Image courtesy: Imaging Resource.
I swear, I never heard of that “onion effect” before. But It’s good to hear that the expensive [shoplink 46017]Nocticron 42,5mm f/1.2 lens[/shoplink] is the first Aspherical lens NOT showing that issue! Imaging Resource reports about a meeting they had with Panasonic engineers. Currently all Asperhical lenses on market show these strange concentric circles or spirals to appear in out-of-focus highlights (See image on top, very right image). Panasonic says their Nocticron is the first lens getting rid of them. The image on top shows how the effetc were on the Nocticron when they started to develop the lens. After 1 and half year the effect was gone (circle on the very left).
Panasonic is the only worldwide company that can produce these kind of aspherical lenses yet and Imaging Resource writes:
What’s more likely in the short term, though, is that other camera and lens companies may just purchase aspherical elements from Panasonic for critical applications. Panasonic already produces a huge volume of aspheric lenses for other manufacturers, and the people I interviewed for this article indicated that they would indeed sell aspherics made with this process to others … for a price.
Read the full story at Imaging Resource.
You can buy the lens at Amazon US (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). In UK at Wexphotographic (Click here). In Germany at Redcoon (Click here), Technikdirekt (Click here).
47 Responses
I wonder if Panasonic is partnering with Leica in producing at least in part their lenses for their new T model.
Leica said their T lenses are not made by Panasonic, and they don’t come from any other camera brand either. Then again, dpreview found out that the T system standard zoom does rely heavily on digital corrections, contrary to the expectations which had been fueled earlier…
but SteveHuff said that all modern lenses rely on software correction so all is OK 🙂
Yeah, let’s add some more clueless geeky websitess into the equation, maybe photozone or dxo, the more the merrier:)
I have always read negative comments from you.
Bollox (and company), is a broken bitter man. He just can’t deal with the success of m4/3. He spends most of his waking hours trashing this forum and has never even slightly dampened the enthusiasm of the M4/3 community.
Like an athiest spending his entire life at church . . . psychotic behavior to the fullest extent of the law.
I am an athiest at church LOL and I offend Geeko’s toys. Geeko loves his toy very dearly.
Oh petal I am so sorry.
They are very likely at least a supplier.
Leica has hardly manufacturing capacities to launch a new system. If T would be successful, then they might bring some of the manufacturing back in house. But at the moment, it is very highly likely that most of the manufacturing is out-sourced to reduce the financial risks in case of failure.
Since Leica’s partnership with Pana has long history, it is conceivable that Pana is that manufacturing partner.
Them saying that Ts are not manufactured by Pana might be just a wordplay. After all, Leica M cameras are officially labeled “Made in Germany” while it is a common knowledge that they are actually manufactured in Portugal.
Well done , Pana !
No wonder the Nocticron is expensive .
I’ll try my best to have the lens even in this difficult time ( unemployed ) .
I am very very happy with my Nocticron, absolutely love the rendering! It’s the main reason I picked m4/3 over Fuji X.
Hopefully the Leica DG Summilux 15mm F1.7 I going to get will have the same optics elements ( free onion effects ) .
Admin to update accordingly .
Being an onion photographer, I no longer want this lens. 🙂
Has anyone shot some video with the nocticron and if so how does it perform ?
I call BS. Never seen onion effect with Leica asph lenses. Panasonic are the guys with the small sensor and the high prices right?
You mean high quality. 🙂
LOL
> Never seen onion effect with Leica asph lenses.
Sure. After application of “Henri Cartier-Bresson” filter in ACR, conversion to B&W, with grain and noise for some measure, one would hardly see any distortion.
Angry? Envious? I thought so.
No way. Panasonic is the vacuum cleaner manufacturer, you know. The whole article is just a big typo, you should read Canikon aspherical lens instead.
That’s is true what Imagine resource wrote.
Panasonic is the first company can make aspherical lens by molding technique with micron accuracy.
True, of course. Just a little *sarcasm* 😀
I see
It’s a great lens, hands down. I would say it’s a must have lens if a) you love this system and b) you can afford it. I’m more than happy with it.
Actually, what does it mean: “If you can afford it?”
I still do not think that this is a Must-have, because it is 1600€ (which is like the 45 the 25 and 75 from Oly or some other combination of lenses) and I believe that what it would give me more over the 45 at my current level is not even worth 200€.
So, the must-haveness definitely is related to your skill level and of course as you mention how affordable it is for oneself.
But I am sure those who can appreciate what it gives us/them over the 45 will have a great time with this lens. 😀
I try to explain: to me the biggest “problem” of Nocticron is its price. I would say it would be better to price it at 1200 €/$ (there will always be soneone complaining about the price though). I know it’s not necessary to own it: we (me also) can use MZuiko45mm and be happy with it. Some posts ago, here on 43rumors, there were comparision shots taken with 42.5, 45 and 75mm. As I wrote under that post (last Saturday If I’m not wrong), the 45mm, with its price, “wins”. From those pictures you can’t see that much difference. 75mm looked sharper. And of course has a different, stronger, background compression. But those photos were taken with the model standing near a wall. Try the same comparision and you’ll notice the 3D pop up of Nocticron, as well as the bigger compression of 75mm.
Not to mention that the sharpness (center image) of Nocticron is impressive. I’m not rich at all, I’m going to get married soon but I managed to save enough to buy it. It’s not mandatory to have, it’s “just” a great (expensive too) lens that makes you want to go out and take photos, and it’s all that matters. 🙂
Okay, i just replied because I am a student doing photography as a hobby. But I saved some money and could therefore afford thath lens, but that wouldn’t be a smart move from me…. XD
Also as far as I understood you make money with the images and then this price might become just a pricey investion that will be fine after 5-10 shoots or so? And congratulations on your upcoming wedding! 😀
Unfortunately photography is not my main job.. 🙂 And nowadays it’s really hard to work just with photography: I have different friends and all are doing also something else for living..
I can only tell you that if you buy it, you won’t regret it at all.
And thank you! 🙂
Notice to uninformed readers – freedom of information act – truthful information act.
On 135, a 1.8/85 stopped down will outperform this NoctiToy big way, making up an optically equivalent combo for a lot less money – optically equivalent and way better in any other way. And no, not much bigger, either…
Sweet fairy, please fly to another forum, I suggest you Canon or Nikon. I don’t care about other 135mm products. Not here. If I need to admire a Monochrom and use it, I borrow it from a friend. If I want a ricoh gr or whatever Fuji, the same. Guess what, I don’t want to use my friend Nikon Df and Zeiss 85mm. And surprise, he still prefers his Fuji T1 with his 53mm f1.2. (And he loves Nocticron, because he is a photography fanboy like me, not someone like you)
Now let me look for some Lensbaby and enjoy photography. 😉
(You should try to be more positive in life!)
Some (dimwits) haven’t got the means to learn, and will not care, but others might. The fairy talks for them. You must learn to respect other people’s opinions, even if you don’t understand them.
The fairy has a tip for you too: save money and go compact – your “art” will not regret that.
nice try. “onion effect” yeah right! another marketing term.
What a bunch of marketing bullshit. Name me one modern high end (or even mid range) prime that has NO asph. element. In reality, almost every modern prime uses at least one, usually several asph. elements and onion rings rarely show up.
Asph. elements and onion rings have primarily been a problem with zooms. This is obviously just another prime with asph. elements and no onion rings, just like all the others. It comes with a ridiculous price tag though.
Maybe it’s me, but I still se a lot of onion effect in the middle image, that (if I’m interpreting correctly the diagram) should be after one year development…am I getting it wrong? And I wholeheartedly agree with james here: almost every lens I have has aspherical elements, and none show onion effect, although I have no Panasonic lenses…what’s the deal?
Scrap that, I read the whole article and the latest is on the left…that makes a lot more sense!
This is not a small achievement at all! The onion effect can be seen in OOF bokeh highlights (The Sigma DN 30/2.8, for example) and it is real with every asph lens out there (barring the Noct Nikkor and the original Noctilux 50/1.2). Even the current Leica S lenses show them.
While it is great progress, the few samples starting show this after 3 months shows that it is work in progress.
Congratulations Panasonic! 🙂
I hope it is cheap and will trickle down to cheaper lenses.
There is no need to develop such solutions, it’s easier to implement leaf shutter + minor focus movement during exposure (in software), which will improve bokeh in more significant way
No mystery here. The ”Onion Effect” is the normal diffraction of pattern concentric rings exhibited by all lenses when the lens is out of focus on both sides of the in-focus image when viewed at high magnification on either side of the in-focus. ALL LENSES have this. The real term for this is called AIRY DISK. These airy disks are used by opticians and amateur astronomers to test the quality of the lens. The best lenses will have the outermost ring the brightest. This means a higher amount of light is concentrated in the outer ring…leading to a high STREHL ratio. Having several top-tier APOCHROMATIC TRIPLET TELESCOPES, we use the AIRY DISK to test our lenses…with either a real star or a laser point source. Even telescopes with mirrors have this AIRY DISK. Again, ALL LENSES have this, including aspherical lenses. APSH lenses are chiefly used for correcting focus on the periphery of the image. It will improve the AIRY DISK on this periphery. But the AIRY DISK will always remain. The bestter the lens, the more detailed AIRY DISK will be. The only way to eliminate these ‘onion rings’ called concentric rings…is to blur the image. You can simply make a bad lens or do in-camera image blurring.
Did you read the information in that link?
It’s quite clear that many of the responders here did not fully read or comprehend the article.
Onion bokeh can come from molded aspheric lenses and does not imply that all lenses that use molded aspherics have onion bokeh. A lot of previous high end lenses that used aspherics do not necessarily have onion bokeh because of the optical design or because they did not use molded aspherics (but rather ground aspheric elements which don’t have this problem).
Great article that answers a lot of questions.
Now that we have one more pointless nerd’s view, we can sleep tight.
Well, thank You – I can need some good sleep…
Panasonic is the only worldwide company that can produce these kind of aspherical lenses yet
that´s pure bullshit….
I think when you look at a photo with such highlicht blur points, the onions dont matter
Panasonic seem to be quite good at making aspherics in general. I venture to guess that that’s one of the reasons they are able to make such an excellent 20/1.7 pancake when other companies struggle with similar lenses even at larger f-numbers.
Now that I know about this onion rings problem I better start checking my pictures.