Interesting Interview with Nikon Engineers

[chambeshi]

This is an Art of Photography YouTube video. Ted Forbes interviews legendary optical engineers Haruo Sato and Koichi Ohshita of Nikon 1001 Nights fame (and significantly more).

They describe the engineering and decisions behind the 58 f0.95 and 135 f1.8S Plena, plus covering many other topics.

Their explanation of the foundational planning and arguments to design the Z Mount confirms how Nikon thought out their strategy very carefully..... to avoid the stresses on design from the F-mount. "...we wanted a system that was easiest for engineers to design for..." The consequences are probing to be profound i(ncluding establish the Z-mount as the universal recipient for cross mount adapters.)

The improvements they describe go a long way to explain the impressive standards of modern lenses. They confirm the keystone roles of the new lens coatings, together with the unprecedented improvements in the properties and quality of optical glass.

0:00 NIKKOR: The Thousand and One Nights

1:26 Optical Design with a Photography Background

4:56 The Training Process at Nikon

6:33 How did The Thousand and One Nights begin?

9:17 Nikkor-N 5cm f/1.1 (1958)

12:19 Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 (1964)

15:32 Fantasy Lenses

18:52 AI Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 (1977)

22:38 AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D (1995)

25:23 AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G (2013)

29:01 Lens Design Today vs The Past

34:13 Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 (2019)

40:57 Why 58mm instead of 50mm for a lens?

43:51 Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena (2023)

47:21 Retro Design Lenses

49:19 What is it like to make your own lens?

53:13 Why these conversations are important

55:54 Coda

 

[Chrissi_82]

did not really watch the video, but it feels that Nikon is currently in a great spot regarding the competition. Following the introduction of the Z mount, they have now updated their camera line-up and cover a lot of ground. Pretty impressive what they offer - from great value entry level Z50II to high-end Z9. Also their first Red-video camera. Apart from the "I need a Z90 and a Z7 III" crowd, there can't be a lot of complaints. With the updated versions, their AF system is finally on par with Sony and Canon. Their product range has come a long way for the Z mount. Three of their cameras currently are in dpReviews best camera overview. The lenses as well. Bread and butter lenses, wildlife exotics, high-end niche lenses like the Noct or the Plena - all very impressive. The best thing for me is that they mostly do it at very attractive price point.s You will get similar products from Canon or Sony - but they tend to be much more expensive. I'm quite happy that I selected the Nikon ecosystem. Love their camera design, lenses so far travel well, and since they start to update several products, one could even get some bargains on the used market. Let's hope more people will see it this way and Nikon will increase their market share, so that the new product pipeline does not dry up.