James Lotto wrote:Leica has a very tiny mount with equally tiny lens that outperform any Nikon or Canon to date.The Leica M-mount doesn't need to include space for any kind of electrical connection between lens and camera though which naturally increases how fast the lenses can be, look at the Nikon 50mm AIS F/1.2.Plus of course the Leica M-mount has a significantly longer flange distance than modern mirrorless camemas at 28mm. The longer your flange distance the less issue you potentially have with light angles hitting digital sensors. I mean Leica themselves needed to redesign a lot of their wideangles where previously the rear element pushed further into the camera.You look at the Sony RX1 lens for example which offers excellent performance(especially in terms of lower light falloff in the boarders than FE lenses) in a smaller size and what stands out is the large rear element...I suspect that could potentially be a much bigger issue that a Nikon camera being able to have ultra fast AF lenses. Sony potentially having to deal with a fudged design made by marketing men and not able to exploit the advantage of FF mirrorless fully.I mean I don't think this is going to be some kind of magic bullet that means Nikon is going to be able to deliver Leica M sized lenses on a modern AF mount but it could certainly help.

Thoughts R Us wrote:Canon proved this very point. They threw out their FD mount and created the EF mount for their EOS system...and it was that EOS system with at the time very superior AF that allowed them to go to number 1 in sales.Each camera model will have a limited life span, but the mount will live on for decades and will define the camera system for those decades.Nikon has indeed given itself a new life, and allowed even for expansion into MF. That may not seem such a big deal now, but the dedicated camera market is only heading upstream. All else is smartphone.One can easily envision a time when MF is the new FF; the must have sensor size for serious photographers.Kudos to Nikon for having the courage to do this. It will pay off handsomely in the short and long run.Some intriguing suggestions in this thread. Back in the film days, we bought Nikon cameras not only only because of the reliability and ergonomics but the primary reason that they fitted on Nikkor lenses.I hypothesize Digital camera functionality is hitting the proverbial plateau. Only improved fast ISO can lift the asymptote but not by much. How much more can Dynamic Range be expanded above 11 stops? It's the optics where the biggest costs and R&D - and especially quality production. Who excels at this one wonders?

chambeshi wrote:Thoughts R Us wrote:Canon proved this very point. They threw out their FD mount and created the EF mount for their EOS system...and it was that EOS system with at the time very superior AF that allowed them to go to number 1 in sales.Each camera model will have a limited life span, but the mount will live on for decades and will define the camera system for those decades.Nikon has indeed given itself a new life, and allowed even for expansion into MF. That may not seem such a big deal now, but the dedicated camera market is only heading upstream. All else is smartphone.One can easily envision a time when MF is the new FF; the must have sensor size for serious photographers.Kudos to Nikon for having the courage to do this. It will pay off handsomely in the short and long run.Some intriguing suggestions in this thread. Back in the film days, we bought Nikon cameras notonlyonly because of the reliability and ergonomics but the primary reason that they fitted on Nikkor lenses.I hypothesize Digital camera functionality is hitting the proverbial plateau. Only improved fast ISO can lift the asymptote but not by much. How much more can Dynamic Range be expanded above 11 stops? It's the optics where the biggest costs and R&D - and especially quality production. Who excels at this one wonders?The fastest Frame rates face mechanical limits (dslrs) and thermodynamic limits (i.e. heat). battery life may well improve, Sure, too many one-trick pony cameras are stuck on local peaks, and may get better but Olympus, Fuji and Sony are in tough terrain catching up to Conikon (their best glass). Conikon have the track record; their current inventories speak for themselves. It's why many of us refuse to abandon investments to retool to be beta-testers.Let's acknowledge few of us really need 45mp, let alone more resolution on a FX sensor. If digital cameras have hit the plateau and there seem to be getting close, a big frontier is the R&D to apply pattern recognition and similar software that extends Autofocus abilities. But this R&D will have to interface very intimately with optics.So we may well be coming full circle, where the camera tech becomes less than equal to the Optics.Here, the Z-Mount will indeed allow Nikon to get out its next generation of fast optics. And this is Fast in all the best aspects! Because the trends in AF performance point to where the real exciting innovations. The AF engine in the D5 (in the D500 and D850 etc) points to great potentials. This is where serious photographers will find upgrades very hard to resist buying.