UPDATED: Noktor is dead…or is it not?
UPDATE: The website is back online! Noktor is alive!
This is the old 43rumors post:
You remember the 50mm f/0.95 Noktor lens? One of our readers just noticed that their website is gone. Check it out: http://noktor.com/products.php. I tried to contact them but I don’t get any answer. Lat time I heard them they told me that they wanted to make specially designed MicroFourThrids lenses. But that was 3-4 months ago. Someone knows more than me?
P.S.: The only place to watch if you want the lens is eBay (no auction now).
kesztió
3 years ago |Don’t like the idea that Cosina has no rivals right now.
Duarte Bruno
3 years ago |Rival?
That’s a joke right?
This lens could only compete in speed! When it concerned IQ, they fell behind any of all the super fast ~50mm F1.2 out there.
I never understood how someone would pay an excess of 650$ for this lens when the Konica HExanon 57mm F1.2 is going around in ebay for half that price.
YouDidntDidYou
3 years ago |theie Twitter hasn’t been updated since May
but their WHOIS
Domain Name: NOKTOR.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 26-sep-2010
Creation Date: 25-sep-2009
Expiration Date: 25-sep-2011
has just had an update (looks like hasn’t been renewed),doesn’t look good…
Deirdre Saoirse Moen
3 years ago |They haven’t posted on Twitter since May, either. Failing to renew the domain isn’t automatically a death knell in and of itself. I hope they’re out there.
Alex Buga
3 years ago |Yeah, probably they forgot to pay.
)
It happened to our agency too
nug
3 years ago |Secretive upstart with flashy marketing and no real physical address– smells bad from the beginning.
Thom Blue
3 years ago |It sounds like they were just a start-up with access to lenses for cheap and someone who knew how to fit them with m4/3rd mounts, but probably got a cease and desist letter from the 4/3 consortium (WHICH THEY ARE NOT A MEMBER OF like Panasonic, Olympus and Cosina).
Therefore, they wound have no “legal” right to advertise, market or sell their products as “micro 4/3 lenses” without permission.
CR102
3 years ago |It does not make sense. Olympus, at least, boasts the compatibility of m4/3 with “over 600 lenses” mounted by adapters. Naturally, they can’t control every adapter manufacturer. That probably includes Lensbaby who have just released a lens/adapter for m4/3.
I suppose Noctor’s supply of lenses got short after they sold their initial stock. On a side note, I was never entirely impressed with the results from that lens. Sure, it has its uses, but a truly dedicated design would do much better. Now that Voigtlander is about to join the standard I’m not sure how many users would look at the Noctor 50/0.95 anyway.
Milos
3 years ago |So nice product… I doubt there was not enough buyers. Looks like they were shut down from outside.
Miroslav
3 years ago |Hopefully, they are not, but I fear they are. With Cosina and Panasonic both about to start producing fast lenses for m4/3 it is impossible to sell such lenses at the prices Noktor charged.
efix
3 years ago |Wouldn’t surprise me at all. Voigtländer are coming up with their exceptional 25/0.95 (which I tried on photokina yesterday and can say it’s FABULOUS), SLRmagic announced working on new MFT lenses, Panasonic announced some fast primes as well as a fast zoom, and others also seem to have plans for MFT. I guess they’d have an even harder time now staying alive. Anyway, would be nice to see them back soon with new products.
Alfons
3 years ago |No wonder. Who would like to pay triple money for a C-mount lens pimped with m4/3 mount and cat eye colored rim?
kai
3 years ago |considering they completely sold out just days after the product became available, it seems like a lot of people would.
Alfons
3 years ago |That may be because of good marketing and low production capacity. Anyway, Noktor is gone. They got the money they could cheat from people and have moved on to another project.
darkelf
3 years ago |And once again 43rumors confirmed quality of their trusted sources
admin
3 years ago |Noktor told me that they would make more M43 lenses. It’s not one form one of my sources
NoName
3 years ago |“Therefore, they wound have no “legal” right to advertise, market or sell their products as “micro 4/3 lenses” without permission.”
Impossible. Competition laws in any country would not allow for such prohibition. Quite contrary: the consortium would see itself in court very rapidly, invited by government or in Europe, possibly the EU.
Dummy00001
3 years ago |What century you are living in??
Say 43 uses patented this plus patented that, it also needs a special algorithm which one can buy at 43 consortium. For patents you need a license. Reverse-engineering of copyrighted implementation of algorithms is forbidden by law in US and Japan – or good luck proving in court that it is for interoperability.
Discriminatory licensing is all over the place: businesses fight laws and common sense with any mean available.
TheVoiceoverman
3 years ago |Not wishing to sound cruel but does anyone actually care?
Milos
3 years ago |So I suggest some Chinese guy to make mount adapter. One side licensed and other some standard noktor mount. Then noktor can happily build its lenses without violating law.
It must be pretty easy to sell pana lenses when tehre is a limited and controlled competition.
mpgxsvcd
3 years ago |Suckers! That lens was a joke to begin with. Now the joke is on the people who actually paid for it.
Milos
3 years ago |What happened?
TempTag
3 years ago |Kudos to them for seeing potential and showing interest in the market. All in all, the m43s community should be thankful and respectful of small entrepreneurs who show the big boys what buyers want. Once the 50mm adapted lens got enough interest to get the likes of Cosina on board with m43, Noktor were bound to fold.
spanky
3 years ago |IMO Noktor was dead before it even started. The fake lens they put out only served to sway the people who didn’t know any better, and who only saw the f/0.95 number without consideration to actual IQ. That’s not exactly a long-term business strategy. Oh well, RIP Nokton.
Sir Marky
3 years ago |The site is up.
What are you on about?
John Doe No. 5
3 years ago |The website link works for me – everything there is like it always looked. So what are we discussing about here?
alan
3 years ago |has anyone bothered to look at the price difference between the c mount 0.95 machine vision lens that this is based on..and what the guy was charging for in effect a full infinity focus m/43 mount lens..
not a big difference in price..
navitar,goyo senko lens are ok and quite sharp and are very usuable.
my guess is his big order sold out,he looked at the math and found profit was not great after import duties etc.
cut the guy some slack,he did something and the mounting looks much better than my conversions.