Skyllaney 50mm F2 'Bertele' Sonnar lens for Leica M-mount
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maddoc
... likes film again.
Thanks for the HU! It looks very interesting to me, signed up for their newsletter.
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
I’d think that the introduction of “modern coatings” would make much less of an improvement to this original Sonnar design than it would to other lens designs, since Bertele designed the lens with few air to glass interfaces in order to minimize flare and ghosting problems from the git go. Which was a big reason the original Sonnar was a success in the first place.
Just an observation, and I may be way off. But, not immediately seeing that it’s going to be dramatically better than a nice original in most shooting situations.
Anyway, an interesting project, though the recent odd trend of intentionally forsaking economies of scale for the sake of I don’t know what, will likely make this a bit spendy.
Just an observation, and I may be way off. But, not immediately seeing that it’s going to be dramatically better than a nice original in most shooting situations.
Anyway, an interesting project, though the recent odd trend of intentionally forsaking economies of scale for the sake of I don’t know what, will likely make this a bit spendy.
Noserider
Christiaan Phleger
I do find it a very interesting lens, and as the esteemed BSweeny has stated what this lens copies is one of the more difficult lenses to find in a clean and useful mount.
I can see the value of doing this lens especially at the start; the twin cemented triplets are undoubtably easier to make these days and for less money and of higher quality glass and coatings certainly. With modern close tolerance small scale manufacturing the mount is not a difficult challenge.
In the 'original recipe' the glass types are not too far out from what could be considered 'common' glass types used industry; it wasn't until really just post war did the more rarer and definitely now regulated exotic glass types start to get incorporated into design. This means that this Bertele can be 'true' to the original.
Just the addition of a modern multi coating to the remaining 6 surfaces would be a noticeable improvement in flare contrast and transmission. So it has that going for it.
As it is true with every successful consumer optic, what the design patent information is in theory is balanced to what ending up actually getting made by that manufacturer in time. Allowances are made, tolerances are altered, designs tweaked to get that production lens to perform well in the customers hands. I believe just the general improvements in optical design and manufacturing would make it a pretty achievable target for this lens to be a very good performer. Certainly I feel the choice of lens makes it appealing just from a rarity perspective; remember that many of our RF groups' fondest lens designs originated from the f/2 Sonnar. If the price is good it will sell well. It will be interesting to see if a Taylor-Hobson Xenon is being considered...
I can see the value of doing this lens especially at the start; the twin cemented triplets are undoubtably easier to make these days and for less money and of higher quality glass and coatings certainly. With modern close tolerance small scale manufacturing the mount is not a difficult challenge.
In the 'original recipe' the glass types are not too far out from what could be considered 'common' glass types used industry; it wasn't until really just post war did the more rarer and definitely now regulated exotic glass types start to get incorporated into design. This means that this Bertele can be 'true' to the original.
Just the addition of a modern multi coating to the remaining 6 surfaces would be a noticeable improvement in flare contrast and transmission. So it has that going for it.
As it is true with every successful consumer optic, what the design patent information is in theory is balanced to what ending up actually getting made by that manufacturer in time. Allowances are made, tolerances are altered, designs tweaked to get that production lens to perform well in the customers hands. I believe just the general improvements in optical design and manufacturing would make it a pretty achievable target for this lens to be a very good performer. Certainly I feel the choice of lens makes it appealing just from a rarity perspective; remember that many of our RF groups' fondest lens designs originated from the f/2 Sonnar. If the price is good it will sell well. It will be interesting to see if a Taylor-Hobson Xenon is being considered...
aizan
Veteran
I hope the barrel design follows the original LTM version as much as possible. I like that it has a focusing tab, though.
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