O/T: 90mm f/1.0 -- but from guess-who?

[Rich Silfver]

Block the seller...

Why would you block the seller?

 

[Rich Silfver]

Mounted: http://photo.net/bboard-uploads//00ExAR-27669784.jpg

The lens was a special purpose lens made in the 60's and was never mass produced (it supposedly never got past a prototype phase where a very small quanity got field tested).

Focusing through distance rings (50m, 100m and infinity).
Not coupled to the rangefinder.

Rumoured to be intended to be used by the Navy to take evening/night photos of enemy submarines and ships. Very rare in any condition.

 

[IGMeanwell]

That's completely obscene on a rangefinder... can understand why it never got past prototype

 

[Sonnar2]

For what type of film was the optical correction? B&W, Infrared?

 

[StuartR]

Is it really much faster than the Canon 85mm f/1.2L? It is only 5mm longer and half a stop faster, with massive limitations. The 85mm f/1.2L is much smaller (though no cupcake), focuses to .9m (or at least the FD one does...), is available in AF slr mount, and takes normal filter sizes. Oh, and it is less than 1/10th the cost. But anyway, this is not about practical considerations, but about collecting, in which case the 90/1 is pretty crazy.

 

[raid]

Photographers are being stopped in public places for security checks; can you imagine how a photographer might be treated when carrying such a lens (on a cart?) and walking into a public place???


Raid

 

[ywenz]

don't blame the lens for obstructing the view, blame the RF design.

Why would the military want to use something like this with a RF Leica? SLR all the way..

 

[StuartR]

Because navies have used and liked rangefinders for a very long time...how do you think they aimed the guns? (that is only half a joke...they did make extensive use of rangefinders for aiming, but I doubt it had anything to do with this lens) But this lens was not designed to be focused. It was for taking photos of ships at night. The ships will be rather far away, which makes the choice of 50m, 100m or infinity quite easy. Obviously, this was not seen as a particularly successful product, otherwise they would have produced them in quantity.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I would love to see image samples of this bad boy ... can someone declassify the photos from this thing? 😉

LOL. I really can't imagine how razor-thin that DOF would be. Catwalk bokeh...mmm.

 

[raid]

I have the 85mm/1.2L in FD mount, and it is a very useful and practical lens to have.

Raid

 

[John Robertson]

In 1934 Leica made a Summar 75mm f0.85 lens. There is a picture of it in
"The Leica and Leica System " by Theo Scheerer
Its D of F at 1 metre was 8mm; and at 6 metre 35 cms. the only surviving example is in the Leitz museum in Wetzlahr. I saw it when I was there in 1972.
It was designed for photographing Osiloscope screens