Need Help from Nikonos Enthusiasts -- Digital Nikonos Company Seeks Info

[ShanaLyns]

Hi,

My name is Shana Lyons and I work for a startup called PiratePro. We're a company formed to try to win Dive Photo Guide's Digital Nikonos Industry Challenge. Our lead engineer has invented a housing that basically allows an underwater photographer to use any of the fabulous Nikonos lenses that Nikon used to sell with an Olympus E-P1 MFT 12.1 megapixel digital camera. We have a prototype in manufacturing right now and we're trying to decide if we should invest our own money in making and selling production models. We've gotten quite a bit of interest from resellers, but we'd really like to talk to some Nikonos enthusiasts to make sure that we're making decisions that people like.

If you have any interest in Nikonos lenses, I was wondering if I could ask you to take a quick survey. It's short- only 20 questions, but we're hoping the answers we get give us enough information to decide how many to produce, where to advertise, etc. As a token of our thanks, we're giving away a $20 Amazon.com gift card to one of the survey respondents.

I really appreciate your help. At this point, this is kind of a scary but amazing labor of love, so it will be interesting to see how other people feel about it!

Sincerely,

Shana Lyons
PiratePro.com

 

[Gilldiver]

While using the lenes is great - I'd love a databack that could be put onto the Nike V. Say 10+ meg?

 

[ShanaLyns]

While using the lenes is great - I'd love a databack that could be put onto the Nike V. Say 10+ meg?

Hi Pete,

We looked at trying to retrofit a digital back into the Nikonos V body or something like it. Our engineering team thought that the initial engineering and manufacturing costs made it a no-go. The only way it makes financial sense probably as a product that's custom made for and sold in bulk to someone like the military where you're going to get a large guaranteed order. Then, you can piggyback additional items onto that production run for one off sales.

So, the housing route it is, at least for us. We hope that there are enough folks out there who want a "digital Nikonos" primarily because they want to use the lenses to make a small niche business possible.

Shana
PiratePro.com

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

The killer is the sensor size. Nikonos has "sensor" 36x24mm (43.3mm diagonal), the E-P1 is
17.3x13mm (21.6mm). That turns the superb Nikonos 15mm into a 30mm (yawn). The 15 is
superb because it's sharp in the corners, and you throw the corners away.

It's got to have a full-size sensor to exploit the Nikonos optics.

 

[davelew]

It's got to have a full-size sensor to exploit the Nikonos optics.

Chuck, in addition to the standard adapter which preserves the focal length of Nikonos lenses, PiratePro is also offering a "minus 4" adapter, which cuts 4mm off the focal length (it works like the opposite of an extension tube, making lenses "more wideangle" the way an extension tube makes lenses "more macro"). Basically, by placing the sensor closer to the rear nodal point of the lens, we can account for much of the lost field of view of the 18mmx13.5mm sensor. You can see charts of the diagonal angle of view, 35mm equivalent with a flat port, and 35mm equivalent with a dome port at the FAQ on the piratepro website.

Also, there are advantages to the Nikonos water-corrected lenses other than just sharpness in the corners, for example the low levels of chromatic aberrations and extremely low barrel/pincushion distortion.

When light hits a piece of glass at an angle, some of that light is divided up like a prism divides white light into a rainbow. Lens designers correct for this by using other elements that function like reverse prisms, but they generally assume that the lens will be used in air and not behind a window. When underwater photographers take those carefully corrected air lenses and put them behind plastic domes (or even glass flat ports), we get extra chromatic aberrations. Also, if the dome port is not perfectly aligned with the lens, the aberrations can be even worse. Since wet lenses aren't used behind an extra optical element like a port, this isn't an issue with Nikonos lenses.

Another issue that Nikonos lenses address is the distortion of macro images. When used in air, the Nikon 60mm and 105mm macro lenses have extremely low levels of barrel/pincushion distortion, because those lenses are partly aimed at scientific photographers. When used behind a flat port in water, you lose the benefits of all of that careful optical design, because the flat interface with water adds distortion right back in. That's not a problem with Nikonos lenses which are designed with the water interface in mind.

I designed the PiratePro housing and lens adapters because I feel that there are many benefits to using water-corrected lenses, even if the EP1 won't let photographers get the absolute widest of wideangle photographs.

David Lewinnek
david@piratepro.com

 

[jetpilot379]

I'm also a strong supporter of the development of a digital databack for the existing Nikonos V body.

 

[captbillncostarica]

used Nikonos/15mm for many years,,,,would love to get back to the general idea,,,,
captbill

 

[Le Bendalier]

I`m shooting with Nikon d200+Ikelite and some times with Nikonos+ 15mm.
I think the photos with Nikonos are really better.