A 40mm f/0.85 for Your EOS-M?

[grahamsz]

Looking at the sample images here (scroll to "Sample photos with SONY NEX-7 Camera"), the bokeh looks distracting

Yeah i'm leaning towards not-acceptable. The effect is neat on the xmas tree but it doesn't give the separation that you'd normally want from a fast lens. I suppose it'll be good to see some full resolution crops too - hard to tell how bad the CAs are on those images. If it has stellar loca performance then it might find a niche.

[RobPan]

"If you know of any other extremely fast lenses, please share it with us.
Kind regards,
Rob.

Here:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_speed

Thank you for this interesting link. The champion is the Zeiss 40mm F0.33, but this one is not useable for photograhpy.
The late Lex Werkheim told us the fastest lens possible would theoretically be a F0.5, but he did not tell us how this was calculated.
Anyway, I think 0.85 is already too fast to be useable in real life photography, except possibly aerial photography (over a flat coutryside) or x-ray photograhy. The only advantage of such speed that I see is that it makes focusing easier in the dark.

Kind regards,

Rob.

[CarlTN]

Looking at the sample images here (scroll to "Sample photos with SONY NEX-7 Camera"), the bokeh looks distracting

Yeah i'm leaning towards not-acceptable. The effect is neat on the xmas tree but it doesn't give the separation that you'd normally want from a fast lens. I suppose it'll be good to see some full resolution crops too - hard to tell how bad the CAs are on those images. If it has stellar loca performance then it might find a niche.

The images aren't terrible, and the color looks interesting...but I agree, the bokeh has a very strong ring around highlights.  For such a shallow DOF lens, everything that is light in a shot is going to have a ring around it.

I wonder if the medium focal lengths such as 40mm to 100mm can be designed with an aperture this fast, and not have strong rings around bokeh highlights?  If so, how would it be done?

[CarlTN]

"If you know of any other extremely fast lenses, please share it with us.
Kind regards,
Rob.

Here:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_speed

Thank you for this interesting link. The champion is the Zeiss 40mm F0.33, but this one is not useable for photograhpy.
The late Lex Werkheim told us the fastest lens possible would theoretically be a F0.5, but he did not tell us how this was calculated.
Anyway, I think 0.85 is already too fast to be useable in real life photography, except possibly aerial photography (over a flat coutryside) or x-ray photograhy. The only advantage of such speed that I see is that it makes focusing easier in the dark.

Kind regards,

Rob.

I do aerial photography, and I can't imagine ever needing such a fast aperture.  Of course what I do is in daytime.  It would be useful for night or low light aerial photography (or perhaps during very dark, severe storms...assuming you're crazy enough to fly in them!).

Interesting tidbits about the Zeiss and the fast aperture theory.  Zeiss also made a 90mm f/.9 or something, didn't they? 

I for one, would like a 30-120 zoom with constant f/0.9, autofocus, and image stabilization...with bokeh as smooth as Canon's 135 f/2!  Would that be possible?  The front element would be 130mm or so, and it would be heavy...but surely it's not physically impossible...

[dgatwood]

I for one, would like a 30-120 zoom with constant f/0.9, autofocus, and image stabilization...with bokeh as smooth as Canon's 135 f/2!  Would that be possible?  The front element would be 130mm or so, and it would be heavy...but surely it's not physically impossible...

Only if by "physically impossible", you mean "physically impossible to carry".