Back in the day (the 1980's) Nikon made a terrific 50mm f/1.2 lens. Suprisingly, some 30+ years later on they still make and sell the same lens, theNikkor 50mm f/1.2. This is the fastest lens that Nikon makes and is one of the few manual focus lenses still in their line-up. In recent years there have been rumours of an AF version but it's likely that this is more wishful thinking than based on any factual information. Now that cameras produce fairly clean ISO 3,200 images and usable ones up to USO 12,500 and even higher, it would seem that the days of ultra-fast prime lenses should be well behind us.

When a fast colour film was ISO 64, and fast B&W was ISO 400, high speed lenses were all the rage. That extra half stop between f/1.4 and f/1.2 would often make the difference between getting the shot, and not. Exotic ultra-fast lenses like theLeica f/0.95 NoctiluxandNikon 58mm f/1.2 Noct-Nikkorused aspherical elements to achieve excellent resolution and contrast at wide open ...