Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 "Speed Panchro II" for Leica M

[catacore]

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I wish you good health and easy recovery @Almizilero!

Meanwhile, as I was pondering if I should cancel my order, David just told me my lens has been shipped. He also included, in his reply, a link to a review of the final product. 

https://keithwee.com/2023/04/01/light-lens-lab-50mm-f2-speed-panchro-ii-reviving-the-cinematic-classic/

[Huss]

I thought it came with a UV filter?  I prefer that than a lens cap.  But still weird to not ship with full complement of lens caps.  Even the cheapest lenses on the market ship with both.

[catacore]

Mr. Leica a.k.a. Matt Osbourne video on Elcan and SPII (production lens). And some comparisons.

 

[NigelG]

Got excited as I got an email from LLL and assumed it was notification that my 50SP was shipping...but it was some kind of "behind the scenes" video link.😐

[Huss]

7 hours ago, catacore said:

Mr. Leica a.k.a. Matt Osbourne video on Elcan and SPII (production lens). And some comparisons.

 

I like his videos but the problem with this one is it rates the lenses on purely one metric. Min focus distance w test subject slap bang in the middle.
There is so much more than that.

[catacore]

8 hours ago, NigelG said:

Got excited as I got an email from LLL and assumed it was notification that my 50SP was shipping...but it was some kind of "behind the scenes" video link.😐

Yep, exactly the same here. Even more so, since David told me, two days ago, that my lens has been shipped, just waiting for the tracking number. 

[Ryoo]

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Panchro replica arrived just one hour ago. Order # was 1220. Shipping speed was very fast, satisfied me.

Wow. This is more than I expected. I am gonna test a roll of film. 

 

[Almizilero]

Still can't go out but I'm so bored that I did a little "rear window"ing with the Panchro and the Summicron, just to play around a little with the lens. I wonder if others will confirm this, but the lens seems to loose a lot of that dreamy low contrast character quite quickly. I first did shot with aperture 2 - 2.8 - 4 and was really surprised by the change between f/2 and f/2.8. It gains so much contrast and sharpness (in the center) with this little step, so that it actually does almost rival the Summicron. Except for the colours, which remain much warmer compared to the very natural colours of the Summicron. At f/2.8, the corners still show some of the character, by f/4, the image is basically clear. So, @pippy, the glow is pretty much gone by f/4.

I think f/2.4 might end up to be my personal sweet spot. Here, my lens still shows some of that (slightly overwheming) character from wide open, but with a bit more sharpness and contrast in the center. Well, at least judging from the boring view from my window 🤣 All in all, I can't wait to take this lens out!

[catacore]

It looks like my lens has landed in France (CDG) and I've been already contacted by Fedex to provide them with my proof of payment and some more docs. So no way to skip the taxes, even though the parcel value was declared at 10 USD. Delivery estimated on Wednesday, but not sure it will happen so quickly.

[Almizilero]

vor 7 Minuten schrieb catacore:

It looks like my lens has landed in France (CDG) and I've been already contacted by Fedex to provide them with my proof of payment and some more docs. So no way to skip the taxes, even though the parcel value was declared at 10 USD. Delivery estimated on Wednesday, but not sure it will happen so quickly.

You should expect it this week. Mine was estimated for Wednesday as well, the whole customs thing made it only a day longer. Things went really fast after I provided proof of payment.

[NigelG]

33 minutes ago, Almizilero said:

Still can't go out but I'm so bored that I did a little "rear window"ing with the Panchro and the Summicron, just to play around a little with the lens. I wonder if others will confirm this, but the lens seems to loose a lot of that dreamy low contrast character quite quickly. I first did shot with aperture 2 - 2.8 - 4 and was really surprised by the change between f/2 and f/2.8. It gains so much contrast and sharpness (in the center) with this little step, so that it actually does almost rival the Summicron. Except for the colours, which remain much warmer compared to the very natural colours of the Summicron. At f/2.8, the corners still show some of the character, by f/4, the image is basically clear. So, @pippy, the glow is pretty much gone by f/4.

I think f/2.4 might end up to be my personal sweet spot. Here, my lens still shows some of that (slightly overwheming) character from wide open, but with a bit more sharpness and contrast in the center. Well, at least judging from the boring view from my window 🤣 All in all, I can't wait to take this lens out!

For me - though maybe not for everyone - if the “character” is most apparent only wide open then fairly quickly disappears once at f4 or even f5.6 so that the lens can be stopped down to near (not sure how near?) Summicron performance that would be a great result - a 50mm with that “2 lenses in one” quality where one can use the aperture to change not only the dof but also the rendering as @pippy and @hdmesa compared with the 35mm options.

Obviously I would use my Summilux ASPH or Cron v5 if I wanted or needed sharpness and contrast at wider apertures, but a wide-open-glowy-character 50 that becomes a sharper-contrastier-more modern lens stopped down could be a great option - certainly lighter (and more “vintage”wide open ) than taking out the Noctilux 50mm ASPH and maybe killing (or mitigating) my GAS for a Hexanon 60 f1.2…

[hdmesa]

6 minutes ago, NigelG said:

For me - though maybe not for everyone - if the “character” is most apparent only wide open then fairly quickly disappears once at f4 or even f5.6 so that the lens can be stopped down to near (not sure how near?) Summicron performance that would be a great result - a 50mm with that “2 lenses in one” quality where one can use the aperture to change not only the dof but also the rendering as @pippy and @hdmesa compared with the 35mm options.

Obviously I would use my Summilux ASPH or Cron v5 if I wanted or needed sharpness and contrast at wider apertures, but a wide-open-glowy-character 50 that becomes a sharper-contrastier-more modern lens stopped down could be a great option - certainly lighter (and more “vintage”wide open ) than taking out the Noctilux 50mm ASPH and maybe killing (or mitigating) my GAS for a Hexanon 60 f1.2…

The samples that Matt Osborne showed on YT look to show a glow from the SPII wide open. I don't know how a lens like the SPII goes from zero glow on the prototypes to glow on the production version. It's a different lens than I tested, IMO. But this is probably probably for the better. We have plenty of 50mm lenses that are sharp at f/2, but few with enough glow to make a good pair with the 35 1.4 pre-ASPH v2 or Steel Rim reissue.

Edited April 3, 2023 by hdmesa

[sometimesmaybe]

26 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

We have plenty of 50mm lenses that are sharp at f/2, but few with enough glow to make a good pair with the 35 1.4 pre-ASPH v2 or Steel Rim reissue

if you're interested in glow, have a look at the RF version of the Jupiter 8. they are dirt cheap (both in terms of price and construction - you know communism and what not), but reasonably usable when stopped down 

[Huss]

9 minutes ago, sometimesmaybe said:

if you're interested in glow, have a look at the RF version of the Jupiter 8. they are dirt cheap (both in terms of price and construction - you know communism and what not), but reasonably usable when stopped down 

I had a J8 - new old stock.  And it was a really tiny, light weight thing.   The problem with mine was the very light and clickless aperture ring, which made it a pain to use on a meterless camera, but more being the focus collimation was not designed for Leica cameras, even though they fit the Leica mount.

Once the new toy novelty wore off, I sold it and used lenses that were correctly calibrated and had click stops on the aperture ring.  So the gear got out of my way when taking pics.

[NigelG]

On 4/3/2023 at 4:20 AM, Ryoo said:

Panchro replica arrived just one hour ago. Order # was 1220. Shipping speed was very fast, satisfied me.

Wow. This is more than I expected. I am gonna test a roll of film. 

 

Hmmm. Still waiting on my order #1180...which is still in the "yet to be fulfilled" category  - despite the lenses supposedly being dispatched "in the order received" 🤔

 

[algrove]

I have both the 50 Elcan and 35 8 element. Both perform very well on the M11. Silver PanII is $800. Image from M6 BWXX film, 35 8 element wide open. As others have said these images are soft. Take into browser for better clarity.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited April 4, 2023 by algrove

[Ryoo]

1 hour ago, NigelG said:

Hmmm. Still waiting on my order #1180...which is still in the "yet to be fulfilled" category  - despite the lenses supposedly being dispatched "in the order received" 🤔

 

Now I'm in Korea near from China. I don't know where you are, but presumably you will get the lens in near future.

[catacore]

My lens just arrived a couple of hours before with Fedex. It appeared the shipment was ordered on Friday and the lens was received by Fedex on Saturday - so 5 days from China to my home, including waiting for customs. Had to pay around 220 EUR for customs/VAT.

Going out to take some images with my M240 and LLL SPII replica.

Edited April 5, 2023 by catacore

[catacore]

Few pictures uploaded here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23361904@N05/albums/72177720307277845

Will upload as I process these. Processing is basically only adjusting the exposure, then export as jpeg with longer side at 3000px.

Tried to make the pictures' name self-explanatory (aperture size), all pictures focuses hand held and centered, using OVF (with very few exceptions which are noted like "focus-recompose").

 

Few build/mechanical impressions: quite heavy, quite small, aperture almost clickless (at least f2-f4 - changing aperture is barely noticeable, almost like focusing 😆), focus a bit stiff and not "uniform" (I would not call it smooth anyway - this is one reason I, often, "overshoot" focusing, then I had to "reverse"). Lens barrel has some spots, like it is not "clean".....Overall, I don't like its ergonomics, but bear in mind I'm quite new to MF lenses, nevertheless, all my lenses I have now are much smoother is focusing and with better (feel) aperture rings (Zeiss 25/2.8 Biogon, VC 50/1.5 II, VC 35/1.2 III, Tele-Elmarit 135/4).

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[catacore]

So, the lens glows at f/2, then by f/2.8 the glow is gone. Lens seems pretty sharp, even at f/2.8. The glow seems more pronounced (to me) at longer distance (tried to see this on the Lime scooters buy increasing the shooting distance. The glow seems evenly distributed on the image, I don't see more sharpness/contrast centrally than out-of-centre (for instance on "Padlock" pictures there is the same amount of "glow" all over the image). Also, one can even read what written on the padlock, so the sharpness is there, somehow (that should be good for portraits). But on other pictures, the central subject appears quite soft (some pictures of leaves, for instance). I can't fully understand now how this lens renders....might be miss-focus in place in some images....

Have not noticed that severe bleeding as seen on @Almizilero sign. Tried to produce it, but no success.

Sorry I did not have anybody for a portrait picture...

So far, I guess I can call this lens (at least) "interesting". But, somehow, I would like it to maintain its character at least for f/2.8 as well....

At f/5.6-f/11 I think it can be used for landscapes.

 

If you happen to draw any conclusions based on these pictures, don't keep them for yourselves, please...

If any other sorts of pictures are required, just let me know and I'll try to produce them (given the weather cooperates - which, according to prognosis, it won't)

Edited April 5, 2023 by catacore