What happened with Noktor? A year ago they launched their Noktor 50mm f/0.95 lens for Micro Four Thirds but the lens is out of Stock since May of last year. I tried to contact them but I didn’t get any answer. So I am asking you if you were able to get some news. It’s impossible to find that lens on [shoplink 15629 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] or in any other store. The website itself hasn’t been updated since a long time! it’s a bit pity because they really had a good start with a lot of viral advertising on forums and blogs. It was the first non Olympus/Panasonic lens with Micro Four Thirds mount and it has that amazing f/0.95 aperture (although the image quality is low). I am surprised to see that they stopped to ship the lens without any explanation.
Check out: http://noktor.com/
There are many other 50mm f/0.95 lenses on eBay but you need an adapter to use them and they are expensive:
– Navitron 50mm f/0.95 for $700 [shoplink 21028]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
– Canon 50mm f/0.95 for $2500 on [shoplink 21030]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
– Schneider 50mm f/0.95 for $4500 on [shoplink 21029]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
– Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux-M for over $10000 (!) on [shoplink 21031]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
30 Responses
Isn’t this the company that sells repackaged CCTV lenses for M43? They got the Goyo Lens company in Japan to put M43 fittings on their CCTV lenses and rebrand them. Closed-Circuit TV lenses are usually inferior to still photo lenses.
As of January, you could find them in stock here:
They are the exclusive US distributors of Goyo Lenses.
I wouldn’t agree “a lot of viral advertising” is a good start. I would say for good start you need good product quality.
isn’t the navitron the same as the noktor, except for the modified mount?
probably the company behind the noktor doesn’t have the resources anymore to adapt the original lenses to m43?
The internet has enabled some of these fly by night entrepreneurs to make a splash in the marketplace without actually having anything of substance to market other than maybe a modified and repackaged lens that was already available in its original cctv configuration. All you need is a slick looking website and a few example products to prime the marketing pump with a few influential blogs/websites to get the ball rolling. The eBay based SLRMagic lenses are another example of this type of smoke and mirrors marketing scam. Buyer beware!
I own SLRMagic’s 35mm 1.7 lens. I would not say that they are a scam. Their new 26mm toy lens has gotten quite a bit of good press.
SLRMagic is way different from Noktor in terms of price: a lens shipped will cost something like $70. The Noktor was sold for $799 IIRC.
They are similar in terms of what they are: mount adapted C-mount lenses. And neither is a scam: those who order will receive the product. In the case of SLRMagic, they are also very responsive to questions and remarks. My guess it’s a few guys who try to make a business, which I think is fair enough.
Now, I think Noktor just jumped in a niche when they saw huge demand for very fast lenses in m4/3 that was not being met by Olympus and Panasonic. Right now, there are more established companies like Voigtlander, Zeiss, even Samyang, that will make m4/3 lenses at the same price point (in the case of the Voigtlander e.g.) or even less (in the case of Samyang).
SLRMagic is in a totally different price level: toy lens is exactly what they are. Cheap, funny effects, not necessarily made for the best optical quality. A bit like Lensbaby I guess (but even cheaper)
If the price was ~200 USD I definitely would buy it.
But not for 750…
The arrival of established lens makers adapting their own designs to m43 means the we’ll likely see no more from Noktor. Noktor saw a hole in the marketplace and seized the opportunity.
While I thought their lens to be an overpriced and poor quality conversion many seemed to be interested. Maybe the attention Noktor garnered helped encourage real lens makers to take a look at m43. If so, then good on them.
Either way, I hope they made a little money for their trouble.
My light meter doesn’t even go down to f0.95
it was a chinese company, they are here one day, gone the next.
Slow rumor day? 😉
It’s Sunday. let me rest a bit 🙂
Maybe Noktor was just a cheap test funded by some company like Voigtländer to find out how many people are actually willing to buy such lenses…
Just for the record, I have no problem with the post. I was just having a bit of fun. Good work on the site, as always.
you deserve, man 🙂
There’ll be couple of slow rumor months – blame it on the earthquake 🙁 .
Blame Godzilla…
Crappy, over-priced products don’t last long in the market place, that’s what happened to Noktor. It was a scam from the get-go, and many folks on this and other forums said as much. For the few with deep pockets who purchased this lens in search for some low light Nirvana, I’m sure it became a quick reality that large aperture at any cost isn’t always worth the price. That, and the launch of the Voigtlander 25/0.95 with a similar price point and much better IQ I’m sure didn’t help.
Your Canon link goes to Amazon.
(just about) every link here goes to amazon (or a retailer of some sort). it should be named 43AdvertisementsWithSomeRumorsNewsAndMiscellany.com.
but i enjoy the site.
Fair enough: Admin is putting so much time into this site, he better bring home some cash (or at least not letting it be a money drain)…
I’m pretty much OK with all the miscellaneous news about other manufacturers, links to shops etc. But the last few days show something interesting:
“HOT: Preorder the new Panasonic and Olympus stuff”
“Fuji X100: …”
…
…
Such a mystery! Mediocre product, high price, name blatantly trading on another company’s rep… what could possibly go wrong? Maybe it would have worked out better if they’d called it “Noctilucky” and charged 3x as much?
or “Leicash”
Why would anyone buy this Noktor crap for the same price as magnificent Voigtlander 50 F/0.95 (same spec)?
Definitely for the 50mm over the 25mm
A random google search shows discussions saying they bought a bunch of lenses, hyped it up, sold the few, and ran out of stock or something and can’t find anymore.
Hi, I have a doubt, Why the 25mm f0.95 Voigtländer have written Nokton? I thought they were the same company
“NoktoN” is a Voigtlander lens. “NoktoR” is a cheap knockoff somebody made by sticking a physical m4/3 mount on a C-mount cctv lens and calling it a “hyper-prime,” whatever that means. Such lenses are made to capture images on security cameras in dark places, not with the priority on image quality beyond what it would take to identify someone in a police photo.
At the shop where I work in, we had several people come and ask about the Noktor. Tried to contact them about getting a sample to decide if the quality was high enough to consider distribution and retail agreements (our manager was curious for stocking maybe 3-5 of them at a time, no more and maybe less, in a major metro area photo shop). They never responded, seemed not to have marketing or sales staff or in any way really to be a professional company. Not surprised they’ve gone away, probably just some guys buying the cctv lenses at a few hundred bucks each and the mounts for a few dollars, paying a factory in china a few bucks to badge and finish them and shipping.
These guys probably made a good profit on immature photographers who thinks speed is everything. Wouldn’t surprise me if they have awful seals and sub-par gearing and start crumbling to pieces in a few years.
Thanks
I think this company was started by a guy named Solomon Chase – he’s an extremely talented filmmaker and graphic artist. I remember when he was one of the first to have his hands on a couple GH1s and then heard he was trying to launch this mft lens company… He probably went back to what he’s best at… shooting and editing.