's safe to say that if people are willing to pay for a Noct for the bokeh - then fast lenses will be safe for a while yet ;)

 

Occurs to me as well, that in a jazz club on Sunday at f1.4 and 2500iso I was still shooting at 1/8-1/15 sec... so at say 25000iso (+3 stops or so) I'd be able to shoot at 1/90-1/125... hardly a motion-freezing shutter speed.

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luigi bertolotti

luigi bertolotti

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What will the future bring to sensors' technology ? High ISO is a sure bet... but why to exclude that a breed of low-ISO sensor will arise, with some specific charateristics that can make them desirable fro certain kind of photpgraphy ?

Apart this speculation, shallow DOF and very high speeds are both desirable things and I do not envision a loss of interest for, say, f 1,4 lenses... ok, Nocti is a thing apart and I bet that surely there will not be efforts to extend the "under f1 magic" to other focals and/or designs... ;)

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adan

adan

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Even if ISO 100,000 becomes the norm, an f/1.4 lens will always allow 2 stops less noise, or more action-stopping capability, than an f/2.8 lens. I really wouldn't lug around a 75 f/1.4 if there were not times when f/1.4 just saves the picture from noise or camera shake or subject movement.

 

The limited DoF from fast lenses is both a blessing and a curse, especially using a rangefinder. But when the light gets gritty, it's something I put up with....

 

Nikkor 85 f/1.8, ISO 400 film processed in straight Dektol to about EI 6400. 1/30 @ f/1.8

 

BTW, f/1.4 isn't "Super"-fast in the range 35-85mm - just "fast" - IMHO

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LeicaS2

LeicaS2

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Before there was high ISO range in film or digital, all I cared about was using fast lenses to get the shot. Once everybody with a P&S with a small sensor could get those shots with complete DoF, I moved to the creative feature of selective DoF, that a P&S couldn't do, Same as why motion shooters wanted 35mm film vs smaller sensor video, until Red One.

 

So, yes fast lenses will be desired into the future.

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sanyasi

sanyasi

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Hi There

Interesting idea.

 

Well, first of all you have to assume that still photography as we know it will continue for that long. The convergence of video and still cameras suggests to me that might not be the case.

 

 

My Canon 5D, Mark II has video capabilities. Have never bothered with it. You may be right about convergence, but there is something completely different about a photo vs a video. Thinking about the difference strikes me as a good way to define the "decisive moment," something of an open ended term. The reason I can't stand video travelogues is that who needs 10 minutes of footage showing a world famous monument. Not a lot of insight from that. Yet when I take a photo of that monument, I need to think about how my photo will be different from others--that means really thinking about what I am trying to convey about what I see. You can do that with video, but I rarely see it coming out of consumer camcorders.

 

Jack Siegel

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novice9

novice9

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100.000 Iso or integrated HDR should be pretty common in 5 years.

The futur revolution of photography is 3D, and it is already here.

FinePix REAL 3D W1 : Features - 3D Shooting | Fujifilm Global

 

Maybe the M10 will have 2 lenses !?

(In this case I'll buy zeiss...)

 

 

wow that is way cool! but now i'll need to buy 2 nocti's for my m10....

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AlanG

AlanG

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If shooting at large apertures for shallow depth of field is so important, then why doesn't Leica have low ISOs - around 10 or lower? (Especially if you don't want to shoot in bright light at extremely high shutter speeds.) Maybe they can find a new market as the "low ISO champs!"

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250swb

250swb

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Leica originally developed fast lenses because the available film speeds were low, so shallow DOF artistry was never a raison d'etre for the design of the lens in itself. The fact that this has become a mythical reason to use fast lenses is as bogus as you can get. It isn't 'the' reason to use a Leica and never has been in the wider appreciation of photography, but it has been the reason in a small vocal an insular part of the Leica community.

 

Lets face it, if film speeds were up to what they are today, or the higher equivalent in digital, do any of the 'wide open to the max' community truly believe HCB would have used 'wide open' so much, and by necessity? Of course he wouldn't, and its about time the 'fast lens' mantra was devalued in the Leica bible as an aspect of photography with Leica, and not the reason for photography with Leica.

 

Steve

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lct

lct

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Why buy a Noctilux when a bit of blur and vignetting in Photoshop will give you the same results?

Vignetting OK but blur? I would be quite happy if you could explain me how to mimic DoF blur with PS w/o getting unnatural results.

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