Light Lens Lab - 35mm f1.4 Aspherical now in production

[Archiver]

LLL has just announced a new lens, the 35mm f1.4 Aspherical. It will come in black paint, silver chrome, and limited titanium versions.

Light Lens Lab 35mm f/1.4 "Aspherical" in Production

Hello Everyone, After two years of continuous development and refinement, we are pleased to announce that production of the Light Lens Lab 35mm f/1.4 Aspherical "11873" has officially begun. The lens will be available for order in the last quarter of 2025. A prototype of the 35mm f/1.4...

lightlenslab.com

It is an improved version of the prototype given to Leica Society International for testing and review in 2023.

Who is up for this?

 

[Duofold RF]

The market for this lens seems quite small. There are many 35mm f/1.4 options available, most of which offer better performance for the price. Diehard Leica fans are unlikely to care about replicas, and those interested in trying a collectible 35mm f/1.4 Aspherical lens often discover that the formula is not a 100% accurate replica.

 

[Godfrey]

I haven't seen any objective reviews or tests of this lens or its predecessor yet, I can only comment on a picture of it.
The picture looks nice, the lens looks interesting. Whether it is any good is yet to be determined, for me.

Would it replace my pre-ASPH 1972 Summilux 35mm f/1.4? I cannot know without testing and comparing them.
I'm not likely to sell the Summilux 35, so the LLL lens would be something I acquired in addition.

I look forward to seeing what photos made with it look like.

G

 

[Coldkennels]

Hang on... am I reading that one on the left correctly?

A brand new (and aspherical) 35/1.4 in LTM would be a pretty big deal.

 

[WoodallP]

View attachment 4878899
Hang on... am I reading that one on the left correctly?

A brand new (and aspherical) 35/1.4 in LTM would be a pretty big deal.

I tend to agree!

 

[aw614]

Hmm keep my LLL 35mm 8E in LTM or sell it for the 35 F1.4...

 

[rfaspen]

The market isn't necessarily small, but definitely flooded. Lots of 35's in 1.4 and 1.5 to choose from.

But! I do agree that an LTM version brings something new and attractive. That would be a good addition to the market.

Id love an original Aspherical but lust after a number of other lenses first.

 

[brothernature]

I wish they'd make a clone of the v4 summicron. I want small not big!

 

[Duofold RF]

Why produce an LTM lens in such a large size? There are many compact 35mm f/2 LTM lenses available. It seems like Light Lens Lab (LLL) has gradually lost its momentum, and its market is becoming smaller and smaller.

 

[Coldkennels]

Why produce an LTM lens in such a large size?

Because screwmount users sometimes like to be size queens too. 😅

Joking aside, I'd argue that a fast wide like this would actually make more sense on a screwmount than on an M - higher mag RF makes it easier to focus, and the mandatory use of an external viewfinder would mean finder blockage is a non-issue.

I don't actually see any discussion of an LTM version on their website beyond that one mock-up of the name ring, though. I think they abandoned their early support of the mount, which is a crying shame. I've been waiting for the promised LTM version of the Speed Panchro II for a long time now, and it's not even been mentioned since the original blog about it in December 2023 - Light lens Lab 50mm f/2 Rigid-SP II Pre-Order Announcement - where they said "LTM mount available later in 2024".

 

[rfaspen]

I can't think of a fast (e.g., 1.4) 35mm lens available in LTM. Not even sure if they made any 1st gen 35 summiluxes with the removable mount (that little screw) like they did with 35 summarons (and supposedly also the early summicrons). So I think a 35/1.4 in LTM would be something to add. How large that market would be?..... likely not huge 😬, but Leica showed us it's possible to have that removable M-mount.....if anything, such a lens would have a larger potential market than otherwise. Seems obvious, but I'm decidedly not of the business world.

 

[aw614]

Canon had a 35mm F1.5, but at the cost they go for...yeah

 

[Duofold RF]

It is the balance, a large size lens does not look good on a Leica LTM. Also other than some Canon Rf, You have to use an external viewfinder, the set up does not make sense.

 

[Duofold RF]

I wish they'd make a clone of the v4 summicron. I want small not big!

Not LLL, another Chinese go fund me make a V4 replica in small batch, the optical quality is unknown

 

[Archiver]

I can't think of a fast (e.g., 1.4) 35mm lens available in LTM.

The only faster 35 in more recent years is the Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f1.7 LTM. Beautiful lens, with sharp details, almost no glow/softness and pleasant bokeh. I messed mine up by trying to tighten the loose lens barrel. The aperture ring ball bearing fell out, and it's become super soft. There are reports that the lens glue of that model/production period outgasses over time and causes haze, which I'm not looking forward to. Fingers crossed that it can be fixed.

 

[Freakscene]

I had one of the original ones. It was very good in 1993. I see no reason to buy one in 2025.

 

[Archiver]

I had one of the original ones. It was very good in 1993. I see no reason to buy one in 2025.

It's surely marketing, but LLL are implying that their lens will surpass the performance of the original aspherical from 1990, optimizing it for digital sensors. This probably means the elimination of red edges, not sure if they are also talking about resolving power. Having no experience with the original aspherical, I admit to being curious about this lens.

If it was in the budget, I'd get the latest Leica ASPH with 40cm minimum focus distance. That would be pretty super. In lieu of that, the LLL close focus adapter looks like a good option.

 

[Freakscene]

It's surely marketing, but LLL are implying that their lens will surpass the performance of the original aspherical from 1990, optimizing it for digital sensors. This probably means the elimination of red edges, not sure if they are also talking about resolving power. Having no experience with the original aspherical, I admit to being curious about this lens.

Maybe, but without a floating element it will be worse than the FLE.

 

[Tears]

I wish they'd make a clone of the v4 summicron. I want small not big!

Not by LLL, but two or more clones of v4-cron (7 elements) have been announced in China.

One of them is the Mandler lens, a 99% copy of 7E, from optics to paper box. Some batches even have the Leica trademark😅. They're limited to about 200 units per month.

Another one is Mr.Ding Pactcron 35/1.8, based on Leica 7E with an improvement of ⅓ stop.

There's also Seagull 35/1.7 lens, a replica of v1-cron 8E, half stop faster and still compact.

 

[TenEleven]

That's cool. For the record I really like my LLL 8ele collapsible, but something a stop faster would be appreciated. It's a fantastic lens and I think they improved the optics of the collapsible version over the original rigid copy and the original. There seems to be less coma and glow. It still retains the character of the original though.

One note about the 35/2 collapsible is that due to the size they had to use a sloped RF cam. So, there might be slight discrepancies in RF coupling depending on the body used. In my experience it works well with 4 out of my 5 bodies. The 5th does not work as well - it's usable but the RF is visibly off, just a something to note if such things annoy you.