For ten days, I have been testing the Noktor 50mm f/0.95 lens. I bought the lens from Noktor and they were as kind to send me sample number 000000002 ;)
I have to say that I am not disappointed at all with the lens. I expected much worse results at f/0.95. The lens is very good at medium apertures and it is nice to have the f/0.95 aperture when you absolutely need it. Of course it is soft but it is very nice for “creative” use. The real strength of this lens is when you shoot videos. Videos taken with f/0.95 aperture are sharp -> take a look here on vimeo.

After a few days of testing I can give you some images taken with the Noktor 50mm f/0.95 Lens. By the way, now the lens is on its way to photozone.de where it will be tested!

Let’s start with the classic aperture test. Click on picture to enlarge:

I also tried to shoot at full aperture in daylight and the effect you get is quite “interesting” :)

This lens is very useful when you want to capture details:

And when you shoot landscapes at f/0.95 you get results like this:

The 100% crop of the last picture looks like this:

Shooting in fairly dark situations. The following three pictures were taken in very dark rooms. With no other lens I would be able to take these shots!

Some other pictures:

Should you buy the lens? It depends. If you don’t need the f/0.95 aperture there are plenty of cheaper lenses. If you want sharp f/0.95 pictures get the expensive Leica Noctilux 0.95.
Buy the lens if you want to make videos with it (yes it is good enough!), or if you like the “creative” effect at f/0.95.

Cheers!

Large format photography from 43rumors on Vimeo.

The cool thing about the Noktor is that f/0.95 aperture. So why not test the lens inside the darkroom? With no other lens I would be able to shoot in such a place. Take a look on the video to see the results. And keep in mind there was almost no light in the darkroom!
I found the f/0.95 aperture good enough for video shooting. Almost every part of the video has been taken at that aperture. Shooting handheld with a 100mm (50mm x2) lens is not easy. In fact you really need a tripod to take some “calm” pictures. But I didn’t have anyone with me on that day.

You asked me to post RAW images and original videos. Right now I am putting all the images together and I will upload them soon (it will take few hours).

By the way, the lens is in Stock now: http://noktor.com/products.php.

This is my very first video taken with the Noktor 50mm lens. All images have been taken at f/0.95.
The images with the two women were taken inside a Pizzeria. My goal was to move from one person to another and see how well I can focus when recording with f/0.95 aperture. The focus ring from the Noktor is very smooth but you also have to rotate very long from 60cm (distance of the young lady) to 2-3m (distance from the “older” women). That was the main issue I had because I needed to rotate the focus ring two times (with a short stop in between). That’s why you see the delay when I try to focus from on person to the other. The good news is that images do look pretty decent. Focusing the eyes of the person is easy when you shoot indoors (on the Olympus E-P1 screen).
One thing I did not like was the position of the focus ring which is close to the mount. I would preferr to have the aperture ring close to the mount and than the focus ring and not viceversa.

My first impression is that the Noktor lens is far more usefull for video purposes than photography (at f/0.95). I will add more videos soon.

Let me know what you think and what you want me to test for you!

I found some time to take some shots when I was out for lunch today. The first thing I noticed is that it is very difficoult to focus correctly when you are in hurry and in outdoor conditions. Probably an electronic viewfinder would help a lot. I will redo some portrait as soon as I have more time. So do not judge the lens based on my shots!
Here some portraits (feel free to download the images but please not use the pictures for any commercial purpose)

Images taken with the Olympus E-P1 (.jpg / normal settings) + Noktor 50mm f/0.95

And finally my lunch! :)

And teh review is available here:
The Pier: Test shots done with Noktor F0.95 50mm with Panasonic GF1 from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

http://philipbloom.co.uk/2010/03/10/review-of-noktor-f0-95-hyperprime-50mm-lens-for-micro-four-thirds/