While the rest of the world freaks out about all things digital, climbing over one another to cram billions of pixels into miniscule sensors, or more storage space into wafer-thin chips, some people have continued to worry about the essentials: optics.

The ability for lenses to let the light in relies of course on its speed, with lower aperture numbers performing better in darker situations. Leica AG has bested its own record by manufacturing a lens with an aperture value of 0.95, beating the previous model, which had a value of 1, by 11 per cent.

The Noctilux 50mm lens, with its extremely shallow depth of field, performs in low-light situations better than the human eye can actually perceive.  Leica also claims vignetting and distortion have been substantially improved.

The above image was shot in natural light on a LEICA M8.2, ISO 320, f/0.95, 1/90 s.

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