Leica Noctilux

Since the good old days, Leica has been one a few lens makers to create extremely fast aperture lenses for camera. The Leica Noctilux f/1 is a good example and that cost about USD$7,000 a piece. But as with all gadget freaks, I often wonder what happens to it once you spend that sort of money. The Leica Name has always been associated with exquisite lenses so it won’t appeal to those who have poor eyesight or are just plain color blind. It’s not what you see through the viewfinder (god sakes, its a M series lens for a Rangefinder) but the resulting images captured using the lens. Leica have exceptional glass and each piece is carefully polished to meet the specs required to bear the Leica name. Of course you can use this same lens on your M4/3 system. Just that you probably have to pay for it by selling your left kidney (or right) along the way.

All this sounds very unattainable until a new third party micro four thirds lens maker came into the scene recently, with a brand new name called the Noktor. This is a lens maker and their new offering looks pretty interesting.

Noktor's new 50mm super fast lens for M4/3

This is a first for the M4/3 mount cameras as it is a dedicated mount and will work right out of the box for your G series or EP Pen cameras. The only caveat? It’s a manual lens. So for those of you who have been complaining about AF capability on the M4/3 system can skip this.

For those who are still keen, well the lens can be order directly from their website for USD$750 a pop. That’s far cheaper than the Leica of course so you can keep all your organs. It looks big but its not, and yes, I would not mind buying this lens if I could walk down to a local shop to get it. But I can’t. This lens won’t be available till April.

This 50mm lens (which translates to 100mm in m4/3 speak) will be used but not fully appreciated by photographers for one simple reason. The Depth of Field (DOF) is simply just too shallow to be of any good use on a daily basis. Let me give you a good example. I have a CV 40mm, f/1.4, which is about half a stop shy of what the Noktor is capable of. And rarely would I think of using it fully open.

Shot using Noktor, by David Leggett.

Refer to the image on the right and you’ll see what I mean. The model’s face is what you are looking at but on closer examination, you’ll only know that the point of focus was the ear, and that is the only place that is sharp. This is one of the test images found on the site and it has no EXIF data as well. So we won’t know for sure if the image was actually shot using some prototype lens or a working one. The colors look good, and shot in low light, it is spiffy to look at. But seriously, how many of you would like to make shots like this where the DOF is no narrow that if you pointed it at anyone and used it at full open, only the nose would look sharp.

What I can see however is such a lens being used in movie making. In movie making, you can get creative by pulling the focus in and out between two people in a scene, and it makes perfect sense to use such a lens for video work. So if you are thinking of jumping into the video bandwagon, heck, this is a good start. Besides, AF is no bloody good in video work as they run circles around the different subjects found on set. This has to be set manually to truly tell a visual story. Selective focusing has been a technique used to great effect both in advertising and in the movies. So there is no reason why you can’t start your own backyard production right in the comfort of your own bedroom.