Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7

The Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 is one of the largest relative aperture (fastest) lenses in the history of photography.^[1] The lens was designed and made specifically for the NASA Apollo lunar program to capture the far side of the Moon in 1966.^[2]^[3]^{[better source needed]}^[4]

Stanley Kubrick used these lenses when shooting his film Barry Lyndon, which allowed him to shoot scenes lit only by candlelight.^[5]^[6]

In total there were only 10 lenses made. One was kept by Carl Zeiss, six were sold to NASA, and three were sold to Kubrick.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "World's fastest lens: Zeiss 50mm f/0.7", Ogiroux, Google, archived from the original on 2009-03-09^{[self-published source]}
^ Hollywood, NASA, and the chip industry put their trust in Carl Zeiss
^ Kämmerer, Dr. J. "When is it advisable to improve the quality of camera lenses?" (PDF). Optics & Photography Symposium (excerpt from a lecture). Les Baux. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
^ "One Small Click on the Release Button – One Giant Set of Images for Mankind – ZEISS camera lenses at the Moon landing 50 years ago" (Press release). Zeiss. 10 July 2019.
^ DiGiulio, Ed, "Two Special Lenses for Barry Lyndon", American Cinematographer, Visual memory, How the stringent demands of a purist-perfectionist film-maker led to the development of two valuable new cinematographic tools.
^ This Month's Object: the Zeiss lens f/0.7 Archived February 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine