Matt Osborne has published a video review of the LLL 75/1.5 Z21. Reviews of traditional focal length MF portrait lenses (75-90mm) are always welcome simply because few people use them or discuss them.
YouTube Title: 'How good is this new 75mm for Leica?'
Most interestingly, Matt compared the lens with two others he has used - the Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton and the Thypoch Simera 75/1.4. I've always felt that Cosina is far more interested in longer lenses that are intended for medium to longer distances and for subject matter other than portraits. In their VM range, the 75/1.5 is the 'odd man out' in having a maximum aperture of f1.5 and in not being an APO lens (though its correction is very sound). It is currently joined by APOs, one at 75mm and two of them at 90mm.
Having both the 75/1.5 Nokton and Simera 75/1.4, I was interested to see how these two fared against each other (I see the LLL enterprise as something very different). Matt prefers the Nokton and it suits his style of work very well - 'black and white, and a little dreamy' might be a fair description. The camera-subject distance is interesting as well, I find myself shooting more head and shoulder shots with both 50mm and 75mm lenses, which certainly is not common these days.
Below I snipped an image from Matt's video showing the close focus of these two lenses, and how they lead to rather different images. (I) the Nokton rushes (comparatively) off its focal plane; (ii) it lacks clarity at the plane; and (iii) in this and other images of Matt's it has less realistic color, which may not matter to BW shooters but it's vital for skin tones. I could add the highlight flare to the list. None of this is to say one is better than the other - it all depends what you are looking for in your portrait length lenses.
One approach seems to be to offer dreamy rendering at close (and near) distances without FLE (none of the CV short telephotos use FLE) or to use FLE and deal with any potential excess 'sharpness' in the optical design itself.
near to MFD (0.7m for Nokton, 0.6m for Simera) (courtesy Matt Osborne)
Jul 13, 2026 at 06:26 PM
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philip_pj wrote:
Matt Osborne has published a video review of the LLL 75/1.5 Z21. Reviews of traditional focal length MF portrait lenses (75-90mm) are always welcome simply because few people use them or discuss them.
YouTube Title: 'How good is this new 75mm for Leica?'
Most interestingly, Matt compared the lens with two others he has used - the Voigtlander 75/1.5 Nokton and the Thypoch Simera 75/1.4. I've always felt that Cosina is far more interested in longer lenses that are intended for medium to longer distances and for subject matter other than portraits. In their VM range, the 75/1.5 is the 'odd man out' in having a maximum aperture of f1.5 and in not being an APO lens (though its correction is very sound). It is currently joined by APOs, one at 75mm and two of them at 90mm.
Having both the 75/1.5 Nokton and Simera 75/1.4, I was interested to see how these two fared against each other (I see the LLL enterprise as something very different). Matt prefers the Nokton and it suits his style of work very well - 'black and white, and a little dreamy' might be a fair description. The camera-subject distance is interesting as well, I find myself shooting more head and shoulder shots with both 50mm and 75mm lenses, which certainly is not common these days.
Below I snipped an image from Matt's video showing the close focus of these two lenses, and how they lead to rather different images. (I) the Nokton rushes (comparatively) off its focal plane; (ii) it lacks clarity at the plane; and (iii) in this and other images of Matt's it has less realistic color, which may not matter to BW shooters but it's vital for skin tones. I could add the highlight flare to the list. None of this is to say one is better than the other - it all depends what you are looking for in your portrait length lenses.
One approach seems to be to offer dreamy rendering at close (and near) distances without FLE (none of the CV short telephotos use FLE) or to use FLE and deal with any potential excess 'sharpness' in the optical design itself....Show more →
Having used the Voigtlander 75 f/1.5 a lot on Leica M and mirrorless, my copy of the lens performs like Bastian describes in his review for philipreeve.net. He suggests:
"We are dealing with one of those lenses here, where the plane with maximum contrast is not the plane with maximum resolution close to the minimum focus distance. The Canon EF 85mm 1.2 L II is another example for this behaviour.
This makes focusing a bit harder, as you have to decide whether you prefer a softer image with more details or a higher contrast one with less details."
I think in Matt's shot with the Voigtlander you can see the difference in these two planes of focus with one plane on the lens in the shot and the other plane at the text on the book at the bottom. In my experience this issue is definitely a complication to using the lens wide open. It is solved really well, as is almost every issue with this lens, by stopping down to f/2.4. Like a number of Voigtlander lenses (the 40 f/1.2 is another example, where shooting it at f/2 makes a world of difference) knowing the benefits of shooting it a bit stopped down is in my experience crucial to getting what I want out of the lens. In my experience the Voigtlander 75 f/1.5 is a great portrait lens with very few flaws if you stop it down to f/2.4. Shot wide open there is various forms of funkiness (this difference in best resolution and contrast planes; notable axial CA, a bit harsh and a little swirly bokeh, high vignetting with strong cat's eye bokeh circles at the edges and corners, weak close up performance, etc.), but all of that goes away at just f/2.4. I think Fred notes something similar in his review of the lens, and for me f/2.4 is plenty shallow enough depth of field at 75mm.
In contrast, the Thypoch has a lot more modest change I believe from wide open to smaller apertures. It is better stopped down a bit but the change is not nearly as dramatic as it is for the Voigtlander. I do think the FLE for close focus is one important factor that keeps change in close focus performance smaller. So as people consider these lenses I think it important to keep in mind how you want to use the lens. Do you want to and hope to use it primarily shooting wide open or are you just as happy or more happy stopping down the lens a bit most of the time? The answer to that question I think can be an important pointer about which lens you might prefer. For me it pushes me to the Voigtlander, but I would not be surprised if it pushes a lot of other folks to the Thypoch.
The FLE in the 75mm Simera in particular has revolutionised my experiences at this focal length, after many lenses at 75/85mm: Voigtlander 75/2.5; Sony FE 85/1.8; Loxia 85/2.4; Nokton 75/1.5. All of which do better for other kinds of work, whereas Simeras are very much people lenses.
I agree about the stop-down tactic, but I often need wide open too - in dark interiors, dusk, and/or to remove fussy backgrounds, and to deal with jumpy subjects. I'm an easy customer to please re many things that bother people - like non-circular balls, focus fade in outer frames and more. I've found a half stop is a good compromise to get a better chance of accurate focus, and f2 in solid lighting and good environs. All have different needs, it seems.
I also want to add that another thorny issue for me with modern lenses is the rapid fall-off, and we see a little of it in the Nokton in the snip. I believe this design choice will not age well, despite it being nearly ubiquitous.
In a word, what the Simeras offer is *gradation* - gradation in color hue, in focus fade across the frame, in focus fade longitudinally, in highlight and shadow handling (via moderate contrast). It makes for a good part of the recipe for the words that cannot be mentioned. And the realism is wonderful.
My general 'problem' (if we can call it that), is that I go out of my way to find what I think are engaging subjects, so I want to show them really well, whereas most MF lenses seem to be made to stamp their signature on all images they are used for - more lens signature, with less of a role for the subject.
I tend to stand close to subjects so the FLE is already engaged, or so I figure. It's kind of important in lenses with an MFD of 0.7 or so. And I will post an example of a recent image to show readers why FLE helps me. One of my favourites. And last, the Voigtlander is a better distance option than the 75mm Simera, agreed.
