p.1 #3 · Light Lens Lab Brings Its Best-Sellers Back to Production
I was just about to ask about the 50 F/1.2...
I think I'm only interested in that one and the 35mm AA.
Jul 01, 2026 at 04:40 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #4 · Light Lens Lab Brings Its Best-Sellers Back to Production
Fred Miranda wrote:
Interestingly, they brought back the 28mm f/2.8 nine-element but not the 50mm f/1.2 double aspherical, which is one of my favorite lenses from LLL.
Hi Fred,
I don't think you ever did a review of the LLL 50 f/1.2 double aspherical. If I am wrong and you can point me to it that would be great. If you haven't done a review can you provide a brief summary of how you saw the performance of the lens?
p.1 #5 · Light Lens Lab Brings Its Best-Sellers Back to Production
Steve Spencer wrote:
Hi Fred,
I don't think you ever did a review of the LLL 50 f/1.2 double aspherical. If I am wrong and you can point me to it that would be great. If you haven't done a review can you provide a brief summary of how you saw the performance of the lens?
I also have this lens and I do like it, less perfect than my 0.95 noct and that is the point, my guess is like Leica and their 1.2 LLL has found the hand polishing overly challenging and expensive much as leica did in the 1960s so in their remake Leica went molded. The 35 1.4 LLL is molded and now that LLL has the tech this is where they are at. So my guess LLL has moved on to molded and the 1.2 if it ever comes back will be priced much higher considering the effort needed. The LLL 1.2 could well be the last of the hand polished lenses… I also have the 1970s Nikkor 58 1.2 noct that like the Leica is hand polished, a quite different lens from the Leicas and LLL, and it also adapts well to dig Leicas as well as Z nikons. I rather enjoy using it on my M11. LLL could bring back a molded ver of this lens although I am not sure what the point would be, it was exceptional and “better” in a character sense than the Leicas molded 1.2 50.
If LLL really wanted to be out there, do thorium glass, I know will never happen, that one is really obsolete, but as the owner of several thorium lenses I would like to see what a modern one would look like.
p.1 #6 · Light Lens Lab Brings Its Best-Sellers Back to Production
Steve Spencer wrote:
Hi Fred,
I don't think you ever did a review of the LLL 50 f/1.2 double aspherical. If I am wrong and you can point me to it that would be great. If you haven't done a review can you provide a brief summary of how you saw the performance of the lens?
I also have this lens and I do like it, less perfect than my 0.95 noct and that is the point, my guess is like Leica and their 1.2 LLL has found the hand polishing overly challenging and expensive much as leica did in the 1960s so in their remake Leica went molded. The 35 1.4 LLL is molded and now that LLL has the tech this is where they are at. So my guess LLL has moved on to molded and the 1.2 if it ever comes back will be priced much higher considering the effort needed. The LLL 1.2 could well be the last of the hand polished lenses… I also have the 1970s Nikkor 58 1.2 noct that like the Leica is hand polished, a quite different lens from the Leicas and LLL, and it also adapts well to dig Leicas as well as Z nikons. I rather enjoy using it on my M11. LLL could bring back a molded ver of this lens although I am not sure what the point would be, it was exceptional and “better” in a character sense than the Leicas molded 1.2 50.
If LLL really wanted to be out there, do thorium glass, I know will never happen, that one is really obsolete, but as the owner of several thorium lenses I would like to see what a modern one would look like.
p.1 #7 · Light Lens Lab Brings Its Best-Sellers Back to Production
Steve Spencer wrote:
Hi Fred,
I don't think you ever did a review of the LLL 50 f/1.2 double aspherical. If I am wrong and you can point me to it that would be great. If you haven't done a review can you provide a brief summary of how you saw the performance of the lens?
I haven't done a detailed review of it yet. It's soft wide open even at the center, but I enjoy its rendering. For a comparison of infinity resolution and contrast, I've tested it against the LLL 50mm f/1.5 Z21 here:
.... I also have some unpublished rendering comparisons between the 50mm f/1.5 Z21 and the 50mm f/1.2 '1966' that I haven't posted yet. I'll update the review with those soon.
