LLL 35/2 Replica - One year later, how do you feel about your lens?

[Duofold RF]

I do not want to support this kind of business, the largest fake/knock off goods come from there. If you are in New York City, the fake watch/bag/shoes are all come from there. They have market, these who want big self esteem/ego/self satisfaction are supporting this market. The business model of LLL is unconventional, more or less like the hotdog vendor on the New York City street.

The poor manufacture tolerance lead to wobble of front on par with some early Cosina Zeiss ZM

 

[Duofold RF]

With a price of a LLL replica around $1000, it is not a bargain at all. Get a clean used Rigid Summicron instead if you like this lens so much (as I do).

You are a professor, need to use the right definition of replica, otherwise your students will complain you on rateyourprofesssor. LLL are not replica, either use Shan Zhai or knock off copy.

 

[Bill Blackwell]

I do not want to support this kind of business, the largest fake/knock off goods come from there. If you are in New York City, the fake watch/bag/shoes are all come from there. ...

Cool? Seriously? More lenses without QC. More zero customer support. More mythical stories of exotic glass and their mystical Maker.

More brazen knockoff-ism. And you all encourage this theft by celebrating it.

I pretty much share this sentiment, especially at the prices they're trying to get. But unlike the watch/bag/shoe knock-offs being marketed on the streets of New York, at least they're rebadged fakes.

 

[james.liam]

Re-badging or admitting a fraud doesn't make it somehow less hideous. The phenomenon isn't an innocent annoyance or as 'shanzhai' implies, a piratical middle-finger to "The Man" with origins in the Song Dynasty a millennia ago. It is endemic to the entire political culture of the PRC where an utter disregard for intellectual property (not to mention life; human or animal) is the norm and winning at all cost is without limits; ethical, moral or otherwise.
About 10 years ago, our Mainland Frenemies downloaded the entire schematic for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter, along with stealth technology that shields it. They did so by embedding an engineer inside Lockheed Martin. Once obtained, they reverse-engineered it in no time at all. This "8-element" It is now called the J31 fighter, the most advanced in the arsenal of the PLA Air Force.




Steal small things, you'll naturally steal big things. Only yesterday, the PRC declared that the international waterway of the Taiwan Straits is theirs. Just like that. Shanzhai.

So, no. It is not "cool" nor "fun" or "wow" or "a harmless thing" or an homage to something notable from the past.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Calling the products of LLL fakes, is unfair. At first sight it is clear it is not a Leica lens. It doesn't even look like a Leica lens. The makers do not call it a Leica lens. They do not try to make it look like a Leica lens. Yes, you can put it on a Leica. It is only an imitation of a type of lens that is already many years out of production. I don't see the problem.

Erik.

 

[james.liam]

At first sight it is clear it is not a Leica lens. It doesn't even look like a Leica lens...I don't see the problem.

Erik.

Really, Erik?!? They look nothing alike??

 

[Erik van Straten]

Really, Erik?!? They look nothing alike??

Just look at the color of the "red" dot and you'll see the difference.

Erik.

 

[james.liam]

Just look at the color of the "red" dot and you'll see the difference.

Erik.

"Bijtende spot"?

Ah, the purple synthetic stone. Its singular touch of originality.

 

[Duofold RF]

The Chinese pen maker Moonman (the brand is banned in EU, now use Majohn) shamelessly copied Italian pen Leonardo momento zero. Can you tell the difference?

 

[Dustfinder]

Calling the products of LLL fakes, is unfair. At first sight it is clear it is not a Leica lens. It doesn't even look like a Leica lens. The makers do not call it a Leica lens. They do not try to make it look like a Leica lens. Yes, you can put it on a Leica. It is only an imitation of a type of lens that is already many years out of production. I don't see the problem.

Erik.

Interesting how this has become a subject of such strong feelings. Is it because of its chinese origin? I fail to see the problem, as the patents have expired, no laws have been infringed, and the lens is clearly branded as a Light Lens Lab product. Literally, only a blind person would confuse it with a Leica lens. Replicas of old porsches have been made in the USA and elsewhere, for decades, and I haven't seen any trouble about it, anywhere.

The DR seems to be an interesting proposition, but should we assume that the googles are in order too?

 

[james.liam]

Did the patent on the pens you posted have expired patients?

 

[Mark C]

The Chinese pen maker Moonman (the brand is banned in EU, now use Majohn) shamelessly copied Italian pen Leonardo momento zero. Can you tell the difference?

The ones on the left are prettier; I hope they are the knockoffs so that I can afford them.

 

[bluesun267]

You'll not find any great love for the PRC Government, either at home or abroad. But the government is not the people. Not all of the people anyway. Just as not every American is a wannabe Donald Trump.

And the 1956 Summicron is not a weapon of war, not even remotely close. In fact quite the opposite. It is an object of love: An homage to one of the finest endeavors human beings engage in (Art). We should count ourselves fortunate to have the leisure time to comment on, and maybe even buy, such a thing. Just as those who made it probably count themselves lucky to be able to pursue such creative and non-war-related business ventures in their country. I see no misrepresentations in it or surrounding it.

I advise everyone who thinks these LLL replicas, reproductions, etc. are pure evil to just take a quick look at the label of any article of clothing they might be presently wearing. Are you putting your money where your mouth is?

 

[Duofold RF]

The ones on the left are prettier; I hope they are the knockoffs so that I can afford them.

Hahaha, Mark you may also love this one,

 

[Duofold RF]

I advise everyone who thinks these LLL replicas, reproductions, etc. are pure evil to just take a quick look at the label of any article of clothing they might be presently wearing. Are you putting your money where your mouth is?

Evil is a too strong word, we are discussing LLL business model, QC, definition of replica. Why Japanese manufacture such as Cosina does not do “replica? Is this ethical moral or something else?

 

[james.liam]

You'll not find any great love for the PRC Government, either at home or abroad. But the government is not the people. Not all of the people anyway. Just as not every American is a wannabe Donald Trump.

And the 1956 Summicron is not a weapon of war, not even remotely close. In fact quite the opposite. It is an object of love: An homage to one of the finest endeavors human beings engage in (Art). We should count ourselves fortunate to have the leisure time to comment on, and maybe even buy, such a thing. Just as those who made it probably count themselves lucky to be able to pursue such creative and non-war-related business ventures in their country. I see no misrepresentations in it or surrounding it.

I advise everyone who thinks these LLL replicas, reproductions, etc. are pure evil to just take a quick look at the label of any article of clothing they might be presently wearing. Are you putting your money where your mouth is?

Right. Great rationalizations. Good work.

Evil is a too strong word, we are discussing LLL business model, QC, definition of replica. Why Japanese manufacture such as Cosina does not do “replica? Is this ethical moral or something else?

Maybe because they have something to say for themselves and their own abilities? As freer thinkers living in a free society, they can create something new & novel instead of endlessly copy? There's that.

 

[raid]

To be fair to all concerned, many people here admire/use lenses and/or cameras from FSU. We should leave politics out of such discussions.
At first, I liked the idea of having another source for interesting lenses, but I did not like the lack of precision or accountability for the LLL productions.
There are RFF members who want such lenses, and I say, so be it. No laws seem to have been violated here. Right?

 

[james.liam]

To be fair to all concerned, many people here admire/use lenses and/or cameras from FSU. We should leave politics out of such discussions.
At first, I liked the idea of having another source for interesting lenses, but I did not like the lack of precision or accountability for the LLL productions.
There are RFF members who want such lenses, and I say, so be it. No laws seem to have been violated here. Right?

Yup. Caveat emptor.

Also to be fair the USSR and Nazi Germany are long gone, just the relics survive, like lenses.

 

[coogee]

Re-badging or admitting a fraud doesn't make it somehow less hideous. The phenomenon isn't an innocent annoyance or as 'shanzhai' implies, a piratical middle-finger to "The Man" with origins in the Song Dynasty a millennia ago. It is endemic to the entire political culture of the PRC where an utter disregard for intellectual property (not to mention life; human or animal) is the norm and winning at all cost is without limits; ethical, moral or otherwise.
About 10 years ago, our Mainland Frenemies downloaded the entire schematic for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter, along with stealth technology that shields it. They did so by embedding an engineer inside Lockheed Martin. Once obtained, they reverse-engineered it in no time at all. This "8-element" It is now called the J31 fighter, the most advanced in the arsenal of the PLA Air Force.


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Steal small things, you'll naturally steal big things. Only yesterday, the PRC declared that the international waterway of the Taiwan Straits is theirs. Just like that. Shanzhai.

So, no. It is not "cool" nor "fun" or "wow" or "a harmless thing" or an homage to something notable from the past.

Sorry, what does a US military plane have to do with a long discontinued out of patent West German lens? Or photography? Or our experience of using the lens in the last year?
Your prejudices about all things Chinese are perhaps best kept to yourself.

 

[james.liam]

Sorry, what does a US military plane have to do with a long discontinued out of patent West German lens? Or photography? Or our experience of using the lens in the last year?
Your prejudices about all things Chinese are perhaps best kept to yourself.

My ‘prejudice’ is against tyrannies that crush the human spirit and remember people like one of my business partner’s grandfather who was sent away for 5 years to a “reeducation camp” during the Cultural Revolution and later managed to escape to formerly free Hong Kong. Or my father who spent 2 years in a Siberian slave labor camp in WWII for the crime of not being Russian . Wake up, Coogee. Read before you malign others. That’s all I have to say about this.