Light Lens Lab 50mm f/1.2 ASPH "1966" 2024

Seems silly to comment on this post, but people that come on here to share their negative impressions on a topic (and seemingly ONLY their negative impressions) are vexing to me. This is a hobby website. Generally, hobbies are things that people enjoy. I'd love it if OP ever posted some of their photos or shared some of their passion for photographic things they like. It's easy to be negative, but it's quite tedious to keep reading the same thing over and over again. I get it. You don't like LLL, etc. Share some of your photos and tell us about stuff you like. Please and thanks.
 
It's an optics company making a lens. The owner of the company is a photography enthusiast. He wanted to give people a chance to own and use a lens that has attained a mythical status. Maybe I'll buy one just to compare with the other super-speed lenses I own. I've dropped a lot more than this on lenses.

Bottom-Line, the TTArtisans 50/0.95 will out-perform this and cost 1/3rd as much. Modern design, smart engineering. $2K to put my money where my mouth is? It is from Popflash. Like my TTartisans 50/0.95. But that was only $550, Titanium version.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Lenin famously said that the capitalists are so greedy that they'll gladly sell rope to the Communists that will be used to hang the capitalists.
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Very quotable, but funny how history played out, isn't it.

I interpret the LLL web site as "Proudly made in PRC". By a private enterprise.
 
I am so sorry this post did not irritate Mr. Liam whom I liked some of his point views, but irritated some members. Everyone's experience is different, let the readers make their decision. People who brows RFF, do have interests in rangefinder camera/photograph such as FrankS and have wealthy knowledge and collections, such as Sonnar Brain. For these negative reviewers, do not simple accuse them as distractors or never owned the products. Balanced review = positive and negative reviews. Some the members from that area may have inside knowledge about the marketing, production et al. Be nice to strangers.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
It's an optics company making a lens. The owner of the company is a photography enthusiast. He wanted to give people a chance to own and use a lens that has attained a mythical status. Maybe I'll buy one just to compare with the other super-speed lenses I own. I've dropped a lot more than this on lenses.

Bottom-Line, the TTArtisans 50/0.95 will out-perform this and cost 1/3rd as much. Modern design, smart engineering. $2K to put my money where my mouth is? It is from Popflash. Like my TTartisans 50/0.95. But that was only $550, Titanium version.
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Use Zunow 50mm f1.1 as an investment index, the stock market outperformed Zunow. If you put 2K in stock market such as SP500, your grandchildren will get better return than Zunow. Some members from other forums told me, the initial LLL project was a photography enthusiast project, supported by the Leica enthusiast Mr. Kevin - the one was hammered in RFF, he was a volunteer/participant of LLL project to help the orders of RFF members. Mr. Kevin got all the blames from here, I do not think he had any control of LLL business operation. China is a melting pot of feudalism, communism and capitalism, when the dollar sign shinned, like everyone, they will go there. If you really enjoy Rolex and luxury bags made by watches and bag enthusiasts from China, you can go to NYC buy some, nowadays, the quality is amazing, even at close inspection you really can not tell they are replicas and the sellers guaranty no onion rings. 🙂
 
JeffS7444 said:
Very quotable, but funny how history played out, isn't it.

I interpret the LLL web site as "Proudly made in PRC". By a private enterprise.
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I think the log is wrong should be CCP instead of CCCP? The government required the private business form CCP committee when reach certain numbers. CCP is native for China, CCCP is Russian. That's why I think LLL need a publicist.
 
The S&P 500 was ~500 in 1956, just looked up some charts. That is "about" 10x increase. That is less than the 11x increase in inflation.
I paid $200 for my Canon 50/0.95 in 2004. Bought a pair of them, back then- sold one at a good profit. Can't do that with a lot of lenses, but some are destined to be cult lenses. The trick is knowing which ones will achieve cult status.

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Who would have thought a slow telephoto lens in M42 mount would be worth anything. Nice to have for IR and UV work, but prices are nuts. rare- I've read that 40 are known to exist, counting mine.

Konica 28 F1.8? Over $1,000! Fungus Included!
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Not as good as the Nikkor 28/2. The Konica- Another lens that sellers are pushing as cult status. Mine is perfect, the Nikkor cost me $100. Who makes up this crap?

Adjusted for inflation, the Zunow 5cm F1.1 would be about $4,000 today. The 7Artisans 50/1.1 is close to the Zunow formula and spec, retailed for $369. I bought a pair of them. Well worth it. The original Zunow 5cm F1.1: an interesting lens to collectors, but overpriced at what they are asking for them today.

If you can pick up a Pentax 85/4.5 for $100 and a Konica 28/1.8 for even less, you might be able to turn a profit and beat the S&P 500. Enough for some spending money for gear, but not much of an inheritance.
 
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It is good to know which lens has the cult status when scan yard sale or goodwill.
SP500 can be easily cashed, not the cult collector item, unless extremely rare and has historic value such as the original barnack leica. I was told by a member from China - buy LLL at that price, the extra you paid is paying ZHI SHANG SHUI, compare to artisans, roughly translated as “paying intellectual tax or IQ tax or stupid tax”. Well, maybe he is wrong or just his personal opinions. If you like your LLL, enjoy it.
 
The S&P 500 can also easily crash...

The informational thread on the LLL 50/1.2 indicates that it used molded optics, and has pronounced onion ring bokeh dur to the process. The original 50/1.2 and new Leica 50/1.2 are ground, not molded, and do not have the onion ring issue. Molded optics represent a cost-savings measure for LLL. This means the lens is not a copy, but an inexpensive recreation. If the lens were priced closer to the $800 paid for the 50/1.2 Asph Nokton - I would be tempted. If the lens used the more expensive ground-glass technique and was an exact copy, would also be tempted. Just to see how it performs and handles.

At this point- if someone asked me to evaluate the lens, I would compare it with a number of fast lenses from the Canon 50/1.2 LTM with perfect glass up through the TTart 50/0.95 picked up last year, a total of 8 50mm lenses in Leica mount from F0.95 through to F1.2.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
... The informational thread on the LLL 50/1.2 indicates that it used molded optics, and has pronounced onion ring bokeh due to the process. The original 50/1.2 and new Leica 50/1.2 are ground, not molded, and do not have the onion ring issue. ...
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It is my understanding that the opposite is the case.
LLL is using a similar ground glass technique on the "1966" that Leica used on its original Noctilux f/1.2. It is Leica that uses molded glass on their reboot currently in production.

From LLL's website: "A recreation of the mythical and highly sought-after 50mm f/1.2 ASPH from 1966. Down to the lanthanide-infused glass code named: "900403". We are proud of our development with the polishing aspherical process, using classic high-temperature grinding and polishing processes ..."
 
Duh! I just saw the CCCP hammer and sickle on the hot shoe. It’s definitely a Soviet symbol. I think it looks pretty cool. Is it possible to mount one on my hot shoe without endorsing Marx and Lenin? I‘ve never owned a Che t-shirt by the way but I did buy a Mao cap but it didn’t fit my huge cranium.
 
Bill Blackwell said:
It is my understanding that the opposite is the case.
LLL is using a similar ground glass technique on the "1966" that Leica used on its original Noctilux f/1.2. It is Leica that uses molded glass on their reboot currently in production.

From LLL's website: "A recreation of the mythical and highly sought-after 50mm f/1.2 ASPH from 1966. Down to the lanthanide-infused glass code named: "900403". We are proud of our development with the polishing aspherical process, using classic high-temperature grinding and polishing processes ..."
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I will re-read the thread!

This is the post that I based the statement on:

LLL 50mm f/1.2 ASPH "1966"

Hand polished aspherical elements should not have onion rings unless the grinding medium is too coarse and leave radial furrows in the elements. Canon pioneered precision grinding of aspherical elements for camera lenses: (50th anniversary) Aspherical lens elements: Transcending challenges in...
www.rangefinderforum.com www.rangefinderforum.com

The images show onion-ring Bokeh, and the person posting stated it was made with the LLL 50/1.2 "1966" lens.

This post attributed the onion ring bokeh to the use of molded optics:

LLL 50mm f/1.2 ASPH "1966"

Thanks! He's a very cooperative model! I like the lens rendering as well. My father is also older and quite amenable to being photographed. These are great. Thank you for these. The low contrast in the B&Ws doesn’t show it, but the colour ones have clear onion rings. According to the...
www.rangefinderforum.com www.rangefinderforum.com

The out of focus areas basically show a contour map of the aspherical surface of the optic. Whether due to coarse grinding, or use of molded optics, it is different from the original Leica 50/1.2.

A couple of my Jupiters may have the CCCP emblem on them. The export versions have "Made in USSR". I also have a pre-war 5cm F1.5 Sonnar marked "Made in Germany", an old one.

Now- if LLL produces a 50mm F1.1 Sonnar formula lens with a mechanism to automatically correct for focus shift due to spherical aberration, that would be a first.
I need to do that for a J-3, just need to do a little hacking.
 
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Bill Blackwell said:
It is my understanding that the opposite is the case.
LLL is using a similar ground glass technique on the "1966" that Leica used on its original Noctilux f/1.2. It is Leica that uses molded glass on their reboot currently in production.

From LLL's website: "A recreation of the mythical and highly sought-after 50mm f/1.2 ASPH from 1966. Down to the lanthanide-infused glass code named: "900403". We are proud of our development with the polishing aspherical process, using classic high-temperature grinding and polishing processes ..."
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We really do not know, if Mr. LLL said so, we just take his word. He run his business in a social media called WeChat, just like facebook, he build a private group by invitation only, if he said all 35mm f2 used the banned, environmental unfriendly lead glass, we have no way to verify it. LLL is a one man operation business. However, someone in that group said at some point, LLL did use environmental friendly lead free glass. I have no way to verify it.
 
Rayt said:
Duh! I just saw the CCCP hammer and sickle on the hot shoe. It’s definitely a Soviet symbol. I think it looks pretty cool. Is it possible to mount one on my hot shoe without endorsing Marx and Lenin? I‘ve never owned a Che t-shirt by the way but I did buy a Mao cap but it didn’t fit my huge cranium.
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Is this equivalent wear a MAGA cap without endorsing Mr. Trump? Also, find a Mao cap fits your head should not be an issue in China. I was told only two groups buy this cap, the foreigners and the brain damaged little pinks. Green cap/hat also have another mean in Chinese culture, not a good one.
 
Duofold RF said:
Is this equivalent wear a MAGA cap without endorsing Mr. Trump? Also, find a Mao cap fits your head should not be an issue in China. I was told only two groups buy this cap, the foreigners and the brain damaged little pinks. Green cap/hat also have another mean in Chinese culture, not a good one.
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Good point about the MAGA cap. I traveled to China on business trips and often went on side trips for photography and the only place I have seen Mao caps sold was at the tourist areas around Yu Garden in Shanghai.

Anyway about the lens, I bought a Mr Ding’s version of the noct recently and its a good lens. Not interested in the LLL repros but I have the Panchro copy and it’s very good.
 
I would consider buying this lens to replace my CV Nokton f/1.2, but not for over $2k!
The trade-off would be the wicked pincushion distortion of the Nokton in favor of the only slight barrel distortion of the "1966".

After reading the two threads dedicated to the "1966" I'm considering getting another CV Nokton f/1.1; I have to admit to missing that lens.
 
This is an interesting thread to read.

I had the 7A 50/1.1 lens it was nice but I didn't use it much and I gifted it on. I find I don't get excited by super speed lenses. 50/1.4? Got that. 50/1.5? Want that Sonnar 😉 If I found a 50/1.2 stupid cheap? Maybe I'd consider it but I doubt it even then. Just not my "thing".
 
I had the Leica Noctilux F1 and didn’t use it enough to justify keeping it. I am glad there are now cheap but competent f1.1 lenses otherwise I wouldn’t bother.
 
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