The 58mm f/0.95 Noct lens at £6,000 is in some ways silly, although probably extraordinarily good.
58mm lenses were produced to clear the mirror when changing from rangefinder full frame to SLRs, which used 50mm lenses. They were easier to design.
Then 57mm, 55mm and finally 50mm standard lenses, as glass types and computer design took hold.
The Nikon Noct lenses have been absolutely top lenses, some hand aspherised, although the Canon FD hand aspherised lenses are cheaper used. They are used in scientific research.
The Leica 50mm f/1.0 is also top notch.
Wray designed an f/0.57 lens in the 1950s? and Zeiss made the 50mm f/0.7 for the Apollo missions in the 1960s.
Stanley Kubrick famously used these in Barry Lyndon?
The Minolta Super A rangefinder camera from 1957 had a 50mm f/1.8 lens that is amazingly good even today.
Because of the challenge from camera phones all the lens makers are producing larger and crazier lenses at high prices, when an old small 50mm f/1.8 lens is good enough for 99% of photos.
Who makes A0 or A1 size prints, and who needs 60 megapixel cameras?
Yet the camera makers are trying to force the public into believing these are necessary.
A 100 year old box camera can probably produce beautiful photos still.
I have a photo of Amy Winehouse taken with a Canon A650 IS with a very small sensor.
The prints are A3 and A2. Everyone asks me for these photos but they are not getting them.
Standard f/0.95s are nothing new, although a professional may be able to use the Noct 58mm well.
It is also a bit silly as ISOs up to 102,000 produce good photos and ISO 12,800 very good photos.
f/0.95 lenses were probably made 70 years ago. With 100 ASA film they were indeed useful.
Regards,
B.