Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Light Lens Lab 50mm f/1.9 "Rigid-ZS6"

Light Lens Lab · Leica M · 2026 · Double Gauss

Also known as: LLL 50mm f/1.9 Rigid-ZS6 · Light Lens Lab Rigid Super Six · LLL Rigid-ZS6 · Light Lens Lab 50mm Super-Six

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Standard Leica M 2026 — —
Low Contrast (*) Leica M 2026 — —
  1. What 'ACDK' stands for. Light Lens Lab uses the term twice — its legacy research is 'internally referred to as the 'ACDK' series' in this lens's announcement, and the 75mm f/2 'SPII' announcement cites a promise to research the legacy of the optical family 'ACDK' — and never expands it. Three of the four letters map onto makers the firm has already copied under that programme: Angénieux, whose Type S21 is the 50mm f/1.5 'Z21'; Cooke, whose Speed Panchro Series II is the SP-II line; Dallmeyer, whose Super Six is this lens. The reading offered here for the fourth is Kinoptik, on the strength of the next lens the same announcement promises for the Rigid platform — a 50mm f/2 'Apochromat', which is the name and the aperture of Kinoptik's own double-Gauss Apochromat 50mm f/2. That last step is inference from a forthcoming product name, not a published statement, and Light Lens Lab has confirmed none of it.
  2. STATUS: SHIPPED, ON PRODUCTION EVIDENCE. Announced 3 May 2026, ordering opened 4 May 2026, and both the standard and low-contrast versions were scheduled for fulfilment on 31 May 2026. Both were orderable in the maker's own product feed when it was read on 4 September 2026. The finding does not rest on the announcement: Keith Wee published a review on 25 May 2026 shot with, in his words, "my personal sets of the Light Lens Lab 50mm ƒ1.9 'ZS6' on the Leica M9-P" — a copy in a customer's hands, not a press prototype.
  3. THE APERTURE IS THE ATTRIBUTION, AND THE MAKER ENDORSES IT WITHOUT WRITING IT. Light Lens Lab's own prose never writes the word Dallmeyer, on either the product page or the announcement. The announcement says only that the lens "pays homage to the original 50mm f/1.9 'Super-Six' optical schematic and rendering characteristics, while integrating them into the proven mechanical platform of the 50mm f/2 'Rigid.'" But the product page carries the word once, in a link: under the heading "Low Contrast Edition reviewed by Keith Wee" the href is to a review titled "The Dallmeyer Super Six Reborn". The maker therefore points its own customers at the attribution it declines to print. PetaPixel supplies it outright, headlining its report a recreation of the Dallmeyer Super Six. And the f/1.9 maximum aperture makes the identification safe on its own: a 50mm at f/1.9 rather than f/1.8 or f/2 is the Super Six's own peculiarity.
  4. ELEMENT COUNT IS THE REPLICA'S OWN, NOT THE ORIGINAL'S. Six elements in four groups is published by Light Lens Lab for this lens, on both the product page's specification block ("Optical Design: 6 elements in 4 groups") and the announcement. It is not a figure carried across from the original. That the original is also given as six in four — by Keith Wee, reviewing the copy — is a separate statement from a separate source.
  5. NOBODY HAS COMPARED THE PRESCRIPTIONS. The fidelity claim is the maker's, and the one reviewer who addressed it says plainly that he could not test it: "I do not have an original Dallmeyer 2-inch on hand now for a side-by-side, however you can take a look at Light Lens Lab's development page where there's a set of comparison samples" — that is, the only comparison offered is the maker's own. Having later seen two frames from an original, he reports the copy falling short: the wide-open glow and softness "is not what the LLL 50/1.9 Low contrast reproduces 100% for sure."
  6. The name decodes in two halves, and Light Lens Lab decodes the second half itself. "Rigid" is its mechanical platform, formally introduced in the same announcement as "a unified mechanical platform designed to house a range of historically significant optical formulas" and carried over from the 50mm f/2 "Rigid" and 50mm f/2 "Rigid-SPII". "ZS6" is Super Six — the same announcement calls the product "the 50mm f/1.9 'Rigid-Super-Six'" one paragraph after naming it Rigid-ZS6.
  7. DATING THE ORIGINAL: TWO PUBLISHED ANSWERS, ONLY ONE OF WHICH WORKS. PetaPixel dates the Super Six to "the late 19th and early 20th centuries" and names John Henry Dallmeyer, who died in 1883 — a sentence that contradicts itself, since no f/1.9 double Gauss was practical in his lifetime. Keith Wee, reviewing this lens, dates the original "around the 1930s to 1950s", which is consistent with the aperture and with the firm outliving its founder. The second reading is the one this entry follows; the first is recorded because it is the version a reader is likeliest to meet.
  8. One finish only, described by the maker as Brass Chrome. The Standard and Low Contrast versions are a coating-and-tuning split on one optical formula, not two designs, and are recorded here as variants of one family for that reason.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • f/1.9, not f/2 — the odd half-step that is the Dallmeyer Super Six's own signature aperture and the quickest way to tell this lens from the 50mm f/2 "Rigid" it is built on
  • Preset diaphragm in half-stop increments, f/1.9 to f/22
  • Brass outer barrel; 263 g without accessories, against 45 mm of length
  • A42 clip-on hood, sold separately; E39 filter thread

Standard:

  • Plain front ring — no asterisk

Low Contrast (*):

  • An asterisk engraved on the front ring — the only external difference

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/1.9–f/22
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
54 × 45 mm
Weight
263 g
Filter
39 mm
Years manufactured
2026
Country
China
Material
Brass outer barrel, aluminium and brass internals
Original price
$799 (Brass Chrome, both the standard and low-contrast versions)

What reviewers say

History

The catalog does not hold a Dallmeyer Super Six, so this page has to describe an original by its shadow. Fortunately the shadow is sharp, because the maximum aperture gives it away. A 50mm lens at f/1.9 is a strange thing: f/1.8 and f/2 are the ordinary neighbours, and f/1.9 is the Super Six’s own half-step. When Light Lens Lab put f/1.9 on a 50mm and called it ZS6, the identification was made before anyone read the copy.

Which is as well, because Light Lens Lab’s own prose never says Dallmeyer. It writes only that the lens “pays homage to the original 50mm f/1.9 ‘Super-Six’ optical schematic and rendering characteristics, while integrating them into the proven mechanical platform of the 50mm f/2 ‘Rigid.’” PetaPixel names the maker in its headline. Nothing the workshop wrote does — but the word is on its product page all the same, buried in a link. Under “Low Contrast Edition reviewed by Keith Wee” sits an address ending “the-dallmeyer-super-six-reborn”. So the attribution is not something the maker withholds; it is something it declines to print while sending buyers to a page that shouts it.

That second half of the sentence is the other half of the name. “Rigid” here is not a description of the barrel’s stiffness but the name of a platform, and Light Lens Lab introduced it formally in the same post: a unified mechanical housing meant to take a series of historic optical formulas, already used for the 50mm f/2 “Rigid” and the 50mm f/2 “Rigid-SPII”. So the lens is a mid-century optic in a barrel designed around a Summicron-derived rigid 50, which is exactly the kind of hybrid this catalog exists to pull apart. Six elements in four groups, double Gauss, brass outer barrel over aluminium and brass internals, 0.7 m minimum focus, preset half-stop diaphragm from f/1.9 to f/22, E39 filters with an A42 clip-on hood sold separately, 45 mm long, 54 mm across, 263 g.

The claim of fidelity is worth separating from the claim of ancestry, because only one of them has been tested. Six elements in four groups is Light Lens Lab’s own published figure for this lens, not a number lifted from the original — the specification block and the announcement both carry it. What nobody has done is compare the two prescriptions. Wee, the only reviewer to raise it, says he had no original to hand and points readers to the maker’s own comparison samples; when he did later see two frames from a genuine Super Six, his verdict was that the copy’s wide-open glow “is not what the LLL 50/1.9 Low contrast reproduces 100% for sure.” One glance is not a test either, but it is the only independent evidence there is, and it runs the wrong way for the marketing.

The genuinely unusual thing is that it ships in two renderings. Alongside the standard version there is a low-contrast version, identified by nothing more than an asterisk engraved on the front ring, which Light Lens Lab describes as preserving greater highlight and shadow detail for a more film-like tonal response. It was added in answer to customer feedback rather than planned, which is a small piece of evidence about how the firm works: the optical formula was fixed and the tuning was negotiated afterwards. Both versions cost $799, both started shipping on 31 May 2026, and both were in stock three months later. They are one lens with two gradings, and they belong on one page.

How old the original is took two sources to settle, and they do not agree. PetaPixel places the Super Six in “the late 19th and early 20th centuries” and attributes it to John Henry Dallmeyer, who had been dead for decades by the time any f/1.9 double Gauss was practical — a sentence that defeats itself. Wee’s review dates it to around the 1930s to 1950s, which fits both the aperture and the fact that the firm long outlived the man whose name it kept. The later dating is the one this entry takes; the earlier one is recorded because it is the version most readers will meet first.

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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 50mm f/1.9 "Rigid-ZS6"? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $870 across 6 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $800–$870). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $870.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$870$800–$8706
2026-09-06$870$800–$8706

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Light Lens Lab 75mm f/2 "SPII"

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.