ftllens wrote:
Is there any chance LLL will make a replica of the 66 Elcan? There are quite a few of them in Asia (about 10+ known in collections at Shanghai alone), so I'm hoping Mr. Zhou has access to one!
It looks like the next lens in the pipeline might be the Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPHERICAL or Leica 35mm f/1.4 "AA". How many of you would be interested in that...even those who already own the 35mm f/1.4 FLE?
If its faithful production ends up being anything like the LLL 50mm f/1.2 ASPH., it'll likely feature hand-ground aspherical elements, which often show a noticeable onion ring pattern in bokeh. I've seen that pattern in images from the original Leica 35/1.4 AA, though it seems more visible on digital than on film, where the grain tends to mask it quite a bit.
Fred Miranda wrote:
It looks like the next lens in the pipeline might be the Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPHERICAL or Leica 35mm f/1.4 "AA". How many of you would be interested in that...even those who already own the 35mm f/1.4 FLE?
If its faithful production ends up being anything like the LLL 50mm f/1.2 ASPH., it'll likely feature hand-ground aspherical elements, which often show a noticeable onion ring pattern in bokeh. I've seen that pattern in images from the original Leica 35/1.4 AA, though it seems more visible on digital than on film, where the grain tends to mask it quite a bit....Show more →
I would be interested, and I own an AA, and FLE II, a steel rim, and the ASPH. A chrome on brass AA, that I can take in the street/field without considering value is a no brainer. I’ve been pestering David Chen at regular intervals for a year and a half waiting for this thing…
mdg137 wrote:
I would be interested, and I own an AA, and FLE II, a steel rim, and the ASPH. A chrome on brass AA, that I can take in the street/field without considering value is a no brainer. I’ve been pestering David Chen at regular intervals for a year and a half waiting for this thing…
Do you have any sample shots showing specular highlights from the original AA? I'm curious to see how visible the onion ring pattern is in the inner structure.
I second the observation that onion rings are more pronounced on digital than on film.
My interest in the AA is solely based on its having straighter aperture blades that make regular polygons when stopped down (I like to close the aperture 2 stops on fast normal-ish lenses, almost all of which can be harsh wide open and close-up). The ASPH and FLE have curved aperture blades that make sawtooth bokeh when stopped down a bit.
I owned two or three AA’s some 20 years ago though not at the same time so am interested how the LLL compares. At the time a mint in box AA cost twice a new Asph. The reason I had so many was because I thought my Asph had better max aperture performance and maybe it was just sample variation so wanted to find the best one. I don’t have the slides anymore and maybe I didn’t shoot enough with it or maybe I was just an idiot. Well I was an idiot for not keeping one.
Fred Miranda wrote:
Do you have any sample shots showing specular highlights from the original AA? I'm curious to see how visible the onion ring pattern is in the inner structure.
I’m out of town for a few weeks, I will try to get something together. These are the only AA shots I happen to have on my iPad…
It looks like LLL is going to remake the Leica 40 mm f/2 Summicron-C (Minolta M-Rokkor 40/2).
The original is not an expensive lens, so I'm not sure about pricing here.
- David
