The world’s fastest lens ever made for a digital mirrorless system, the new Ibelux 40mm f/0.85, can be preordered now in Germany at Technikdirekt (Click here) or Amazon (Click here). The price is set at 1799 Euro. Expensive…but terrific fast!
The world’s fastest lens ever made for a digital mirrorless system, the new Ibelux 40mm f/0.85, can be preordered now in Germany at Technikdirekt (Click here) or Amazon (Click here). The price is set at 1799 Euro. Expensive…but terrific fast!
*Please also check your spam folder if you don't get the confirmation mail. And mark the mail as "non-spam" to see the future newsletter.
66 Responses
Earlier, we could buy a 1.8/85 for a couple of hundred. Now, with the M43 advance, we need to fork out nearly 2 grand for an equivalent lens. It’s also huge. Embrace change suckers!
Better image quality compare to voigtlander?
That lens looks huge, much like the new Leica 42.5mm. Regardless, I hope it’s better than the Voigtlander, especially considering the price. Competition is great, but I love seeing it coming as innovation rather than more of the same.
This thing is massive!
Dimensions: 128mm x 74mm dia
Weight: 1150g
Holy cow, it weighs 100g more than my Nikon 300mm f4.5 EDIF!
I don’t care how good it is, I’ll keep my tiny and light (571g) little Voigtländer 42.5mm (+ $800)… which really is a beautiful lens on so many levels.
Still, it’s great to see more companies releasing lenses for M/43! It’s become quite an amazing system!
Agreed, those small f.95 primes are in a league of their own.
Now I realise the true purpose of this f/0.85, to makes us truly appreciate the f/0.95 lenses and buy more of them! 😉 It is a conspiracy….
“Fast lens” i hate this name. In other countries we talk about “luminous lens”, “big aperture lens”… But not “fast lens”.
As is “stopping down”. The act of stopping has no direction. If you can stop down, why can’t you stop up?
Opposite of “stopping down” is “opening up.” You not native like me?
“luminous lens” means “illuminated lens.” Make no sense at all.
And we should care about your opinion why?
It seems that the mirrorless lens ecosystem is seeing polarization. These days it’s either simple, mediocre zooms or terribly expensive exotic primes for “cinema” applications (stills look ghastly when shot wider than f/1.4 with those lenses). The number of reasonably priced, decent ca. f/2 primes seems rather small in comparison.
To be clear, I have no issues with ultra-fast lenses except nobody really needs them. Micro 4/3 users suffer an inferiority complex which makes them chase shallow DOF whether the photographic situation calls for it or not. Unfortunately this tendency often has negative impact over the thematic qualities of photographs. Perhaps it is time for an (equivalent) ‘F4’ movement.
If it is m43 it’s inferiority complex. If it is FF is cool and desirable. Really, I don’t get it.
I had the opportunity to borrow a Nikon Df with some fine lenses. Have been using this set for a couple of weeks now along my m4/3 gear. I find that extreme care must be taken to allow for sufficient depth of field. In practical terms there is no real advantage to FF as far as my needs go. M4/3 is not only good enough, it is actually superior to FF due to size (again, considering my own photographic style and taste).
Now we agree 😛
People saying “Full Frame” are usually the same people who didn’t know that Medium (or Large) Format exists. I see a lot of kit lens types buying 135 Format type digital bodies and they still can’t get a good photo on automatic settings.
GIven the Pro zooms Olympus have announced / released, and the 25mm f1.8, I don’t see quite the polarization you believe is happening.
I agree. I don’t say we must unite in a new F64 group (Ansel Adams), but too often the background is so blurred that you can only look at the subject and wonder where that photo was taken. This works in some cases, such still life and modelling, but in “real life” this trick hides a thematic lack, as you write.
Having said so, I think this lens should appeal those filmmakers who want to emulate Kubrick in his candlelight scene in Barry Lyndon.
Marco what do you mean with “in real life”? And I dont think we need 0.85 to imitate Kubrick , we now have high iso for that
Nobody? How should someone photograph street scenes after sunset?
i think you make the mistake to generalize how people use shallow dof. I could also say that HDR photography sucks because it makes a photo too digital in looks. But this only happens when you are obsessed with the effect too much.So please dont say we dont need shallow dof with ultrafast lenses.
I should have made it clear that my statement had a tongue in cheek element. It goes without saying most m4/3 users know what they are doing and don’t generally use shallow DOF when inappropriate. Nevertheless, I do believe anything wider than f/1.4 is beyond the sweet spot of this mount and should really be avoided (except for artistic uses). The same is mostly true for f/2.8 on 35mm sensors.
Wonder if the lens have AF ?
Really have to wait for Lenstip’s conclusion if I want to go for this lens .
Manual focus. I don’t need their official note to guess it.
I read that the exposure value using a focal reducer doesn’t go below what the values should be for the 1.1 lens due to the “Pixel Shading” effect?
http://admiringlight.com/blog/review-metabones-speed-booster-canon-fd-to-fuji-x/2/
The DOF control of the lens this fast behaves as one can calculate. Progressively more DOF control.
Is that due to focal reducer nature or is it something that always present on lenses this fast on digital cameras as the admiringlight article suggest?”
If so then using a old 55mm f1.2 will be a more versatile, cheaper option. Arguably sharper as well.
It’s definitely brighter than F1.1. I’m using a chinese focal reducer and 55mm F1.2. It’s amazingly bright. Really helps keep ISO lower than without using it. A NEW 50mm F1.2 Nikon plus Metabones speed booster is cheaper, and results in similar spec. Wonder how well this will sell.
I am looking forward to may own tests.
I have a Focal reducer coming to. 🙂
looks like the lens has a built in lenshood (one that can extend)
for 1800€ ill prefer a nocticron anyway
(or even a nocton/noktor as they are even cheaper)
Why would any sane person buy this over the Voigtlander?
To use as a weapon to fend off FF zombie trolls? 😉
😀 It´s a half stop faster, right? And for that you pay almost 1000 bucks more and get double the weight of the voigtlander – it´s like the barrel of a tank cannon.
I´m not one of the FF trolls but to me it seems ridiculous to pay 1800 EUR (who knows how much that is inUS $^^) for an 80mm 1.7 (or 1.6?) manual lens. Oh, we need quality glass for m4/3 – right – to make sharp Pictures at 0.85^^ lol, rotfl – sorry. It´s just cracy! just buy a Leica M and a lens – it´ll be sharper, nicer bokeh, lighter weight and when the Zombie apocalypse hits, you can make great FF pictures 😀
for comparison, the voigtlaender 42.5 f/0.95 cost ALOT more then the Olympus 45 f/1.8 too. (I leave the Nocticron out because the Leica badging does play a role there too) In many cases, every bit of extra stop gives dramatic impact on the price. We should all kept that in mind.And we should not expect that such type of lens gives better stats in sharpness but more in the way it renders the looks wideopen.
The person who wants it to be sharper than the Voigtländer lenses at f/1.0 or f/1.2 would probably buy it.
How do you know that it will be sharper? Because it´s more expensive?
I didn’t say that it would be, but it is more likely to be sharper at the same aperture, given that they were working to create a larger maximum aperture.
That “larger maximum aperture” is actually only 0.5 stop larger – that´s nothing.
So, you think it’s simple to design such a lens, just because the external numeric difference is small?
Did anybody realize that it’s NOT a native m43 lens? On the Amazon page it says available mounts: NEX, m43, etc. so seemly that’s an APS-C lens with m43 mount only… 🙁
wow, imagine this f/0.85 on a NEX APS-C camera!
I just dearly wish they could bring it out for Nikon DX.
No they could not. The mirror doesn’t allow to do that.
in practice, f/1.2 is the fastest you can go on Nikon DX.
damn that mirror! 😛
For 1800 Euro i would rather get a used/mint condition d800 much better investment imo…
Yeah me too….nothing beats this 36 mpx sensor (d800/e, sony a7r) especially as a landscape, fashion/portraiture, architecture photographer…..you get the feeling of MF (Hassy, Phase etc.) and nearly the color depth and resolution of the “low budget” backs from hassy/phase….but much better high iso capability with the d800/e….
It depends on your needs: a friend of mine (he shoots Hasselblad) showed me a comparision he made at ISO200 of an indoor photo. One taken with his hassie and the other being two sticked shots of a d800e. Hassie wipes out d800e when pixel peeping.
Same thing when we talk about skin tones: on the Hasselblad shots skin tones are “complete”, while on d800e they’re quite plain (compared to Hassie).
You can recover details easier from a blown highlight of a Hasselblad shot.
This at base ISO.
With this babbling I want to say that probably you don’t want to carry around a Hasselblad. As many people on this forum don’t want to carry around a big “full frame”.
A camera a better investment than a lens? Do some research please.
I wouldn’t exactly call any of those two an investment, but much less that lens if you ask me. The trade off for this lens seems like just wrong 99% of the time, leaving the resale value with a few unanswered question marks. As for the sheer joy of having it, I’d be hard pressed to imagine it as a walk around default lens… Ok, maybe a few keepers in your legacy, but are you willing to gamble on it?
D800 on the other hand, should you commit to that lens mount (You know, doffers may wet dream about it, but some actually uses it so its not exactly like there is anything wrong about it 😉 ) you accept the trade off, price, etc. you have a beast of a body that can certainly deliver for years to come. Resale value at the end of the cycle will be dirt cheap, but its what you do with it that counts 😉
If you buy the D800, you need the best lenses to make it work the best. Putting a cheap lens on it will only make for poor photos.
Small, light, high quality, low price. Perfect for M43 nerds.
The idiots with cheap 1.8/85s haven’t got it.
The idiots with proper cameras and cheap 1.8/85s have got the wrong end of the lampost – given the scale of this thing.
It’s 1.7/80, otherwise your point is correct, but the problem is, if all you’ve got is a M43 body, and there are perfectly good reasons to have one as one’s primary camera, then there is no such thing as a “cheap 1.8/85” or similar. Lenses like the 0.85/40 exist to offer for M43 what was until then thought to be possible only for FF, if needed and if the price doesn’t matter.
I would be curious to see some image samples from the lens before I preorder… not to say I will preorder, but I definitely wouldnt without having seen some samples…
Any idea where i might see some? This could be a very nice one trick pony for that extreme shallow DoF portraiture… Either way, $1700, maybe a D610 plus 85mm f1.8 would be a better choice in this case… Unless the lens has some appealing characteristics.
http://www.photographyreview.com/reviews/fastest-lens-world-handevision-ibelux-40mm-f0-85?referrer=hpFeed&pos=3#slider-pro-1-0
Hmmm, looks interesting. To be honest it may have the kind of character I am talking about… So for a particular project this may be worth the money… but one should really be after the particular look this offers.
I imagine if I am doing a set body of work, portraiture, of a certain style, A lens like this could very well give a very nice look to the images.
Anyways, thanks for the link, I hope to see some high res samples soon enough.
0.85 is fast. However, when I use the Metabones speed booster with my Canon FD 50mm 1.8, it effectively becomes a 50mm .80 on my camera. No autofocus, of course, but it sure is big and bright!
The Speedbooster max. f output is 0.90
Your 50mm f1.8 only becomes a f1.2 as far as light gathering is concerned.
lol, no! Am sorry, but one stop faster than f/1.8 is not f/0.8!
Here, check this out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number#Fractional_stops
Can do the same thing with a 50 f1.2 or 58 f1.4 and a metabones. Both the 50s and the German 40 are manual lenses. Both German and 50s are non-m43 mount either.
Maybe if it was much cheaper too.
Every new lens gets the usual mixed feeling from the mft community.
If it´s performance is up to it´s price tag, the mft community will praise and rave about that lens but until then all we have is a price tag and some specs…
Wup! Right you are. My apologies.
Oh why did this fast lens have to me 40mm (80mm in MFT) 🙁
I live for that equivalent of a Full frame 50mm f/1.4.>>> Essentially a 25mm f/0.7 lens for MFT.
build. must be difficult. huge lens 🙁
Voigtländer has one 25mm f/0.95 – is that not good enough?
I already have that lens. A 50mm f/2.0 does not fufill my desires.
Besides, that lens have swirly bokeh and it drives me nuts!
I’m not a fan of Bokeh with character. I’d like a lens with straight up “Gaussian blur”… It might be boring, but it’s the most perfect type of blur there is.
can you show us one of your pictures with the “swirly bokeh” that drives you nuts!?
curious because I have been considering that lens myself.