Thypoch lenses from China

If I were to nitpick, the font choice with Thypoch and the Artisans brands needs help. That's a small thing and certainly doesn't impact image quality. But yeah, the font choices are not nice to my eye. LLL at least gets around this by using Leica's font family. Voigtlander got it right from the beginning. Credit to them for that.

I thought I was the only one bothered by their choice of fonts. Typefaces make more difference to the perception of quality than most people realize.
 
This rant above reminds me of a bizarre incident some 10 years ago. I used to live in Hong Kong when I worked for a European company overseeing compliance issues in the region. One night I was at a local popular camera store checking out gear. I had a Leica 19mm R attached to a cropped sensor Canon around my neck so maybe it was more than 10 years ago. This guy I didn’t know walked up to me and started telling me how much he hated the look of Leica lenses especially for people. He even made a face and a verbal “yuck” in his rant. Meanwhile I remained polite. He said Carl Zeiss is where’s at pointing at the Contax C/Y lenses behind the glass cases. That cheap 45mm pancake Tessar kicks Leica ass. Switch to Carl Zeiss he said for the colors and tonality. Leica too harsh too brittle. Years later on TV I see the same guy accepting some industry award. Turned out he was a well known HK film producer. I didn‘t switch to Contax but if I did it would have saved me a lot of money. Maybe he knew what he was talking about being in the film industry dealing with directors and cinematographers.


* found him.
This is brilliant. The cinema people do seem to know and love lenses for their drawing.

Thanks
 
Cinema Photographers- now driving the prices of some classic lenses sky-high. Sought out for imperfections, once lenses that were not taken seriously like the Canon 50/0.95 and Canon 85/1.5 now selling for more than 10x what they used to when RFF was new.
 
Just wait until the Cine world decides that Jupiters are where it is at. I had one Montreal film maker ask about a J-9 I had modified for focus on a Leica. He wanted it for portraits, I thought that cool, $75. I had put KMZ optics into a late Black barrel that had the secondary shim.
 
Another preproduction review of the Thypoch lenses. This fellow seems to be in Melbourne, too, so you can see parts of our wonderful city! (This is not me.)

The digital images here were shot with the Nikon Zf. I'm very curious how these lenses perform with the Leica M9 and Panasonic S5.

 
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Interestingly, here is a review of the Voigtlander 28mm f1.5. I have to say that I'm not that fond of the bokeh at 5.00. It is distractingly swirly and nervous, although it appears to be super sharp at f1.5. The Thypoch reviewed above does not seem to have this swirly nervous look.

 
Are you going to buy one? Or more?
If so, would be nice to open a review thread here.

One would want to draw a parallel between the Chinese companies producing these lenses today, and post-war Japan. There is a huge difference: The economy of Post-War Japan was saved by their camera industry, and other industries that could turn out products that used little material and where labor intensive. With China- the current crop of lens makers are aiming at a small but affluent market of camera enthusiasts. The lenses being turned out represent good performance for the money, but are not as good as the products from Leica, Cosina, and Zeiss. @Duofold RF has posted that among the Chinese forums that the reception has been negative. SO- watching this market, will be interesting to see of a Chinese company can produce a lens that is as good as the 50/1 Nokton or 50/0.95 Noctilux, and if so- what the price will be. It will need to be an original design, "Optical Prescription" (as my Optical Engineer called it) not just a copy of another lens, as is the LLL 50/1.2, to gain respect. For their domestic customer, it seems they will need to produce a world-class lens, not a less expensive lens that is fun and cheap enough to pick up on easily disposable income. Most of the Chinese lenses I bought fall into the latter category- TTArt 50/0.95, 7Art 50/1.1 and 75/1.25, and Mitakon 90/1.5. I sold my Canon 85/1.5 for more profit than all of those lenses cost together.

In the niche high end audio world Chinese companies sit comfortably near the top especially for headphones, amps, digital to analog converters (DAC) and other components. The major global makers of audiophilia use Chinese factories. There are copycats but these small brands and the niche high end audio has always been small have come a long way. I suppose the audiophile market in China is very vibrant and has fuelled this upsurge in domestic development. As for photography, Leica is just as much a status symbol as it is the premier lens maker. Whereas performance in audio can be measured. A lot of brands can do sharp and contrasty but to appreciate the fabled Leica or Zeiss or Cooke look requires some faith perhaps? I am intrigued if certain niche Chinese makers can try to replicate that unique look.
 
In the niche high end audio world Chinese companies sit comfortably near the top especially for headphones, amps, digital to analog converters (DAC) and other components. The major global makers of audiophilia use Chinese factories. There are copycats but these small brands and the niche high end audio has always been small have come a long way. I suppose the audiophile market in China is very vibrant and has fuelled this upsurge in domestic development.
I think it is, China and South Korea have a market in making standalone high end Digital Audio players. I've been wanting to buy one as I'm still using my now 20+ year old iRiver mp3 players and buying old electronics has been a gamble on ebay. But companies still make batteries for my old mp3 players and for reasons or another I can't give them up.

A lot of it comes down to I don't want to stream music on my phone and I've had issues streaming music, running maps, etc all at once and the phone battery not actually charging, but staying flat so I continue to use that as my source of music on drives
 
The Chinese companies making the car copies would do better to copy vintage cars and update the engines, etc. Not going to get sued by companies that no longer exist.
Stutz Bearcat, baby!


Even had its own show.

I wonder if Jay Leno would give them access to his collection...
 
The Chinese companies making the car copies would do better to copy vintage cars and update the engines, etc. Not going to get sued by companies that no longer exist.
Stutz Bearcat, baby!


Even had its own show.

I wonder if Jay Leno would give them access to his collection...
Jay is busy playing Tesla cyber truck and sports car, no time to show them his collections. Chinese manufacturers mentality is quick money. And the shortcoming is engines, they need 100 years accumulated experience. Just like lens making. EV is simply, an enlarged golf car motor plus sofa and refrigerator under a refined shell
 
There goes my hopes of getting a Stutz Bearcat for cheap.

What if we tell them that they sell for over $500K, and everyone would want one for $40K?
 
Jay is busy playing Tesla cyber truck and sports car, no time to show them his collections. Chinese manufacturers mentality is quick money. And the shortcoming is engines, they need 100 years accumulated experience. Just like lens making. EV is simply, an enlarged golf car motor plus sofa and refrigerator under a refined shell
Certainly it’s true that ev’s have lower barriers to entry than fossil fueled cars, but there is a bit more to them than golf cart electrics upscaled😉
 
Thypoch‘s approaching is better than the no name, small one man operated, social media marketed LLL. At least thypoch has some new designs and BH carry them.
There goes my hopes of getting a Stutz Bearcat for cheap.

What if we tell them that they sell for over $500K, and everyone would want one for $40K?
I am sure they can make this antique car, the Stutz Bearcat 1913 replica by Mr. Zhou ICL imitate car lab
 
Thypoch‘s approaching is better than the no name, small one man operated, social media marketed LLL. At least thypoch has some new designs and BH carry them.

I am sure they can make this antique car, the Stutz Bearcat 1913 replica by Mr. Zhou ICL imitate car lab
As you said “Chinese manufacturers mentality is quick money.” In that regard, Thypoch or LLL would make no difference to users/shooters looking for a budget M mount lens. It’s the price/performance ratio that counts.

While I don’t believe you are a troll or fan boy (like u know who😀), you seem to have an axe to grind with LLL which I think is not fair nor necessary.
 
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