It took a couple of years but Sony today reminded us all that it still can do lenses for the APS-C E-mount system :)

Preorders (start on Jan 11):
18-135mm lens at BHphoto.
Silver A6300 at BHphoto.

The Emil Busch Glaukar 3.1 Lens is now on Indiegogo.

The Legendary Emil Busch Glaukar 3.1 Lens – Now on Indiegogo

After successfully funding the reinvented 1910 Emil Busch Glaukar 3.1 Anastigmat Lens on Kickstarter, the two renowned German photographers Benedikt Ernst and Firat Bagdu are ready to start production and are bringing the lens onto Indiegogo giving those photographers who missed the previous crowdfunding campaign a second chance.

Now that the production is planned and is beginning to start with a “0 series,” the pair decided to make the masterpiece in portrait photography available to anybody who didn’t hear about the lens in the first run. Like on Kickstarter, the lens will be available in a classic bronze colored version as wall as in a classy Titanium look. Additionally, add-Ons such as a sun shade or creative filter set consisting of five different effect filters will enrich every photographers’ portrait photography. The two founders point out that both sun shade and filter set will be available as well for their previous Kickstarter backers since the items were not included in their former campaign.

The original Emil Busch Glaukar 3.1 is a more than 100 years old lens and at that time was introduced as one of the most important lenses in portrait photography. Stunned by the beauty of pictures from 1910, the two photographers Benedikt Ernst (fashion) and Firat Bagdu (portrait/wedding) have reinvented this classic as a modern portrait lens. The pair has partnered with well-known optical engineer Dr. Wolf-Dieter Prenzel for the optical construction. Production will mostly take place in Wetzlar, Germany, to ensure the highest quality of materials and manufacture. The Emil Busch Glaukar 3.1 will be in supporters’ hands already in June 2018.

The new Glaukar 3.1 will have the same brass appearance and silhouette as the original but will be constructed from high-end aluminum with a brass-like oxidation, which ensures the durability and mechanical precision of a modern lens. But while the new lens will look very much like the classic, the inside has been redesigned by Dr. Prenzel, completely from scratch to work with today’s high-tech gear.

Due to its specially coated lenses the new Glaukar produces a fascinating mixture of sharpness, strong colors and, along with 12 aperture blades, wonderful bokeh effects.

Ernst and Bagdu, whose clients have included some of the world’s most renowned companies such as Rolls Royce, Redken, Chopard, to name a few, knew what qualities they wanted in a lens – it was just a matter of getting a lens designer to translate their concept into a serial production. In fact, it was the success of one of their clients, German lens maker Meyer Optik Görlitz, that inspired them to start their own project. Meyer Optik has even put the pair together with key German camera contacts in Wetzlar, Germany, to help support the founders.

Manufacturing will be done to a large extent by Uwe Weller Feinwerktechnik in Wetzlar. Schott and O’Hara glass will be used in the lens. The partnership with Uwe Weller GmbH will ensure that the high-precision elements of the lens will be produced precisely to Prenzel’s design. Uwe Weller is the result of the merger of several firms, including the mechanical divisions of Leica Camera and Zeiss-Hensoldt.

The exclusive use of Schott and Ohara glass ensures that the goal of creating the perfect portrait lens is put into practice exactly intended.

Part of their inspiration came from the legendary Glaukar 3.1 that pioneer German lens maker Emil Busch introduced in 1910. The original Glaukar was a groundbreaking lens because it corrected for spherical aberration, coma and astigmatism – something that no other lens in daily use could do at the time. Not even Zeiss and its famed lens maker Paul Rudolph had been able to match the Glaukar since their designs required coatings not available at the time.

The modern Glaukar will come in all the major mounts.

Little (or better said nothing) is known about the future Nikon Full Frame mirrorless system camera. All we know for sure is that Nikon promised to launch a new professional mirrorless system camera in 2018.

Thom Hogan best that this could happen in late February at the CP+ show:

“I expect Nikon to announce their new mirrorless system at CP+, which for 2018 begins with the month of March. I expect Nikon to have both DX and FX mirrorless options by the time Photokina rolls around next fall.”

But what should we expect? Thom writes:

The optimist says that Nikon will realize their failures and add DX lenses, fix the consumer DX DSLRs, add DX mirrorless, add FX mirrorless (as a Df replacement, with a nod to retro), announce lens roadmaps, update the D5/D500, replace the D750, and Holy Sensor Batman add a higher pixel count D5x and at least one pro-level compact! Yeah, that’s some optimist.

The problem is that the cynical me is likely more correct than the optimist. And the reason is management. In retrospect, management has been making wrong calls for some time. Really bad calls.

More rendered images of Nikon Full Frame mirrorless camera on Facebook and Instagram.

Imaginary A7 vs Nikon FF :

Sony A7 vs imaginary Nikon FF mirrorless. #nikonmirrorless #sony #sonyalpha

Ein Beitrag geteilt von NikonMirrorless (@nikon_ff_mirrorless) am Jan 3, 2018 um 1:11 PST