The World Fastest Mirrorless System Lens - Ibelux 40mm f/0.85

The future of Micro Four Third format gets even brighter with the announcement of the world's fastest mirrorless system lens developed by German-Chinese co-op Handevision.

Handevision is a German-Chinese co-op between IB/E Optics and Shanghai Transvision, and the company announced the fastest current production lens for mirrorless cameras: the Ibelux 40mm f/0.85.

Handevision's press release boldly claims that the new lens is "an industry-shaking new innovation".

“By merging German high-quality engineering standards with Chinese cost-effective production infrastructure, the new camera lens brand Handevision (“Han” means China in Mandarin and “De” is the word for Germany).

While risky to start our launch with this ground-breaking high-speed lens, we hope to gain the attention and confidence of photographers around the world with our expanding new lenses. Our mission is to manufacture high-grade lenses of metallic construction with a clean, aesthetic finish.”

The lens, which sports 10 elements in 8 groups, will come in February 2014 with a choice of Sony E-mount, Fujifilm X-mount, Canon EF-M mount and Micro Four Thirds mount.

Due to this complex optical construction and an all-metal body, the lens has a length of 5 in or 12.8 cm, a width of 2.9 in or 74 mm, and weighs in at 1.2 kg or 2.65 lbs. It is is currently priced at a remarkably high level, MSRP of US-$ 2,080, making it out of reach for most photo enthusiasts.

Handevision is planning on more professional grade lens; a wide-angle IBEGON, compact fixed focal length lens, a tilt-shift lens and high-speed telephoto APO mirror lens called IBECAT (only for full-frame mirrorless systems)

Lens like this will attract more professional photographer who are happy to switch over from their rugged full-frame camera gears.  Stay tuned for more update, and enjoy more sample images below: