APS-C is the new full frame and has been for years. Sales figures of APS dwarf the larger sensor.
Fujinon glass is also world-class...
Robert,
It’s also possible to say that an iphone is the new full frame, and has been for years
🙂
And, if we’re just considering what people “need”, or are perfectly satisfied with, or will render images that the owner really likes, then everyone’s glass is pretty much world class at this point.
I’ve heard people saying that, as medium format digital has become more affordable, now it’s the new full frame.
There is something for every taste these days, and we’re spoiled for choice.
There are attributes to bigger lenses, really big lenses, that are not to be found in smaller lenses, and Nikon is hardly alone in providing those. The Leica SL lenses, Zeiss Otus lenses and most of the Zeiss Milvus lenses, fast Sony mirrorless lenses, Canon, etc. They are all pursuing optical perfection, wide apertures for “perfect bokeh”, faster AF speed, etc, yada, yada, yada.
We’ve had great, smaller lenses for years, lenses that people still love, such as the lenses Mandler designed. We’ve had those, and so the frontier still available to lens designers and camera manufacturers trying to answer the consumer question, “Okay, what else can you show me? What have you got that’s
better?” About the only thing that’s better than what we already had are lenses which are better according to lens metrics, not necessarily better according to “does it render a photo in a way that pleases me?”
By way of an example for illustration, I have the 50/1.8 S lens and a Z7, and recently bought a 50/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH. If we are just considering lens metrics, the things you can quantify, such as center resolution, midfield and corner resolution, distortion, correction for every kind of chromatic aberration, bokeh whose quality doesn’t vary so much at different apertures and different distances, not to mention the AF, the Nikon eats the Summilux’s lunch. It’s technically a much better lens, for something like one seventh the cost. That’s what bigger gets you. I knew all that going in, but bought the Summilux, mostly because I actually like the effect on rendering produced by the Summilux’s “faults”. The reasons people have for loving Mandler designs are pretty much down to the effects produced by their optical shortcomings. Two of my personal favorite lenses are the 35 Sonnar on the Sony RX1, with its massive barrel distortion, which I much preferred to the 35 Summicron ASPH, which isn’t as flawed; Zeiss 28/2 “Hollywood”, same thing, and those are all pretty small lenses.
No matter what you want for your Nikon Z, or Leica SL, or Canon, or Sony, there are now lenses available which will give it to you. Some of them are big, some of them are small, but the small ones are definitely not “the same” as the big ones. The fact that that doesn’t matter to most of us is a good thing, since being happy with what you already have is a blessing.
