Why No Nikon f1.2 G Lenses?

Started 3 months ago | Discussions thread
Michael Benveniste
Senior MemberPosts: 1,320
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Re: Mount differences
In reply to Snodayz, 3 months ago

Snodayz wrote:

A serious question arising from some friendly banter I guess. Nikon used to maker very good f1.2's, but no more it seems.

Nikon still makes the same 50mm f/1.2 AI-S they've been making for since 1981.  They've never made an autofocus f/1.2 lens in F-mount, and gave up on the 58mm f/1.2 along with all the other lenses which used hand-ground aspherical elements.

With both of those older designs, the rear element is so large that there is no room for the AF "pins" and keep the element (and therefore any OOF highlights) round.  About 3 years ago, a brave soul "chipped" a 58mm f/1.2 NOCT by grinding away part of the rear element.

In the interim, Nikon's published a couple of patents for f/1.2 AF-S lenses in 50mm and 58mm sizes.  I'm not sure that either of these are feasible due to the distance they have to intrude into the camera body, but then again I thought the same thing about the 35mm f/1.4 patent.  So for those of you who care about such things, there's still some hope.

--
I miss the days when I used to be nostalgic.

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