Light Lens Lab 28mm f/2.8 "Nine Element"
Light Lens Lab · Leica M · 2024
our own findingAlso known as: LLL 28mm f/2.8 Nine Element · Light Lens Lab 9 element 28 · Light Lens Lab 28mm f2.8 Nine Element
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Leica M | 2024 | — | — |
| Black Paint | Leica M | 2024 | — | — |
- SHIPPED. Ordering opened 28 August 2024 at midnight EDT, shipping from 30 September 2024. This entry describes the production lens, not the prototype circulated to reviewers beforehand.
- THE REAR ELEMENT WAS MOVED. Reviewing the lens for Macfilos on 18 September 2024, Ed Schwartzreich reports that Light Lens Lab "recessed the rear element by 1~2mm into the lens compared with the original version so that the camera's internal meter … functions correctly", leaving it "compatible with 99% of the digital and analogue M cameras". The shared M5 and CL exclusion on the maker's own page is not evidence that the back of the lens was copied: both bodies meter with a swinging arm that the protruding rear group still touches, while the fixed cells of every other metered M no longer see it. The original Elmarit fails on far more than two bodies — this catalog's entry for it records that it cannot meter on an M8 or M9 either. On the geometry that defines the original's whole compatibility problem, the recreation departs from it.
- THE DECLARED FIX, AND WHY IT IS THE HOOK. The maker lists elimination of the red-fringing phenomenon that occurred on the original Nine Element, achieved with in-house fluorite-infused elements and one added extra-low-dispersion element. Red edge fringing on digital sensors is exactly what makes an original awkward on an M240 or M10, so the recreation is not only cheaper than the lens it copies — on a digital body it is aimed at the specific fault that makes the collectible version hard to use.
- Materials differ from the original by the maker's own account. The body is brass alloy where the Leitz lens was lighter; Richard Clompus, reviewing a production copy for PetaPixel, notes the brass construction is heavier than the original design and measures about two stops of vignetting at f/2.8.
- Prices and stock. The maker's launch post set "USD 799 for Chrome and USD 849 for Black Paint" until 10 September 2024, after which the price would "resume to normal MSRP"; the product feed on 4 September 2026 gives $899 chrome and $949 black paint, both in stock. A third pair is in print: Ed Schwartzreich's Macfilos review of 18 September 2024 gives "$899 and $999", and assigns them to black paint and silver chrome in that order, which is the reverse of the feed's assignment as well as a figure that appears nowhere else. The launch pair and the current pair are the two that can be traced to the maker.
- Element count agreement. The maker publishes nine elements in six groups and says it closely follows the original nine elements in a six-group design; this catalog's entry for the 1965 Elmarit records the same nine and six from the Leica Wiki. On the one number that names the lens, the copy and the original match.
How to tell them apart
- Nine elements in six groups, matching the count that gives the original its nickname
- Classic focus tab and infinity lock, carried over from the lens it copies
- E49 filter thread and a 12501-style clip-on hood; 56.8 mm long and 300 g in brass
Chrome:
- Chrome finish; $799 at launch, $899 on the storefront since
Black Paint:
- Black paint finish; $849 at launch, $949 on the storefront since
Specifications
- Construction
- 9 elements / 6 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2.8–f/22
- Min. focus
- 0.7 m
- Dimensions
- 52.4 × 56.8 mm
- Weight
- 300 g
- Filter
- 49 mm
- Years manufactured
- 2024
- Country
- China
- Material
- Brass alloy
- Original price
- $799 chrome / $849 black paint (launch prices to 10 September 2024); $899 and $949 on the storefront since
What reviewers say
- Ed Schwartzreich (Macfilos) (blog) — He is the one reviewer to report what changed at the back of the lens — a rear element recessed one to two millimetres against the original so the camera's meter works, leaving the recreation compatible with almost every digital and analogue M while the M5 and CL, which meter with a swinging arm, stay excluded on both lenses.
- Vincent Bihler (35mmc) (blog) — He rates it a very sharp 28 with exceptional build — denser and better finished, he says, than his own Summilux 35 — while faulting flare that washes pictures out, a slightly bulky form and a hood with a little wobble in it.
- Richard Clompus (PetaPixel) (blog) — He found it very sharp centrally at f/2.8 with a gentle transition to the periphery and better edge contrast than the original design, and reports about two stops of vignetting wide open and a brass body noticeably heavier than the Leitz lens it copies.
History
Nine Element is not a specification, it is a nickname — collectors’ shorthand for the first version of the Leitz Elmarit 28mm f/2.8 of 1965, nine elements in six groups, of which only 3,200 were built. Light Lens Lab takes the nickname as the product name and publishes the same count, calling the lens a close homage that closely follows the original nine elements in a six-group design. On the one number that names the lens, copy and original agree.
The interesting part is what the recreation declares as different, because it is aimed squarely at the reason the original is hard to own. Genuine nine-element Elmarits show red fringing at the edges of the frame on digital sensors; it is precisely why a $10,000 collectible sits awkwardly on an M10. Light Lens Lab lists the elimination of that red-fringing phenomenon as a design goal, achieved with in-house fluorite-infused elements and one added extra-low-dispersion element for edge-to-edge rendering, dispersion and distortion. That is a recreation that sets out to fix the original rather than to reproduce it whole, and it is stated plainly rather than buried.
The other half of the record is easy to misread, and worth slowing down for. The maker’s page warns that the lens is incompatible with the Leica M5 and CL — the same two bodies the original Elmarit fouls with a rear element that sits deep enough in the throat to collide with a swinging metering arm. It looks like proof that the back of the lens was copied intact. It is not. Ed Schwartzreich, reviewing a production copy for Macfilos, reports that Light Lens Lab recessed the rear element by one or two millimetres against the original, specifically so the camera’s meter works, and that the result is compatible with almost every digital and analogue M. The original is not: this catalog’s entry for it records a lens that fouls the M5’s arm, interferes with the cells of later bodies, and mounts on an M8 or M9 without metering at all.
So the two compatibility lists overlap at their endpoints and nowhere else. The M5 and CL swing a physical arm through the space behind the lens, and one or two millimetres is not enough to clear it; every other metered M reads a fixed cell, and one or two millimetres is enough. The nine elements in six groups are the original’s. The distance from the last of them to the film is not, and that distance is the single fact that decided which cameras a real nine-element Elmarit could be used on.
Everything else is straightforwardly modern hardware around an old prescription. Brass alloy where the Leitz lens was lighter — Richard Clompus notes the added weight and measures about two stops of vignetting at f/2.8 — with the classic focus tab and infinity lock kept, 0.7 m minimum focus, even half stops from f/2.8 to f/22, an E49 thread and a 12501-style clip-on hood, 56.8 mm long and 300 g. Vincent Bihler, writing for 35mmc, rates it a very sharp 28 built better than his own Summilux 35, and faults it mainly for flare and for a hood with a little play in it.
Prices ran $799 and $849 during the launch window in 2024 and stand at $899 and $949 now. Of the five Light Lens Lab lenses surveyed here it is the only one with every finish still orderable, which says something about either supply or demand and cannot distinguish between them.
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 28mm f/2.8 "Nine Element"? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.