ocean2059
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philip_pj wrote:
F2 lenses do have a different positioning in the mainstream world, that is true. This dates from the longstanding philosophy of 'faster equals better' that most makers adhered to until recently, when Nikon made its f1.8 Z series the technical lenses, and its f1.4 lenses the character lenses. Sony made the 50/1.4 as a true high performance lens, thereby positioning the GM 50/1.2 as its bokeh-oriented character lens. You can argue the giant pro 1.2 lenses from C/N are in another league entirely.
For Leica, often the most interesting brand to watch, f2 is the sweet spot for APO lenses and it's been this way for decades. And f2 lenses are easier to design and develop than f1.4/f1.2 lenses, so we see Cosina follow suit. User expectations will also play into this categorisation scheme.
In the current day, f1.4 lenses give lens designers the option to back off MTF for people photography and other character subject matter. F2 APOs are (in many opinions) just too strong wide open, hence the 'technical lens' moniker.
Aberration loads multiply fast with greater lens speed. It might be fair to say that f2 APO buyers are easier to please than f1.4 'character lens' buyers, who now expect f2 level performance at common apertures. At f1.4 you have much more outer element glass, greater refraction and wider front openings, more worry for flares and internal reflections in the fast lenses, wider filters.
Talking of engineering per se, the new Noctilux gives us a very good example of the above claims of mine. It took three years to produce, even with the 'starting point' of the 35/2 APO-M lens. Both of these are 10/5 designs - very rare these days. It's a time-proven design base, as most modern lenses go for designs more akin to this Zeiss ML 35/1.4 - 14/11, 15/11 and similar. Cosina's 35/2 APO is a tidy 11/9 design, to be Leica-friendly.
The age-old correction method features a series of achromat doublets to do the heavy lifting, and Leica were forced into using them by the 'narrow tube' of the M-mount, to constrain lens dimensions in both Noct and Summicron APO. (The SL 35/2 APO is an 11/9 design, close to the CV APO lens).
In fact, both these modern M lenses also use a triplet ($$$ and hard to make) as does the C-Sonnar, a pure character lens. It's a long-winded way of saying that high performance fast lenses are very hard to pull off in a low element count lens. It looks like Leica made the Noct discreet when viewed from the front - quite fitting for a $10k lens designed for street use in 2026. ...Show more →
Really enjoy reading your take on the state-of-the-art lens design of fast lenses, specifically on 35mm focal length. Tracing back to the origin of 35mm f/1.4 lens design, here are some interesting historic perspectives:
• Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 "Steel Rim" (1960 ~ now): 7 elements / 5 groups, Weight: 175g ~ 223g
• Nikkor-N Auto 35mm f/1.4 (1970) and later Ai-S version (1981 ~ 2020): 9 elements / 7 groups, Weight: ~ 400g
• Contax Carl Zeiss Distagon T 35mm f/1.4 (1975): 9 elements / 8 groups (1 aspherical), Weight: ~ 600g
• Leica Summilux-R 35mm f/1.4 (1983): 10 elements in 9 groups, Weight: ~ 685g
• Minolta AF 35mm f/1.4 (1987):10 elements / 8 groups, Weight: ~ 512g
• Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPHERICAL (1990 ~ 1994), 9 elements / 5 groups (2 hand-ground aspherical surfaces), Weight: ~ 320g
• Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH (1994 ~ 2010), 9 elements / 5 groups (1 molded aspherical element), Weight: ~ 320g
• Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM (1998), 11 elements / 9 groups, Weight: 580g
• Sony 35mm f/1.4 G (2008), 10 elements / 8 groups, Weight: 510g ~ 512g
• Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 VM (2008), 8 elements / 6 groups, Weight: 200g
• Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G (2010), 10 elements / 7 group, Weight: 600g
• Zeiss Ditagon 1.4/35 ZF/ZE (2010), 11 elements / 9 groups, Weight: 830g ~ 850g
• Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH "FLE" (2010 ~ 2022), 9 elements / 5 groups (Floating Lens Element), Weight: ~ 320g
• Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (2012), 13 elements / 11 groups, Weight: 665g.
• Zeiss Distagon 1.4/35 ZM (2014 ~ now), 10 elements / 7 groups, Weight: 381g
• Sony Zeiss Distagon FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA (2015), Optical Design: 12 elements / 8 groups, Weight: 630g
• Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM (2015), 14 elements / 11 groups (with blue spectrum refractive optics), Weight: 760g
• Zeiss Milvus 1.4/35 (2017),14 elements / 11 groups, Weight: ~1,170g
• Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 FE (2018), 8 elements / 6 groups, Weight: 262g
• Tokina Opera 35mm f/1.4 FF (2019), 15 elements / 9 groups, Weight: 950g ~ 1,090g
• Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 VM – V2 (2019), 8 elements / 6 groups, Weight: 189g
• Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 GM (2021),14 elements / 10 groups, Weight: 524g
• Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (2021) redesigned for mirrorless bodies, 15 elements / 11 groups, Weight: 640g
• Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH "Close Focus" (2022 ~ now), 9 elements / 5 groups (11 blades), Weight: ~338g
• Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN II Art (2026), 15 elements / 11 groups, Weight: 525g
• Zeiss Otus ML 1.4/35 (2026), 15 elements / 11 groups, Weight: 698g ~ 737g
It’s also interesting to note that the two first fast 35mm lens designs that started all these were the Nikkor W-Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8 (7 elements / 5 groups) for Nikon rangefinder lens in late 1955, and the Canon 35/1.8 LTM (7 elements / 4 groups) in 1956. Leica introduced its first version of the 35/2 Summicron in 1958 but was the first to design the true f/1.4 in 1960.
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