Comments on: Nikon patents for this week – Nikon EVIL camera again

By: El Aura

El Aura — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:46:19 +0000

Phase detection requires that the sensor can look at light coming from one particular angle only. This is done by having (second) aperture in front of the AF sensors. The imaging sensor cannot tell from which angle light is coming from.

By: cem

cem — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:18:12 +0000

tired of those patents. we want to have fast primes! Hey nikon, dont you listed to the consumers? I am about to switch to Canon which I hate. But I have to, because of these 1.2, 1.4 primes.

By: mike

mike — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:34:40 +0000

A mirrorless camera system (especially one with a 2.5x crop factor) needs to have its own mount or it losses its raison d’etre. The whole point is to reduce the flange back distance; if they kept the 46mm flange back distance, lenses would be even more complicated to design than for DX (even short telephotos would need to be strongly retrofocal), and the camera would be huge when compared with MFT. Who wants that?

But as you say, there will be an F-mount adapter. Just don’t go expecting AF-D lenses to autofocus.

By: Astrophotographer

Astrophotographer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:36:53 +0000

This application at least was filed by Nikon last Feb, so it’s nine months now. Seems the patent office is slooow at publishing them.

By: Astrophotographer

Astrophotographer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:34:02 +0000

All these lenses have a short back focus. They can’t work with the Nikon F-mount. But it is reasonable for an adapter to use F-mount lenses on a new micro-mount camera.

I’ll speculate that Nikon would patent a new mount, so we may see one. Unless Nikon reads NR and stops submitting patent applications just to spite us…

By: [NR] admin

[NR] admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:36:20 +0000

I certainly hope that they will keep the F-mount. I am not sure the filed patents provide any info about the lens thread. I don’t think Nikon will introduce a new “Micro” mount. If they do, they will also come up with an adapter.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:15:58 +0000

Those aren’t patents, they’re patent applications.

By: [NR] admin

[NR] admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:58:33 +0000

sometimes the time between the patent filing and the lens release are shorter – see the table in this post:

http://nikonrumors.com/2009/08/11/more-nikon-patents.aspx

In the case of the 50mm f/1.4 was just few days.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:44:06 +0000

Forgive me if I seem a bit daft. This ‘mirrorless’ camera would have interchangeable lenses. Therefore, are they the same size threading as a standard SLR would be? Would we be able to make a nice 125 tele out of our 50 1.8?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:27:20 +0000

If they are just now filing patents, it is usually about a year before production. My guess is that they won’t announce until they are at least ready to start putting them down the assembly line.

Now, a lot of timing varies from one industry to another. I’ve never worked in this industry, but it’s probably like a lot of other technical industries. So my guess is they have some working prototype at this point and are looking at manufacturing right now.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:24:54 +0000

I don’t think that is a problem with the size so much as the method. My guess is Nikon will be getting a better sensor and a lot of those problems will be resolved.

By: Astrophotographer

Astrophotographer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:41:14 +0000

For the lens, the patent shows exceptional aberration correction. On paper it’s one sharp lens.

So if Nikon is pursuing an EVIL camera how soon would they announce? PMA?

By: Son of FE

Son of FE — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:54:43 +0000

Maybe Nikon had another reason for releasing the DX lenses this year. If they release an EVIL camera soon , it would release into a decent pile of DX lenses while they fill in with a smaller, lighter collection. Just a thought.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:23:08 +0000

Isnt there a problem with the sensor size regarding noise? m4/3 is already noisy at iso800>….

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:45:24 +0000

That’s alot of elements in that lens, no wonder it’s so expensive.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:41:05 +0000

Yes, 32/1.2 on 2.5x crop is 80/3 on FX (or 53/2 on DX). Not bad at all. The 18/1.4 is not too shabby either. Now let’s see if they also have a 9mm coming …

By: Davo

Davo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:38:27 +0000

I agree re: the patent section. It provides interesting discussion regardless of whether it leads to a product. Thanks NR!
With regards to the hypothetical 32mm f1.2 lens for a 17mm format sensor, am I correct in saying the effective FX equivalent is 80mm AND f/3 equivalent dof?
Obviously in terms of exposure, f1.2 is still f1.2 but at FX equivalent f/3 dof’s not bad for a sensor format that can potentially have big dimension savings compared to m43.
I was initially put off by the 2.5x crop 17mm sensor format thinking it’s too small but if all the nikon EVIL lenses are small and very fast like f1.2, then it makes for a compelling system if not too pricey. I can see a price premium for nikon but I for one may be willing to pay for it if build is good. Not sure about the crowd who want to use their legacy lens via adapter though, cos here the 2.5 crop would still make too big a difference IMO.

By: martin

martin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:23:40 +0000

I just like the sound of Nikon EVIL… >=)

By: PTG

PTG — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:53:50 +0000

Thank you for the patent section. It will become my favorite one.

By: [NR] admin

[NR] admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:41:42 +0000

Niko, I think you are correct. This is why I still insist to post every rumor, even if it doesn’t make sense. As time goes by, things will start making sense. What was crazy about this post were the specs.