What new things would you like to see in LF lenses?

[Tin Can]

Jac, wrote, 'Glassless lenses are next in the evolution of image renderings.'

Absolutely!

[genotypewriter]

Lenses haven't gone out of style. Unfortunately, large sensors have gone out of style, as the phrase "cheap large digital sensor" is currently a contradiction in terms.

It's easy to confuse popularity with direction. Just like with film, what's popular in digital hasn't always had the biggest sensors... but if you're taking the time domain in to consideration, you can see that larger and larger sensors are becoming the norm. Full frame cameras are now $1900 or less brand new and they are found even in tiny point and shoots now. Medium format digital is also available for under $7000 brand new.

As for lens optimization, that's actually a factor of optical physics. There's a sweet spot for lp/mm, and it doesn't matter what the lens' maximum or minimum aperture happens to be. LF makes up for that just by being freakin' huge, so a falloff of resolution doesn't hurt the image much.

I think the impact of diffraction is giving you the impression that there's a common peak for all lenses. And larger image circle of large format lenses is not necessarily achieved through a special lens design but by simply making the lens bigger (larger focal length)... so it would be incorrect to say that the large image circle compensates for resolution. In absolute terms, the larger image circle lens has less resolution per unit area than a small format one.

Bring back the fast lenses! Put the whole Xenotar line back into production (including the 210mm). When used ones from 40+ years ago are selling for $2-3k, there's obviously a market there.

Bring back some fast aerial lenses too. Imagine how good an aero ektar could be made with modern glass and coatings? Probably pretty spectacular.

Interesting you say that... makes me think of how the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 sells for crazy prices even though there has been two new versions that are faster (f/1 and f/0.95). On the other hand, up until Zeiss re-released their 21mm f/2.8 Distagon in Nikon and Canon SLR mounts, their old C/Y version used to sell for very high prices. Can't think how it'll go for LF lenses like Xenotars and Aero Ektars, etc.


Nice to hear everyone's opinions so far

[Ben Syverson]

There are so many great LF lenses out there which are sharp across the entire frame... Small formats need to fuss with high index low dispersion elements because the imaging area is being enlarged so drastically, and because those users demand huge ƒ/1.4 apertures.

It seems to me the area to innovate is shutters! I would love a #0 or #00 size self-contained electronic shutter. You would set the ISO of the film on the dial, aperture would adjust as it does now, and the shutter speed could be set to manual or automatic (aperture priority).

It should use the same meter philosophy as the Minolta CLE: instead of putting the light meter outside, put it inside, looking at the film. It would read the light reflected by the film during the exposure, and close the shutter whenever the film got enough. That way it would automatically compensate for filters and bellows factor. Pretty cool! You could even do LF pinhole with autoexposure.

[Tin Can]

Ben, careful big thinker!

Why not?

I love your ideas!

There are so many great LF lenses out there which are sharp across the entire frame... Small formats need to fuss with high index low dispersion elements because the imaging area is being enlarged so drastically, and because those users demand huge ƒ/1.4 apertures.

It seems to me the area to innovate is shutters! I would love a #0 or #00 size self-contained electronic shutter. You would set the ISO of the film on the dial, aperture would adjust as it does now, and the shutter speed could be set to manual or automatic (aperture priority).

It should use the same meter philosophy as the Minolta CLE: instead of putting the light meter outside, put it inside, looking at the film. It would read the light reflected by the film during the exposure, and close the shutter whenever the film got enough. That way it would automatically compensate for filters and bellows factor. Pretty cool! You could even do LF pinhole with autoexposure.

[John Kasaian]

Actually I'm quite happy with my old school Ektars and Artars and projection petzval, but having the larger slip on series filter adapters available would sure be nice