Cosina’s 35mm f/1.2 Made with Nikon License

Feb 15, 2022 | Legal, Lenses, News, Nikon

In a new development, Nikon has opened up lens communication protocols with its new Z m0unt to a third party lens maker and allowed the cooperation to become public. The Cosina D35mm f/1.2 adds mount contacts allowing for information such as stabilization data from lens-mounted accelerometers to feed back to the camera to provide better image stabilization.

Cosina 35mm f1.2Cosina’s launch release included the statement “This product is developed and manufactured under a license agreement with Nikon Corporation.”

Previously, Nikon has worked with third parties such as Cosina and Tamron to design and make its lenses, but this cooperation was always kept confidential so as to continue to give the impression of an all-knowing and all-capable OEM camera and lens manufacturer.

As Nikon has struggled to flesh out its Z mount lens lineup as quickly as Canon and Sony have, it has concentrated mostly on relatively low-end glass, husbanding design and manufacturing resources.

Cosina’s D35mm f/1.2 project may have started off as a product meant to be branded a Nikkor lens, which was bumped off the list in product planning. The lens design – with 8 elements – looks to be harkening back to mid-20th Century lenses rather than the corrected-to-an-inch-0f-its-life sorts of designs popular today with wide aperture glass. It will certainly be a niche lens, likely popular with low light street photographers.

Pin It on Pinterest