When will we start seeing fast mirrorless primes as standard?

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Caporegime
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So far, most of the equivalent full frame focal length lenses for the mirrorless format cameras like the m4/3 range are relatively slow compared to their full frame equivalents, while still being priced at fairly similar ranges.

So when are we going to start seeing say 25mm f/0.7 lenses for m4/3 to give an equivalent image to a full frame 50mm f/1.4 etc?

The metabones speed booster is nice, but native lenses are well overdue rather than using an adaptor.
 
D.P. said:
The answer is likely never with a few caveats.

Nikon, Olympus, Fuji and Panasonic have all produced f/1.2 lenses and for m43 you can buy Voigtlander f/0.95 MF lens in 17.5mm, 25mm and 42.5mm.


You are unlikely to ever see many primes faster than the f/1.4 to f/2.8 on mirrorless because the entire purpose of mirrorless cameras is to have a smaller system. When you design a lens to have equivalent DoF to larger sensor camera by increasing the lens will increase in size in proportion.


1 stop increased aperture requires at least twice the size and weight.
if your primary factor in photography is DoF or low light ability then you should be trying to use faster lenses on a smaller sensor but using a camera with a larger sensor (ande having faster lenses).
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Mirrorless bodies are the future though, and since Nikon and Canon aren't going to stop producing their f/1.4 full frame lenses it's going to leave the smaller format sensor bodies like m4/3 increasingly less attractive as far as I can see if they don't produce large aperture lenses to compete with the very cheap f/1.8 primes from Nikon and Canon for their inevitable full frame mirrorless bodies. All the while Nikon and Canon can produce very cheap f/2.8 prime lenses in a small package to out compete anything Olympus et al can offer.
 
It just seems to me that making lenses that gives a system the versatility to do anything a full frame equivalent can makes the system much more attractive, you can use small lenses if you want to walkabout and larger ones for more serious shooting without having to have multiple systems. As for the Nikon 1 series, since Nikon are already the market leading full frame SLR manufacturer there's obviously no pressing need for them to offer such fast lenses at this time, they aren't losing any business.

I'm personally more concerned about the dof, not the noise with regards to lenses like the 35-100 f/2.8. Well and the fact that despite it's equivalent to f/5.6 it's price doesn't reflect that!
 
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paul10 said:
mirroless holds no bounds as to lenses they mostly all work with adaptors, some even work with speedboosters on crop sensors ,even some adaptors give auto focus although expensive ,i would imagine full manual lenses like leica and zeiss would have an advantage on mirrorless due to focus peaking .not sure but think the latest zeiss otus lenses are manual.
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Yes they work with varying results with an auto focus adapter, but since a m4/3 sensor for example is 1/4 of the size of an SLR sensor you get an image with the noise and dof of a lens two stops slower compared to using an equivalent full frame sensor. A lot of resolution is also thrown away. I can only dream of a 100mm f/1 to match the images of the Canon and Nikon portrait primes.
 
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D.P. said:
A 100mm f/1 lens on m43 is equivalent of of a 200mm f2.0 lens on FF. Have you seen the size and weight of those lenses?

If you can afford those kinds of lenses and that kind of of weight then m43 is not really for you.
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Yes I have had the pleasure of using them, they are a work of art. :D
 
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