Noct 58/0.95 - technical

[Nikfuson]

Couple of additional shots, both at 0.95.

[Eddie Draaisma]

Good to see from the work of Sten and Michael that it seems an exceptional Nikkor after all.

It is the second Z Nikkor with a dedicated control ring; I tried to use the dedicated control ring on the 24-70/2.8Z for aperture control but didn't like it at all. Click-less and too fast made it more or less unusable for me, ymmv. I find the oled display more or less useless too, because it switches off quickly after camera startup, and has to be switched on in case one needs it.

Btw over here in The Netherlands the 58/0.95 is available at the biggest two internet stores for tomorrow delivery...

[Erik Lund]

These are all amazing, no coma in the star images! Wow
We have a winner 
Tiny bit of purple fringing that's all, very nice!
 

[Airy]

very appealing pics. In addition, working out has now become superfluous. Would be nice if it were possible to change the resting arm

[Akira]

Couple of additional shots, both at 0.95.

Wow, now you are photographing, Sten!

[Erik Lund]

From the last image with the colorful lights hanging over the street, it's quite obvious that the Coma gets more and more pronounced as you move away from the focus plane. At the focus plane there are no visible Coma.
The images of the distant city lights was focused at a different distance than the lights, so shows Coma.Very useful test images, thanks Sten!

[Erik Lund]

The first photo from the 0.95-NOCT. Wide Open. The lens was scheduled to arrive last Saturday, which is why I had these flowers…fresh. Since then, the flowers went south. So, that’s the explanation for the flowers demise, which flowers are now finishing up.

The lens is MASSIVE. And so far, the only thing I am not happy with is that the helicoid turns a little stiff. Is this true for other users? It moves the lens on the tripod a little more than I would like. The bokeh is exceptional.

This is a stacked image, using Zerene Stacker.

Thank you for the image Michael! We see the lens is extremely sharp. And the Bokeh is wonderful. IMHO there is a very unnatural transition between sharp and unsharp, along the left stem as it continues down and away from the focus plane, looks very artificial. But ok the lens works as advertised One can also see from Stens video that the focus ring is on the stiff side,,, a design choice,,, probably not adjustable but who knows.

[Nikfuson]

Here’s an image showing the transition of focus.

[Luc]

Great report, Sten. Thanks a lot for all your work on this.

[Frank Fremerey]

@Erik: I guess the unusual transitions stem from the stacking choices, Michael made....

"painting fucus" as he calls his method

[Erik Lund]

Frank , it's how the stacking software chooses it should look. Not the lens

[Birna Rørslett]

To get a more "natural" transition into the more unsharp parts of the image with the stacking approach, one probably has to run a deeper stack with unevenly spaced frames front and rear. Otherwise the transition is painfully obvious.

The main issue with this approach is that the overall number of frames must be increased to avoid blurry zones within the planned depth of field, caused by non-contiguous sampling. What the Ultra-Noct gives with one hand it takes back with the other. No shortcuts here I'm afraid.

[John Geerts]

Landscaping at 0.95.

Very nice,

thanks for all the testing, Sten.

[Michael Erlewine]

To get a more "natural" transition into the more unsharp parts of the image with the stacking approach, one probably has to run a deeper stack with unevenly spaced frames front and rear. Otherwise the transition is painfully obvious.

The main issue with this approach is that the overall number of frames must be increased to avoid blurry zones within the planned depth of field, caused by non-contiguous sampling. What the Ultra-Noct gives with one hand it takes back with the other. No shortcuts here I'm afraid.

That’s true, we have to decide on a layer-step that will be fine-enough not to intrude. However, there are other things to consider as well. As an example, if the subject is spherical, that step-size has to vary, getting smaller (closer) as we step through a sphere. This makes stacking by motors difficult, since I know of no machine that can decide when to narrow or expand the step-size. As you say, “no shortcuts here,” yet, by the same token, nothing different IMO either from what we are used to stacking with many of the fine and exotic lenses. Of course, we can always set the motorized step to very, very fine. Yet, I still do a lot of what I call Short-Stacks, just a few shots to highlight this or that tip of a leaf or flower and not put the subject through such a large stack. Agreed, there is no free lunch.

The value of this lens, if I decide I like it (LOL), is that the bokeh possible at 0.95 can be punctuated with areas in the frame we want in very sharp focus. In other words, we can paint focus where we want it and as wide as we want rather than just one razor-sharp layer.

This does lend (at times) an other-world (or science-fiction) look or cast to the image, but it is one, for the most part, I like.

[Michael Erlewine]

So far, so good.  I very much like the 95-NOCT. It is a little like having a built-in focus rail because of the long focus throw, but we should keep in mind that the now classic Cosina Voigtlander 125mm APO Lanthar has a focus throw or about 630-degrees and the Leica 100mm Elmarit R is some 720-degrees, while the new NOCT95 has only about 360-degrees. So, the focus throw is not THAT long.

For focus stackers, this new NOCT95 is (seemingly) a perfect lens for focus stacking, due to the speed (and sharpness) of the lens wide-open. It is WAY expensive, but probably replaces my need for a number of other fine lenses, if I would sell them, which I probably won’t. LOL. I might sell my NOCT f/1.2 which is a very good copy.

This is a studio lens unless you want to haul it around, which I probably will (with a clear filter) next spring, but mostly I will not. As for all the extra bells and whistles on the lens, they mean little to me. The ability to rotate the barrel from horizontal to vertical does mean a lot, a great deal.

So, here are a couple of shots made in the very early morning light, with my eagerness to check the lens out. I believe I have got the general hang of it. I like it a lot.