So, here's the deal, this is supposed to describe who I am, but do any of us really know who we are? I think we all have a general idea, but I don't know if anybody really knows who they are. People always describe themselves by personality traits and physical traits, but is that what makes them who they are? It certainly has an impact, but it's not the ultimate answer. So, if you want my traits, look at my pictures and keep reading. If you really care to know who I am there's no better way to find out than to speak with me. Go ahead, message me. I guarantee I'll get back to you no matter what you say to me. Plus, I love getting messages and I love talking to people. So, find out for yourself who I really am.

Now, some useless text so I can get a higher percentage for having 1,000 words in my profile. Yeah, I'm a cheater, but you don't have to read it.

There is an enduring fascination for limits in photographic culture and technique. The drive to engineer and use the fastest film speed, the highest shutter speed, the shortest focal length, the quickest motor-drive and the fastest lens continues till this very moment. In several cases, the need to push a limit is sensible, but in many cases it is not. Every time you extend a limit, you will approaching another one, Most parameters are part of a system of mutually influencing forces. Faster emulsion sensitivity implies larger grain sizes, increasing the signal to noise ratio of a sensor will also increase the noise and a compact zoom lens implies a smaller aperture.
Pushing back frontiers is not the province of the Startrek crew exclusively. In the photographic industry mechanical and optical designers and engineers have relentless opened up new horizons. But sometimes a natural limit is being encountered. The top speed of the horizontally running focal plane shutter had been fixed at 1/1000 of a second for a very long time. With improvements it has been possible to push the top speed to 1/2000, but then the adverse forces start to counter act any further progress. In this case the physical boundaries and possibilities can be calculated and predicted with some precision and confidence.
Lens designers are working with a larger range of uncertainties. Optical improvements do not advance in a linear fashion. Too many variables and constraints must be accounted for.
This state of affairs is particularly true for that specific class of lenses that are adorned with the title of superfast lens. In the current context this applies to standard lenses with a maximum aperture wider than 1:1.4. In most cases the aperture has been set at 1:1.2. Only a very few lenses have been designed in the wide angle or short telephoto category with apertures of 1:1.2. But the main battleground for all manufacturers has been the standard lens. There are practical, and optical arguments for this choice. For a long period the standard lens (with focal length between 50mm and 58mm, sometimes stretched to 60mm) has been the pre-eminent choice for documentary available light photography. It is in these circumstances that the light collecting power of the high speed lens was most required. Optically the balance between bulk and speed could just be held, in particular with the inherently bigger slr-lenses.
The race for the fastest lens started in Japan in 1953 with the introduction of the Zunow 1.1/50mm lens, followed in 1954 with the Fujinon 1.2/50mm. Both lenses were for the Canon and Leica CRF with screw thread mounts. In those days the fastest normal lens had an aperture of 1:1.5 and then a 1.1 was really impressive. A very high speed lens suited the available light photograpers who had to cope with slow speed films and very coarse grained higher speed ones, like the Agfa Isopan Ultra or Record. And then one stop more of lens speed implied one higher shutter speed or added exposure in the shadows. Canon and Nikon responded in 1956 with a 1.2/50mm lens with seven elements (canon) and a 1.1/50mm lens with nine elements (Nikon). At that moment in time both Nikon and Canon were already focused on the SLR concept, but Canon did introduce the 0.95/50mm lens for the Canon 7 in 1961 to demonstrate their prowess in matters optical. No more very high speed normal rangefinder lenses were made in Japan until 1999 when Konica produced the special edition 1.2/60mm lens for M-mount.
Canon introduced a 1.2/58mm lens for the Canonflex and a 1.2/58mm lens with aspherical surfaces in 1971. The first series used aspherical surfaces that were grinded by machines that were manually operated. Only later (but long before Leica) did Canon switch to a fully automatic grinding process.
Canon’s 1:0.95 lens “holds razor sharpness even at full aperture” (original excerpt from advertisement), but this statement is quite optimistic. In fact the Canon lens wide open is a good practical example of the working of spherical aberration. The sales brochure of Canon also describes the lens as being four times brighter than the human eye. Here Canon is a bit too modest. The Leica brochure of the Noctilux 1:1/50mm describes the lens as being even faster than the human eye. Studies of the eye have revealed that the maximum aperture of the eye lays between 1: 2.4 to 1:6.8 depending on age and situation. The Summarit line of lenses equals the maximum aperture of the eye.

The quest for superfast standard lenses has always been associated with a large dose of prestige. The availability of a very high speed lens has always been seen as the icing on the cake. A camera system with superfast lenses was accepted as a true professional product. Many camera and lens manufacturers have been producing standard lenses with apertures ranging from 1:0.95 to 1:1.2 and with focal lengths from 50 to 60mm. These lenses were made for CRFs and SLRs. The marketing argument has been focused on the use in low ambient/natural light or even the absence of illumination where the just hand-holdable shutter speed could be the dividing line between a good and a lost picture. A high speed film where the sensitivity threshold had been pushed to the maximum level was also a trick of the trade. Working at the limit of the possible has its own charm and knowing that you are using the best lens adds to this mood. A superfast lens is loaded with aberrations and very difficult to manufacture within the required tolerances that the design demands to tame the optical rays.
Almost every design relied on spherical lens surfaces and the designer needed additional lens elements and more exotic properties and/or daring shapes to get a decent quality at the widest apertures. The pictures that could be made with these lenses could be described as acceptable only with a benevolent approach. Canon went over the top with its 0.95/50mm lens for its rangefinder camera. On the other hand we have learned from the Startrek series that you need to go where no one else has gone before in order to improve your knowledge and experience.
Around 1970 lens design had been improved, but the only rangefinder left was the Leica. The lens mounts for slr-cameras are inherently bigger and most manufacturers of SLR lenses have stayed on the safe side of 1:1.2, and often used aspherical lens surfaces to improve the image quality. Since the advent of digital cameras the interest in superfast lenses has become marginal. Only Canon has produced a 1:1 design for the EOS series, but the most recent incarnation of this lens has its aperture reduced to 1:1.2.

The competition in the SLR arena for the highest speed lens continued from 1960 to 1985 between several manufacturers, but the CRF scene was abandoned around 1965 leaving Leitz as the sole survivor. Undoubtedly the Leitz designers knew about the Canon 0.95 lens and were aware of the need to produce a superfast lens themselves. Their research into the design options indicated that the only solution for a lens that combined a compact mount with good performance was to use aspherical surfaces. The aperture of the original Noctilux was set to 1:1.2. A wider aperture required a bigger mount and it might also be assumed that the size of the lens elements was too large for the aspherical grinding process.
The Noctilux had internal competition from the Summilux 1:1.4/50mm that offered comparable performance at a much lower price. Still the 50% additional light that falls on the film surface could become important. When working in very low light levels it makes sense to put the minimum exposure just on the edge of the toe area of the characteristic curve of the film. Here any additional light that can be used to activate the AgX crystals is welcome. Nowadays the S-shaped curve that for such a long period in photographic technique defined the tonal reproduction has been made obsolete by digital capture where a linear response is the normal case.
The successor of the original Noctilux widened the maximum aperture to 1:1 and used only spherical surfaces. The performance wide open is quite good and much better than what the Canon 0.95 offered. Both lenses used seven elements and no doubt the new glass types available to the Leica designers and their experience with high speed CRF lenses gave the Noct-design this much improved performance.

Thinking about living it. I'm unsuccessful so far.

I'm really good at being really good at things.

Well, recently it's everything. People who haven't seen me in a whole always look at me in shock and say they don't recognize me or they actually ask someone else who I am and then look at me shocked when they find out. I guess I look really different and dress different than I used to. It makes me feel good about myself. But, other than that I don't know what people notice about me as far as first impressions go, so do me a favor and tell me so I know. I won't ignore your message like some other snobby, stuck-up bitches on this website.

I'm all over the map with this one, and there's just too much to list. I know what I like, but I'm usually up for trying something new and different.

Humor, friends, soap, art in all forms, toilet paper, and money cause you need it to live.

Everything. I think too much. And I wish I had the balls to do something completely crazy.

At the movies. I love movies. I hope to make movies some day.

I don't really know what to put here. Just ask me something and I'll most likely tell you. I'm an open book.

You're alive. And you have something to say. So, that pretty much includes everyone with a working brain. Do your damnedest, ya bastards.