New From Leica: Lenses and So Forth...er, Sofort

Announced by Leica at Photokina is the new Summilux-SL 50mm ƒ/1.4 ASPH. lens for the beautiful full-frame SL mirrorless camera. Hey, you didn't think Leica was going to take challenges from Zeiss and Sigma lying down, did you?

The new design features internal focusing, weather sealing, and 11 elements in 9 groups including two aspherical and four anomalous partial dispersion glass elements. Price is $5,295.

And speak of the devil—we were just talking about this the other day—the Leica Sofort is a Leica-branded $299 Instax camera! I'd almost buy one for the "Automatik-Hektor" lens name alone. I haven't heard that name since Uncle Arthur Kramer, lens guru of the old Modern Photography magazine of revered memory, used to build delightfully bad Leica jokes around the phrase "when Hektor was a pup." (Hektor was the name of Max Berek's dog. Max Berek was an early lens designer for Leica who gave the Hektor lens its name.)

There's a nice review at Engadget called "Leica's Sofort instant camera is better than it looks." But any $299 Leica meant for having fun looks pretty good from here.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Leica what you a-read?
Join our support campaign or buy something

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Chuck Albertson: "At $300, it's Automatik For the People!"

Comments

[David Dyer-Bennet]

"Sofort" being German for "immediately", roughly speaking; suitable name for an "instant" camera.

(Apparently I remember bits from four years of high school German; then I was quite good, but 40+ years later with little practice, not so much, so it's surprising wheh I instantly recognize something.)

[Carl Weese]

Hmm. Was the challenge to make the most expensive FF normal lens?

[Daniel]

(Hektor was the name of Oskar Barnack's dog.)

Bet you didn't know George Eastman named a lens type after his old girlfriend... Ana Stigmat?

[May all punsters live long and Diafine death. --Mike]

[Alan]

In other instant film news, fuji is releasing a square format Instax film. A new instant film in 2016! We have Instagram and hipsters to thank.

http://instax.com/square/

[Stanleyk]

"It takes the same film -- although Leica will sell you its film for around $15 for 10 shots.."

I am guessing it's Fuji film with a Leica box... :-)

I am very interested in the camera Fuji will produce for the new square format. I have an SP1 and now SP2 printer as well as an Instax Wide. I couldn't be happier with the SP2 and am anxiously awaiting the black and white Instax film. Apparently Fuji sells quite a lot of it.

[Dan MacDonald]

Why hasn't Leica just started selling lenses for other companies cameras?

[c.d.embrey]

The Leica Summilux-SL 50mm f/1.4 ASPH is less expensive than the LEICA SUMMILUX-M 24mm f/1.4 ASPH 7,195.00 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/586206-USA/Leica_11_601_24mm_f_1_4_Summilux_M_Aspherical.html

Leica still illustrates if you have to ask, you can't afford it better than most luxury brands.

[MJFerron]

$5,295 for a 50 1.4? Wow totally out of my league. This is why I love Fuji as a semi poor persons system. I'd love to be Leica rich but alas I am a commoner.

[c.d.embrey]

I'm sure you've seen the Michael Kors Instax by now https://www.dpreview.com/news/4895080980/instax-goes-luxury-with-a-michael-kors-collaboration Will Leica counter with a Limited Edition Gucci model??

With the advent of the new Instax Square film, how soon until we see an Instax Victor from Hasselblad??

[fk]

I thought Hector lenses were f/4.5...

[Gordon R. Brown]

The new Summilux-SL 50mm isn't the most expensive full-frame 50mm Leica lens. For only $10,850 one can buy the silver 50mm Noctilux-M f0.95 at B&H. It also comes in black for $200 less.

But if one wants to use the Noctilux on the SL, the adapter is another $339.

[Rob L.]

Well - at a cost of $.50-1.00 shot, using Fuji film, it's not impossible to justify the price if it means a few more keepers a month. Not likely, but, heck, no one is shooting Instax because they HAVE to, or looking at it another way, the only folks shooting Instax are doing so because they do indeed have to:)

[Andy Kochanowski]

I suspect that each sample of the 50 actually sold will generate a wide open picture of a golden retriever on LUF and then be put away.

[cfw]

Only $12,800 for the new Leica SL and 50 mm lens; What a deal! You convinced me. The kids don't need an education.

[Bruce McL]

I don't know if I will ever get an Instax camera, but Fuji certainly has done a good job of getting my attention. I'm impressed by how they are marketing their cameras. Here's another fashion instax 70, by Collette.

http://www.colette.fr/appareil-16531946-instax-mini-70-x-colette-fujiele16531-1.html

And they have Hello Kitty instax models, which I will not link to...

Note the similarity between the Instax mini 90

https://www.google.com/search?q=instax+mini+90&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1298&bih=1117&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr1rXLpaPPAhXDGh4KHUDcCTkQ_AUIBygC

... and the new Leica Instax.

https://www.google.com/search?q=leica+sofort&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja-czXpaPPAhVBGh4KHViCC20Q_AUICigD&biw=1298&bih=1117

For myself, I think a standalone printer would be a good way to go, one that makes wide or square prints. Fuji's current printer only makes the mini size prints.

[Kodachromeguy]

Wow, this lens is humongous. The filter size is 82mm from a note in Leica rumors. Noting subtle about that. I bet the optical quality is superb, but I would hesitate to spend so much on a lens that requires a specific camera operating system to operate. 10 years from now, what if Leica drops the SL system? Will any other system be able to use this lens?

[Dan]

That 50 just needs to be a little larger...just what Oscar Barnack dreamed of for those long walks in the park with his camera and a Rubbermaid push cart to carry it.

[John Shriver]

So when I looked at your picture of the Summilux-SL, I thought, darn that's a long 50mm lens. Figured it's just a long way to the lens mount on the thin camera.

Then I looked at the full set of photos on the B&H page. It takes E82 filters. Now it's "darn, that's a gigantic 50mm lens!"

I shudder to think what the (currently unpublished) weight is.

[Andrew Molitor]

Leica? Sort of. Err, Sofort.

[David Babsky]

You said "..(Hektor was the name of Oskar Barnack's dog).."

But I thought it's generally considered to be the name of Max Berek's dog ..that is, the dog of the man who designed the first Leica lens, not the dog of the man who designed the camera body.

[Nicholas]

I suspect that new Leica Summilux-SL 50mm is meant as the poor man's standard lens, for those who are too cheap to buy a proper, apochromatically-corrected lens like this one...

[Geoffrey Heard]

I just don't get this 50mm lens mania. From my earliest days in photography (and we ARE talking more than half a century ago) I have found 50mm (and other "standard" lenses) frustrating except for a few specific applications like copying or kiddie pix.

Early in my 35mm career, I settled on 35mm as "normal", then shifted down to 28mm (with the wonderful f2 28mm Zuiko on the OM1). My kit with the OM1 was 21, 28, 85 (just the tiniest bit shorter than I really liked, which was 90), 200. I don't know how many pictures and picture features I shot and sold with that combo, but it was A LOT.

Now in my dotage, I have shift down again, 24mm (equiv) is my beginning point, and since zooms are so good, almost exclusively zoom lenses (on m43, 9mm > 300mm coverage, multiply by 2 for FF equiv focal lengths).

And occasionally, the zoom does go into the "50mm standard" zone, but not often.

As for this Leica example, I simply would not feel comfortable with it. Why are they designing a 50mm lens that looks like an elephant's trunk? Perfectly appropriate on an elephant, of course, but on the front of a "35mm" camera? Phooey!

I love a good tool, but while the Leica lens would qualify in function, it does not qualify in looking right. Good tools like right too.

Cheers, Geoff