LLL 50 Rigid Announcement

EddieJ

EddieJ

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Light lens Lab 50mm f/2 Rigid-SP II Pre-Order Announcement

LLL 50 Rigid
The lens will be available in Chrome for initial Pre-Order starting on December 19th at 18:00 EST at initial MSRP of $849.00 USD, and it will end on January 1st at 23:59 EST. The price after Pre-Order will resume at MSRP of $1049.00 USD. The Pre-Order will begin delivery in Late January/February
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As with previous releases *faithful to the OG.
Seems LLL is going the path of the Leitz|Leica iconic lens line-up!
 
Hang on, talk about burying the lede...

  • M-Mount, with LTM mount available later in 2024.
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Their Speed Panchro was pretty well-received, right? Having it in LTM for a IIIg might finally convince me to bite the bullet on an LLL lens... oof.
 
Coldkennels said:
Hang on, talk about burying the lede...



Their Speed Panchro was pretty well-received, right? Having it in LTM for a IIIg might finally convince me to bite the bullet on an LLL lens... oof.
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The Speed Panchro is not a great performer, certainly not anywhere near the 7 element Summicron.
 
I think LLL is considering the rigid/DR optical group option, I heard they have studied the composition of the optical glass used in rigid/DR lens.
 
Hmm. For those that want the vintage Panchro look, can't they just buy the LLL Panchro II? not sure I see the value in putting that optic in a replica Rigid?

Apparently this version has 8 blades and the Panchro II has ten...
 
splitimageview said:
Hmm. For those that want the vintage Panchro look, can't they just buy the LLL Panchro II? not sure I see the value in putting that optic in a replica Rigid?

Apparently this version has 8 blades and the Panchro II has ten...
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I seem to recall a lot of people didn't like the Panchro II's body design. The weird "winged" focus tab was questioned, for instance - and didn't it need an unusual hood fitting?

I assume this is just a case of bringing the same optics to a more widely appreciated physical housing... although the change from 10 blades to 8 is a bit odd.
 
Freakscene said:
The Speed Panchro is not a great performer, certainly not anywhere near the 7 element Summicron.
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But why selling a copy of an Summicron rigid when the original is cheaper? The Speed Panchro ll is not a copy of the Summicron rigid, but a copy of a famous cine-lens from the 1920's.
 
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Erik van Straten said:
But why selling a copy of an Summicron rigid when the original is cheaper? The Speed Panchro ll is not a copy of the Summicron rigid, but a copy of a famous cine-lens from the 1920's.
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A Summicron Rigid with good glass will cost more. Often a lot more. Prices have really shifted in the last 5-10 years.

Some people also prefer new, irrespective of price. I am sure they will sell heaps of them, but to me this is disappointing.
 
santino said:
And the new housing really looks good…
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It does, but why make a lovely new rigid Summicron lookalike housing with a Speed Panchro optical unit? I’d understand if it performed better, but it doesn’t. The only reason I can think of is that they ordered or manufactured a lot of Speed Panchro optical units, and the first version sold so badly that they figured they needed to do something to sell the glass.
 
splitimageview said:
I'd tend to agree with that conclusion...

Which makes me wonder if a Rigid clone won't be far behind..
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That would be awesome, especially if they also make a black paint one. I am afraid that my bp rigid Summicron is shelf ornament; I’m too concerned about it to take it out. A copy would be nice, especially if LLL have learned to collimate lenses properly since the first batch of 8 element 35s.
 
Erik van Straten said:
But why selling a copy of an Summicron rigid when the original is cheaper? The Speed Panchro ll is not a copy of the Summicron rigid, but a copy of a famous cine-lens from the 1920's.
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If you can find a Rigid Cron in new condition for $850, please let me know! - even more so for the LTM version, which the last time I checked were running about $3K USD for the used reissue version. I can't recall ever seeing an original Rigid in LTM for sale, but I think they do exist.
 
The Summicron rigid has a tendency to haze. Even for a very experienced repairman it is hard to open them for cleaning. The reason why they aren't built anymore, is the price of the glass.

The quality of the image has nothing to do with the sharpness or the bokeh: the corners of the rigid are weak. The Elmar-M is sharper and has a nicer bokeh.



gelatin silver print (summicron rigid 50mm f2) leica m3

Babruysk, Belarus, 2005

Erik.

1702937247049.png
 
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David Murphy said:
If you can find a Rigid Cron in new condition for $850, please let me know! - even more so for the LTM version, which the last time I checked were running about $3K USD for the used reissue version. I can't recall ever seeing an original Rigid in LTM for sale, but I think they do exist.
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They exist, oh yes, I've often seen them.

Erik.
 
Erik van Straten said:
The Summicron rigid has a tendency to haze. Even for a very experienced repairman it is hard to open them for cleaning. The reason why they aren't built anymore, is the price of the glass.

The quality of the image has nothing to do with the sharpness or the bokeh: the corners of the rigid are weak.
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Does your comment also apply to the DR which is the same optical design though not mechanically?
 
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