Apparently Leica has a new lens coming out. I’ve been keeping an eye out for this ever since Wired blogged about it being leaked (here), and today DPReview is running with it (here). Pictured left is the new LEICA NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f / 0.95 ASPH. Mind you, at over 11 grand estimated pricing and for the Leica mount, it’s not a lens I’ll ever be purchasing myself, but the tech geek in me is glad it exists. Why? Because it’s got a whopping f/0.95 maximum aperture.

Now, you pros and advanced hobbyists out there already know full well what that means, but for the rest of you I’ll do a quick explanation. The f-stops of a lens are ways of saying the ratio between the focal length and the diameter of the opening. The wider the diameter the more light the lens takes in, and the smaller the f value gets. And, since the amount of light needed for exposures changes geometrically (that is, to make a picture look one “stop” lighter you need twice as much light. That’s why ISOs go in 100, 200, 400, 800 steps), having an f value of 0.95 makes this lens most of a stop faster than the typical ‘fast’ primes using f/1.4. And it’s almost two stops faster than those f/2.8 Nikon lenses or Canon lenses you might have in your bag.

One of my big disappointments with digital has been the lack of truly fast lenses (although, please, don’t get me wrong, an f/2.8 constant zoom at the quality of modern lenses is nothing short of an engineering marvel). When I’m out there shooting my buddy’s metal band (I swear their policy is that being able to ‘see’ things at their shows ruins the ‘atmosphere’), the faster my lens the happier I am. So, I approve of this existing. And, please, all you other big name manufacturers, start giving us those fast primes back. I’ll deal with the corner softness, I promise.