Lomography Atoll Ultra-Wide 2.8/17 Art Lens

[BWF]

Tempting alternative to the Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 due to the price, faster aperture and 10cm minimum focus distance on mirrorless. I think my Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 “only” gets down to 12cm MFD when mounted on a Sony with the VM-E adapter. The Lomo lens appears to come with the close focus adapter though (it’s not clear) but it definitely comes with an external viewfinder. Looks like a nice set of specs and features, especially for the price. In any case, great to see another lens for M mount.

Article here https://emulsive.org/articles/news/new-m-mount-lens-from-lomography-the-atoll-ultra-wide-17mm-f-2-8-art-lens

Big discount on buying early at $399.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lomography/atoll-ultra-wide-17mm-art-lens

 

[Archlich]

Rangefinder coupled, external finder included.

Wow.

 

[Andy Kibber]

F/2.8, interesting. But I'm not a fan of Kickstarter for established companies.

I have a 17mm Fish-Eye Takumar for my old Pentax SLR. Not the most versatile lens, but good fun.

 

[zuiko85]

Essentially Lomography is using Kickstarter to;
1. See what real interest there is in the lens, as in, let people put their money where their mouth is.
(No need to guess that you can sell 3000 pieces, only to find out that 1000 sell, leaving you with your money tied up in slow moving stock that has to be discounted to convert back to money.)
2. Get money up front to help with start up costs related to series production.
I generally hate Kickstarter because they promote pie in the sky, way underfunded photographic hardware projects with zero protection for backers. But if I was interested in this lens (I’m not.) I would feel safe backing a established company like Lomography.

 

[Spluff]

Well, I've just placed my order! I have the Voigtlander LTM 15mm which I love, but I really wanted a 16mm for my Leica T (to get to 24mm) - and so I am really getting this for my T to get to 25.5mm and use zone focussing - just like the old days 🙂

Due in August (assuming they hit their $100k target), will post pics once it arrives.

 

[agentlossing]

Looks nice! I wonder if this is essentially the optics from the LC-A Wide. Nice punchy contrast but more sharpness than I expected in those sample shots.

 

[Archlich]

F/2.8, interesting. But I'm not a fan of Kickstarter for established companies.

It's like a routine for established companies, especially those that have roots in crowdfunding like Peak Designs, to run Kickstarter mainly as a promotion campaign.

Personally I'm not a fan of Kickstarter for unestabilished makers, unless the projects looks really solid and have already been churning out real life prototypes. We've got enough of horror stories in the photographic community by now haven't we.

Can never get over why even the latest, second gen, reincarnated, supposed-to-be-scam-free M-mount Meyer-Optik triplets don't offer rangefinder coupling...while starting at $899.

 

[Archlich]

Looks nice! I wonder if this is essentially the optics from the LC-A Wide. Nice punchy contrast but more sharpness than I expected in those sample shots.

Unlikely as the LC-Wide seems to lack the space to pack in this one, which comes with 13 elements in 10 groups. Looks like a heavy retrofocal lens.

 

[agentlossing]

Unlikely as the LC-Wide seems to lack the space to pack in this one, which comes with 13 elements in 10 groups. Looks like a heavy retrofocal lens.

You're right, those are a lot more elements than I suspect the LC Wide has.