billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

This lens is a SPECIALIZED lens that 99.99999999999% of us, including professional photographers will never need.
To quote Nikon:
"Shooting point light sources like stars and nighttime cityscapes at wide apertures usually requires post-production correction for sagittal comma—an aberration where points of light appear distorted, like birds spreading their wings. Noct intensively eliminates sagittal comma across the entire frame, so point light sources are captured as perfect points of light, even at the peripheries."
"When subjects are backlit, incidental light can streak across the frame causing unwanted ghosting, reflections and flaring. To counteract these anomalies and ensure crisp, clean images, Noct employs two of Nikon’s most advanced lens coatings: Nano Crystal Coat for eliminating incidental light from a diagonal direction and new ARNEO Coat for eliminating incidental light from a vertical direction."
"Noct adopts a large-diameter ground aspherical lens element crafted from the finest glass, with outstanding surface accuracy. It has a high refractive index unattainable with molded-glass."
And lastly, it is a MANUAL focusing lens.

BebuLamar

I do not own Leica (although I wish that I could). Looking at Leica cameras and lenses in the stores I found they are well crafted and beautifully made. The price is high but I think they are worth it. But I don't own Leica, I don't know how sharp are the pictures taken by them. The images taken by Leica that I have seen online, in the museum, books are many great images but none shows their technical quality.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

NO, but, get this, it includes a special case.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

They already have done the first.

I don’t find wake up time an issue...when I remember to turn it on. It is very fast when in standby mode.

Bill_de Loc: US

DPreview did a preview of the lens. They had the lens to talk about it, but could only show Nikon produced images. He talked about the fact that there are, albeit very few, photographers that could truly benefit from this lens.

I don't mind spending top dollar for something that I really need or feel would really be a lot of fun. This is not one of those items for me.

BebuLamar

I have a question that no reviewer has talked about. The lens has a display that can display the aperture, the Z camera can display the aperture in the viewfinder and on its LCD on the back of the camera. What I want to know is if any of these displays ever shows f/0.95?

Bill_de Loc: US

My guess is that it will show the aperture in the camera like other lenses do. So there was no need to mention it. I wonder if this is the beginning of putting information back on the lens barrel?

the Noct (from B&H)
A top lens information panel is also incorporated, which allows you to quickly confirm aperture, focus distance, and depth of field settings

raferrelljr Loc: CHARLOTTE, NC

And about $7,000.00

Canisdirus

I have a feeling this will be a rental lens for the most part.
Folks interested will rent one (prudent)...
And then probably ... not buy one (prudent)...

Bill_de Loc: US

In what country? US is $8,000.

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BebuLamar

This lens like all other Z lenses has electronic diaphragm which can be set in steps. Normal step is 1/3 stop and the different between f/1.0 to f/0.95 is only about 1/6 stop.

Bill_de Loc: US

I figure since it is electronic, if it can send a signal to set the aperture at F/0.95 it can send a signal to display it.

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nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

It'll take all your money real fast!

Bill P

This isn't meant for individual photographers. A few will be sold to doctors and lawyers, and some to rental houses, and some will be sold to folks that will convert it to a cine mount, but the meat and potatoes of this are collectors. Nikon has, like Leica, attracted collectors, and it will zoom in value.

brontodon

Tony Northrup has posted a video about the new Z50 and I'm afraid I have to agree with him: it was a mistake to make this camera in the Z mount. They should have made it with the F mount. Most of the optical advantages of the Z mount accrue to full-frame sensors. Using it on a DX camera makes the camera significantly larger than it needs to be -- you can even see that the 16-50mm DX lens for the Z steps down its size from the gigantic Z mount to the front element. Most camera lenses are LARGER in diameter near their front element than the lens mount diameter.

Using the relatively petite F mount for the mirrorless DX cameras would have enabled Nikon to make them smaller and lighter, potentially a very big advantage of mirrorless cameras over the old SLRs. It would also have allowed the Z50 and subsequent cameras to take advantage of the enormous installed base of F mount lenses. True, it would not have allowed the optical advantages of the Z mount, but these are mostly for very wide and very fast lenses, presumably not the forte of DX shooters in any case.