Light Lens Lab Elcan 50mm f2 Review

[Anthony Miller]

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My Elcan and my 8-element arrived today and I am quite impressed. Nice feel to them, smooth focus, clicky aperture and just feel well made. only had time for some quick test shots but very happy with the first results. Did not see any front or back focus issues. Wide open the Elcan had a wonderful glow but still a sharp enough image to make me happy and a very nice look that I enjoy. By f2.8 everything sharpened up nicely and the sharpness held up all the way to f16 with few signs of diffraction hurting the image.

The 8-element had a bit less glow wide open but still very nice and again sharpened up by f2.8.

Love the tiny size of these and I already feel my other 50s and 35s may not see as much use.

Glad I went with these and happy that I cancelled my Speed Panchro order and went this direction instead.

Now if they could do a Thambar clone.......

[hdmesa]

2 hours ago, Anthony Miller said:

My Elcan and my 8-element arrived today and I am quite impressed. Nice feel to them, smooth focus, clicky aperture and just feel well made. only had time for some quick test shots but very happy with the first results. Did not see any front or back focus issues. Wide open the Elcan had a wonderful glow but still a sharp enough image to make me happy and a very nice look that I enjoy. By f2.8 everything sharpened up nicely and the sharpness held up all the way to f16 with few signs of diffraction hurting the image.

The 8-element had a bit less glow wide open but still very nice and again sharpened up by f2.8.

Love the tiny size of these and I already feel my other 50s and 35s may not see as much use.

Glad I went with these and happy that I cancelled my Speed Panchro order and went this direction instead.

Now if they could do a Thambar clone.......

Does infinity with the rangefinder align with the hard stop on the 8 element? I couldn't get a copy that didn't focus past infinity by the time it hit the hard stop.

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[69xchange]

5 hours ago, hdmesa said:

Does infinity with the rangefinder align with the hard stop on the 8 element? I couldn't get a copy that didn't focus past infinity by the time it hit the hard stop.

My 8e LLL at infinity mark on the rangefinder patch is also slightly misaligned, but only by a hair. I’ve, tested it and it doesn’t seem to have any issues with focus wide open close or far range. My old LLL Elcan was spot on but the focus ring wasn’t smooth when doing micro focusing.

To be honest F2 isn’t “that” shallow to notice something that very small misalignment, but maybe a lux or nocti would definitely show.

Edited June 10 by 69xchange

[hdmesa]

6 hours ago, 69xchange said:

My 8e LLL at infinity mark on the rangefinder patch is also slightly misaligned, but only by a hair. I’ve, tested it and it doesn’t seem to have any issues with focus wide open close or far range. My old LLL Elcan was spot on but the focus ring wasn’t smooth when doing micro focusing.

To be honest F2 isn’t “that” shallow to notice something that very small misalignment, but maybe a lux or nocti would definitely show.

That's better than the 8E copies I tried, which had the rangefinder patch aligning at infinity well before the hard stop. I decided if I buy another one, I'll just send it straight to DAG for adjustment.

[Greenhilltony]

On 6/10/2023 at 9:27 AM, Anthony Miller said:

My Elcan and my 8-element arrived today and I am quite impressed. Nice feel to them, smooth focus, clicky aperture and just feel well made. only had time for some quick test shots but very happy with the first results. Did not see any front or back focus issues. Wide open the Elcan had a wonderful glow but still a sharp enough image to make me happy and a very nice look that I enjoy. By f2.8 everything sharpened up nicely and the sharpness held up all the way to f16 with few signs of diffraction hurting the image.

The 8-element had a bit less glow wide open but still very nice and again sharpened up by f2.8.

Love the tiny size of these and I already feel my other 50s and 35s may not see as much use.

Glad I went with these and happy that I cancelled my Speed Panchro order and went this direction instead.

Now if they could do a Thambar clone.......

You're lucky! Both have no issues about focus. My Elcan does not focus properly, when the patches align the focus is a bit farther than expected. And when the focus ring hits hard stop, it does not reach infinity.

[Huss]

What turned me off the Elcan copy is the direction the aperture ring turns.  It goes against the direction of the exposure meter arrows in my Ms.

I know that is how the original Elcan was, but that was before Leica made metered cameras.  So, not for me.  Even though I also use meterless Ms, I like for all my lenses to operate in similar fashion so they can be used seamlessly between camera bodies.

[tsleica]

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Hey Huss..

Its not a problem at all...turning the aperture ring in the opposite direction..

Like eating your tuna fish sandwich the left side 1st..then the right..or visa versa...lol..

[Al Brown]

3 hours ago, tsleica said:

Hey Huss..

Its not a problem at all...turning the aperture ring in the opposite direction..

Like eating your tuna fish sandwich the left side 1st..then the right..or visa versa...lol..

I disagree. If you shoot Leica a lot the "classic" aperture ring direction becomes second nature, so every anomaly is an annoying disturbance.

[tsleica]

I actually find the aperture ring /knob on LLL Elcan faster to adjust and it falls perfectly to my hand and is quicker to use than my other Leica M lenses. But I can certainly underrstand why it would bug some people.

Edited June 14 by tsleica

[Greenhilltony]

My Elcan copy suffered from severe back focusing and was sent to the LLL factory for CLA. Today I got the parcel back and immediately mounted it on my M10-P. They fully corrected the lens and it produces sharp and amazing rendering images now IMO!  This shot is straight out from the DNG. I zone focused at F4. The yellow on the safety cap looks so creamy that I held my breath for seconds.

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[Anthony Miller]

On 6/14/2023 at 3:34 AM, Al Brown said:

I disagree. If you shoot Leica a lot the "classic" aperture ring direction becomes second nature, so every anomaly is an annoying disturbance.

I had no issue with the "backwards" rotation as my other favorite 50mm, the f1.5 Summarit is also built that way. I tend the decide on and set aperture first while looking at the lens and adjust exposure with shutter speed after.