Designing the 'perfect' lens

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi folks

I have been putting some thought into what would constitute (for my personal tastes) the 'perfect' lens:

* 'Normal' FOV - I use a FF camera so this has a diagonal around 43mm; therefore a lens close to this length.
* Relatively fast - at least f2.8
* Aperture with a lot of blades, forming a perfectly round aperture and closing to f32 for deep dof work.
* Able to outresolve my 24mp FF sensor throughout the frame, even to the corners at full aperture.
* No vignetting or light falloff, even at full aperture.
* Apochromatic (or close to it)
* Smooth bokeh free from bubbles, swirls or any other fancy stuff
* Modern multi-coating - free from veiling flare even when shooting against the light
* All metal construction - built to last and survive hard use
* Long travel brass helicoid for smoothness and precision

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions, let's have some fun with this.

[padam]

Sounds like the APO-Summicron 50/2 to me Although that goes to f16.

Or the Zeiss ZM 35/1.4 that only goes to f16 as well but very respectable even at that aperture.

Or an Otus 35 - if there will be one, that should have longer focus travel than these two.


Or maybe there will be a medium format mirrorless camera with a 645z sensor in it and you can use the Otus 55/1.4 on it as a 43mm lens (supposedly has a bigger image circle than FF but no proof yet)

There are some option although not cheap and not quite the same FOV - maybe the new Nikon 24-70/2.8 VR at 43mm although zoom tend to have busier bokeh and very different construction

[Lightshow]

* 'Normal' FOV - I use a FF camera so this has a diagonal around 43mm; therefore a lens close to this length.
I'm with you on this, though I do prefer wider lenses in general.
* Relatively fast - at least f2.8
No issue with 2.8
* Aperture with a lot of blades, forming a perfectly round aperture and closing to f32 for deep dof work.
I love lots of blades and a round aperture, f18 is fine for me.
* Able to outresolve my 24mp FF sensor throughout the frame, even to the corners at full aperture.
At least 70MP.
* No vignetting or light falloff, even at full aperture.
I don't mind a bit, it's easy to correct for.
* Apochromatic (or close to it)
Sure
* Smooth bokeh free from bubbles, swirls or any other fancy stuff
This I don't know, The lenses I like the most tend to have interesting draw and bokeh.
* Modern multi-coating - free from veiling flare even when shooting against the light
+100, though the lens design has a part to play.
* All metal construction - built to last and survive hard use
Yup
* Long travel brass helicoid for smoothness and precision
& yup.

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions, let's have some fun with this.

The closest lens I have to this is
Leica R 60 Macro
Contax G 45/2

[padam]

Anybody used the Alpa 50/1.9 Macro Switar? From what I've gathered, it is apochromatic as well.

I guess it is not that good for flare since it is old, but the rest might be nice.

[JohnBar]

Of course, people have opinions on what is the perfect lens.

A good start point is to obtain expired patents with lens data and model them in optics software, to improve the design using different modern glass

The results of simulation will give you mtf data for your world beating design.

I suggest a DG is a good start point

then you need customers.............................................................

[tb_a]

Obviously your vision for "the perfect lens" is quite comparable to mine.
I don't tell you any secret that there is no such lens in existence.

However, the lens which comes closest to that would be the "LEICA 50mm SUMMICRON f/2 with near-focusing range" (1956-1968) in Leica M mount.

Here is a rather good article about this lens: http://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/50mm-f2-dr.htm

For the 24MP FF SLR I don't know of any lens which is able to come close to your wish list or the lens mentioned before.
I am not too unhappy about my Minolta AF 50mm/1.4 on my A850.

[DConvert]

My first SLR lens (A Pentax M50/1.7) came close enough to those criteria for me.

F/1.7 is OK though I'd like to go faster sometimes, f22 always seemed small enough to me.
Bokeh could be improved with more/rounded aperture blades but it's very rarely been an issue.
The resolution may not be up to your requirements but it's certainly adequate for A3 prints (My Dad used one for 18 sheet advertising posters IIRC)
All metal & good MF construction - Yes.
Multicoated - Yep, got that too.
Never seen issues with different wavelengths - which with IR work can be a problem with Apochromatic lenses. Fixing the third wavelength point can make for very steap deviations outside the visible.

Personally I like to play with a much wider range of focal lengths & sometimes want fancy swirling Bokeh. I can't see any one lens ever getting close to my requirements. A sharp, ultra-apochromatic 10-500mm f /1.4, with true macro ability... is likely to be too unweildy - and I enjoy selecting the right lens for a shot

[bychance]

All the above but found in a Chistmas cracker..... on boxing day of course

[paulhofseth]