Light Lens Lab Elcan 50mm f2 Review

[Infantasy]

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On 11/4/2023 at 5:49 PM, 69xchange said:

My elcan had stiffness when trying to microfocus 

Mine also had a bit stiff when arrived. I use a very small paint brush to apply a thin layer of helicoid grease to the exposed a few turns of helicoid. After turn the focusing knob several time and left over a few days, my Elcan silk smooth now and even during microfocus. I use Helimax-XP grease which bought in eBay some years ago.

[Greenhilltony]

On 11/4/2023 at 6:44 AM, Dbrass said:

 

Just received my new Elcan 50mm f2. The focus ring is noisy when rotating backwards and forwards, it makes a tapping noise at the point when you change direction. It also feels slightly loose because of this. Listen to the video on loud. I have been advised by LLL that this is by design, when in production it was initially too tight causing scratching, so they loosened to avoid. Apparently it does not get worse over time. 

I have not experienced this with any other lenses from other brands. Can someone confirm if this is happening to their LLL lens?

 

 

The one I bought brand new, which was a very late number of the V2LC batch, had a heavy backfocusing issue, but no problems in exterior and handling. The focus ring of mine was smooth. As yours is the V3LC batch, their explanations make sense, but the loosening seems to be overdone.

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[Dbrass]

21 hours ago, Greenhilltony said:

The one I bought brand new, which was a very late number of the V2LC batch, had a heavy backfocusing issue, but no problems in exterior and handling. The focus ring of mine was smooth. As yours is the V3LC batch, their explanations make sense, but the loosening seems to be overdone.

decided it wasn't worth keeping, have returned for a refund used summicron it will be

[pedaes]

For anyone seriously interested have a look at Matt's article and you will find a discount code which may help a little. 

 

[Smudgerer]

I guess we get what we pay for. I recently bought the LLL 35 / f2 Collapsible to use on my chrome M2 and for less than €1K with shipping, lens-hood, leather case, LTM-M adapter and a 35mm OVF, I could not be happier with the deal and the lens itself. Is it a Leica lens in build quality? Perhaps not but neither was I expecting it to be, it was however a lot better than most of the 40+ year old Summicon collapsible lenses that I had been looking at to buy for this past year where "good examples" are going for about the same price as the new LLL 35, so...............

Edited November 10, 2023 by Smudgerer

[markc2]

So given the price of the LLL Elcan, and if you were worried about quality control, what 50mm 800.00 Leica M lens would you buy?

I'm about to buy my first lens and this was up there. On their website the picture of the train in the mountains is what sold me on the lens so far. 

 

Mark

 

 

[costa43]

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I think LLL are fantastic, replicating some of Leica's most 'interesting' lenses to a very good standard is a massive win for us all. I'd like to own them all but I'm hesitant until they set up a EU/UK distribution channel where things like QC can be managed and import duty/VAT can be avoided. I can live with the duty cost but if I need to send it back then it's a faff.

Edited March 7 by costa43

[Leicaboy Norway]

On 12/26/2021 at 12:14 PM, shirubadanieru said:

Thanks Adan for sure the summicron V4/V5 are far superior if you want sharpness, especially wide open.

Did you try both?

I have this lll lens and a summicron-m 50 v 5

I've shot both wide open in my living room zooming into books in the shelves a far bit away. To me when zooming in 10x on my camera they seem equally sharp... 

Maybe I'm far off but it certainly seems so.

 

Weird thing is the biggest difference for me is that the summicron is so much easier to hit focus with. But I've taken some amazing images with the lll. 

[69xchange]

Center sharpness is excellent on LLL Elcan at wide open, but corner sharpness is really bad. It’s suppose to mimic vintage lenses w/ aberrations so there’s no surprise.

[markc2]

• So how would you compare it if anyone has experience, with a 50mm Leica summicron of an older vintage, would there be more similarities than differences?
  
  I was looking at an old 50mm Leica Summarit 5cm 50mm f1.5 I am "assuming" that the LLL would be a lot more modern looking and sharper than that lens?

Edited March 11 by markc2

[shirubadanieru]

23 hours ago, Leicaboy Norway said:

Did you try both?

I have this lll lens and a summicron-m 50 v 5

I've shot both wide open in my living room zooming into books in the shelves a far bit away. To me when zooming in 10x on my camera they seem equally sharp... 

Maybe I'm far off but it certainly seems so.

 

Weird thing is the biggest difference for me is that the summicron is so much easier to hit focus with. But I've taken some amazing images with the lll. 

I didn’t have both at the same time but I have owned and used all versions of the Summicron 50mm lenses. The v5 would be sharp across the whole frame, whereas the LLL would be sharper (but with a bit more glow in highlights) mostly in the center wide open. This behavior is similar to the Rigid Summicron (v2), which by the way is my favorite summicron from a rendering PoV. 

[shirubadanieru]

7 hours ago, markc2 said:

• So how would you compare it if anyone has experience, with a 50mm Leica summicron of an older vintage, would there be more similarities than differences?
  
  I was looking at an old 50mm Leica Summarit 5cm 50mm f1.5 I am "assuming" that the LLL would be a lot more modern looking and sharper than that lens?

Summicron Rigid 50mm is the closest to this lens in rendering. Much sharper and well behaved than the summarit 5cm f1.5 and the summicron collapsible. 

[TomB_tx]

11 hours ago, markc2 said:

• So how would you compare it if anyone has experience, with a 50mm Leica summicron of an older vintage, would there be more similarities than differences?
  
  I was looking at an old 50mm Leica Summarit 5cm 50mm f1.5 I am "assuming" that the LLL would be a lot more modern looking and sharper than that lens?

The Summarit is "clearly" a vintage looking lens - pretty soft wide open, low contrast, etc. "dreamy" images. However by f4 the image is much improved, better contrast and sharpness. Center is very good, still some softness on edges, but very usable pictures. Also the lens is VERY prone to veiling flare. especially at wide apertures: use a hood. The Summarit is a coated Xenon pre-war design that Leitz used to try an combat the Contax with its Sonnar f1.5. (I have both, and the Sonnar is quite superior wide open.) I've just been experimenting with my Summarit on M10 to verify its performance. It's just being sent of for CLA because the focus action is sticky and dry. (Reported that metal used in the helicoid was soft and sometimes needs to be honed.)

The Elcan should have general characteristics like the Summicron v3, but with fewer elements the edges would be less corrected.

[markc2]

22 minutes ago, TomB_tx said:

The Summarit is "clearly" a vintage looking lens - pretty soft wide open, low contrast, etc. "dreamy" images. However by f4 the image is much improved, better contrast and sharpness. Center is very good, still some softness on edges, but very usable pictures. Also the lens is VERY prone to veiling flare. especially at wide apertures: use a hood. The Summarit is a coated Xenon pre-war design that Leitz used to try an combat the Contax with its Sonnar f1.5. (I have both, and the Sonnar is quite superior wide open.) I've just been experimenting with my Summarit on M10 to verify its performance. It's just being sent of for CLA because the focus action is sticky and dry. (Reported that metal used in the helicoid was soft and sometimes needs to be honed.)

The Elcan should have general characteristics like the Summicron v3, but with fewer elements the edges would be less corrected.

I can get to try a Summarit 1.5 and a version 3 Summicron locally, it seems they both have some haze in them. I've been doing some more reading and it seems the V4 is a very nice version of the Summicron. 

[TomB_tx]

2 minutes ago, markc2 said:

I can get to try a Summarit 1.5 and a version 3 Summicron locally, it seems they both have some haze in them. I've been doing some more reading and it seems the V4 is a very nice version of the Summicron. 

Summicron V4 is nice. Optics are identical to the current V5 although coatings used may be different I have both v3 & v5, and most pictures can't tell which I used. v4-5 has a bit more brilliance wide open. The v3 was my most used lens for over 40 years, and once on digital I bought the v5 out of curiosity, not need. I ordered the v3 from the camera shop where I worked in college, and was expecting the then-current "Rigid" (v2), but they were just phasing in the v3. After comparing images with a v2 I kept the v3.

The V4 has the advantage of the finger tab on the focus ring, if you like that style. (I do - one reason I now use a Summarit 2.5.)