Light Lens Lab 28mm f/2.8 9-Element. Better Than the Leica Original?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ธ.ค. 2024
- The original Leica 28mm f/2.8 Elmarit V1 of 1965 was a very special lens. The previous 28mm f/5.6 Summaron was compact and lightweight, but it was 2 stops slower than the new Elmarit. Back in the film days, two stops was a big deal. It was the difference between shooting ISO 100 or ISO 400 film. It was the difference between hand-holding a 1/60th sec exposure, or 1/15th sec. Leica only made 3200 units of the original 28mm Elmarit 9 element, making it a pretty rare lens. The current used price of this lens hovers around $10,000 USD.
This is where Light Lens Lab comes to the rescue. They specialize in making replica and homage lenses of rare optical glass from famous brands like Leica. The reason? Because so few of us can ever afford to buy the original, we are given the opportunity to buy something similar in aesthetics as well as in optical design. Because I don't have the original 28mm Elmarit V.1 to compare against, I had to test this Light Lens Lab version on its own merit. My conclusion? It's a pretty cool lens. It has all the vintage vibes, including a period accurate lens hood, infinity lock (which I actually don't like, but I do appreciate the focus tab) and unique look of the original. However, they've decided to make some optical improvements on the original design with an ED glass element, lens coatings, while still keeping the overall optical characteristics of the original.
Please enjoy my review of this lens, including my pros and cons at the very end. I've embedded some sample images as well. My overall concluding of the optical performance is that this lens performs very similar to modern (circa 1990s-2000s) Leica lenses. Wide open it has some issues, but is sharp, and has nice colour. Stop it down to f/5.6 and it easily competes against my 28mm Summicron v.1. For the rest of my thoughts, please enjoy the video. Thanks for watching, don't forget to like, comment, and share with your friends.
Light Lens Lab 28mm f/2.8 9-Element: lightlenslab.c...
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#lightlenslab #28mmelmarit #leicammount
Love the autumnal pics.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
I could very happily watch a slide show of a few minutes of those.
Regards Jake.
Thanks :-)
Light Lens Lab has been thriving in recent years, and I’m excited to see what they’ll bring out next! But ya, I am not a fan of Infinity lock either. Thank you for the vid!
Thanks for sharing!
You make a very good point about servicing lenses. Something to think about when buying off-brand M-mount lenses.
Been wondering about this little guy :) I love my brass 50mm elcan. It gives me the rendering I was looking for. And love the build.
I definitely want to test the 50mm ELCAN.
How would this lens perform on older sensor like M9 ( modern sensors are BSI which handle wide angle lenses much better on corners and edges)?
Good question. I don’t have an M9 so I can’t tell you. But I assume since the rear element is closer to the sensor, that it would perform better?
This lens isn't really for me but it does have a nice rendering, very similar to what I have seen from the original 9 Element 28 Elmarit but obviously adjusted to be farrrr more useable on modern digital cameras. You should try to check out their excellent 35mm f2 8 Element Summicron replica, it is extremely impressive.
What I am most interested in is their upcoming 35mm Summilux Double Aspherical remake - I am very excited to get that and a few photographers like Kevin Fickling already have beta test copies. They also teased a remake of the Pierre Angénieux Paris 50mm ƒ1.5 S21 lens recently, that could be amazing. I believe you have some familiarity with Angénieux glass yourself so it would be cool to hear your thoughts when that lens arrives.
Thanks. I do want to review the 35mm 8 Element, as well as the 50mm ELCAN. These homage lenses are a lot of fun considering most of us would never be able to afford the original.
21 SA next please 😎, normal to tell work fine but need a WA optimized for digital sensors.
Lets rip off Leica with their exact designs and make cheaper less quality versions of it and sell it as our own. There's a difference between homage and blatant copy and replica / rip off. Endorsing this is like endorsing replica watches.
Ironically this is the lens that they changed the original formula and improved on a few aspects. And some ppl are unhappy about that.
How long should a company be able to monopolize an optical design?
@@JimmyCheng Exactly, the actual original 28 Elmarit is a mess on ANY digital camera and also has weird issues like not bringing up 28mm framelines (it was introduced before Leicas had them) and so on. This and most of LLL replicas are practical but still high quality alternatives to rare lenses that either are too expensive to afford or just so old and fragile using them regularly would be troublesome. There's some details here and there I don't like about Light Lens Lab but they also make smart adjustments to the products they bring to market and generally they are a positive in the industry.
Replicating a 60 year old lens design and letting everyone know you’re doing it isn’t ripping off Leica. I know that Andreas Kaufmann of Leica himself has tested some of the LLL lenses and he said he was impressed. These lenses aren’t competing with the original lenses they are replicating. If you go to LLL’s website, you will see they take great care in making high quality lenses, including trying to source out original materials to make some of the lenses as closely as possible to the original, including hand polishing some elements These aren’t cheaply built lenses. In addition, a replica watch is trying to pass off as the original, which LLL is not trying to do, so it’s completely different. I think yo have a very bad take on this brand and what they are trying to do.
Leica purist goes out on the internet, sees non Leica made lenses, rants. Tale as old as time.
LLL will hold its value, and Leica value will end up tanking within a decade.