Light Lens Lab 15mm f/8 ("Hologon")
Light Lens Lab · Leica M · 2021 · Hologon — symmetrical thick-meniscus triplet
our own findingAlso known as: LLL 15mm f/8 Hologon · Light Lens Lab Hologon replica · LLL Hologon prototype
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype — never put into production | Leica M | 2021–2022 | — | Prototype only. No production run, no product page, no dealer listing. |
- What the finished package was to be: the lens, a dedicated 15mm viewfinder, and a "Center neutral density filter specifically designed for 15mm f/8 Hologon". That is the original's outfit rather than the original's lens alone — the graduated grey filter is not an accessory on a Hologon, it is what makes the corners usable, and Zeiss supplied a finder with a spirit level for the same reason.
- The status sentence is the maker's own and has not been revised: "The project is on hold due to other projects." The post is dated 2 January 2023.
- Tahusa reviewed a prototype on 2 August 2022 and reported it as unfinished in the literal sense — "Since this is a prototype lens, I believe they will have markings later" — with no click when the lens was attached. On optics the reviewer found "the flare resistance is not good enough" and the performance on a digital sensor "terrible" because of a cyan shift attributed to how close the rear element sits to the sensor.
- Specification, as far as it was ever published: 15mm, fixed f/8, three elements, 110 degrees, 0.2 m focus without rangefinder coupling, M mount. No weight, no dimensions, no price and no group count were given. The original is three elements in three groups and weighs 110 g.
- THE ABSENCE IS DOCUMENTED RATHER THAN ASSUMED, AND THE SWEEP WAS RUN AGAIN. Light Lens Lab's own product feed, read on 4 September 2026, carries 36 items — lenses, hoods, filters, finders and adapters — and not one is a 15mm or a Hologon. No 15mm appears in the maker's lens collection page. The Leica Lens List records fourteen Light Lens Lab lenses and none of them is a 15mm. A fresh search on 4 September 2026 turned up nothing published on the project by either Leica Rumors or Photo Rumors after October 2021; the last writing of any kind about it remains the August 2022 prototype review.
How to tell them apart
- A fixed f/8 with no diaphragm, as the original has none
- Focus to 0.2 m, uncoupled to the rangefinder
- 110 degree angle of view from three elements
Prototype — never put into production:
- No engraved markings: the review sample carried none at all
- Mounts without the click a finished M lens gives
- Prototype — never put into production: The only form this lens has ever taken. Photographs of a prototype were published in July 2021 and again in October 2021, one sample was reviewed in August 2022, and the maker put the project on hold in a post dated January 2023.
Specifications
- Formula
- Hologon — symmetrical thick-meniscus triplet
- Construction
- 3 elements
- Aperture range
- f/8–f/8
- Min. focus
- 0.2 m
- Country
- China
What reviewers say
- Tahusa (blog) — Reviewing a prototype in August 2022, the writer found an unmarked lens that did not click into the mount, flare resistance that "is not good enough", and results on a digital sensor he calls terrible because of a cyan shift from the rear element sitting so close to it — while still saying he would buy one rather than pay what an original Hologon costs. single source, unconfirmed
History
This entry is for a lens that does not exist, and it earns its place because for a while it looked as though it did.
The original is one of the strangest things Leitz ever sold and it is not a Leitz lens at all: Carl Zeiss’s Hologon, three pieces of glass covering 110 degrees with no aperture and essentially no curvilinear distortion, made for the M mount from 1972 and built in numbers somewhere between about 225 and about 500 depending on which published account is believed. Nobody has ever made another one. That is exactly why Light Lens Lab wanted to.
The record of the attempt is thin and entirely consistent. Leica Rumors published prototype photographs on 19 July 2021 and more of them on 20 October 2021; Photo Rumors ran the same story on 19 July and 22 October, under the heading of an upcoming lens. Tahusa reviewed a sample on 2 August 2022 and described something plainly unfinished — no engraved markings at all, and no click when the lens went onto the body. The maker’s own development post describes “A recreation of the famous 15mm f/8 Hologon for M-mount in 1972”, and says the finished package would include a dedicated 15mm viewfinder and a centre neutral-density filter, which is the original’s complete outfit rather than just its optics. The same post ends the project: “The project is on hold due to other projects.” It is dated 2 January 2023 and has not been revised.
Nothing followed. The sweep was run again on 4 September 2026 and came back empty: the maker’s own product feed carries thirty-six items and no 15mm among them, the lens collection page lists none, the Leica Lens List’s fourteen Light Lens Lab entries include none, and neither rumour site published anything further after October 2021. The conclusion that it never shipped is drawn from that absence rather than from any statement; no source says the lens was cancelled, because no source went back to check.
The prototype review contains the detail worth keeping. The reviewer found the flare resistance “not good enough” and the results on a digital sensor terrible, on account of a cyan shift he attributed to the rear element sitting very close to the sensor. That is not a manufacturing defect in the copy. It is the original’s own problem, reproduced: the 1972 Hologon’s rear element protrudes so far into the body that it cannot be fitted to an M8 or M9 at all, and where it clears, the light arrives at an angle no digital M can handle. Light Lens Lab set out to make a faithful recreation of the Hologon and got, in the one sample anyone reviewed, a faithful recreation of the reason nobody uses a Hologon on a digital body.
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Light Lens Lab 15mm f/8 ("Hologon")? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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