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

Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 ("ELCAN")

Light Lens Lab · Leica M + LTM · 2021 · Ultrastigmat — four air-spaced elements

Also known as: LLL ELCAN 50mm f/2 · Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 · LLL KE-7A replica · Light Lens Lab ELCAN replica

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Leica M bayonet Leica M 2021–2023 — —
Screw mount LTM 2021–2023 — —
  1. BOTH MOUNTS SHIPPED, and the maker's page disagrees with itself about it. The specification block gives "Lens Mount: M-Mount" and nothing else, which is where the impression of an M-only lens comes from. The rest of the same page contradicts that block: a Mount option offering M and LTM, six LTM part numbers across three finishes, the line "Fully compatible with all LTM/M-mount cameras", and an "LTM Screw Mount to M-Mount Adapter if it is LTM Mount" listed among the box contents. So Leica Rumors' October 2021 M39 announcement and the Leica Lens List's LTM record are confirmed by first-party evidence rather than in conflict with it. The screw version cost $50 to $100 more than the bayonet in every finish that offered both.
  2. THE BLADE COUNT IS A REVIEWER'S, NOT THE MAKER'S. Light Lens Lab publishes no aperture blade count for this lens — its specification block runs from optics to filter thread without one. The ten straight blades recorded here come from BastianK's phillipreeve.net review, which measured a production copy and lists "10 (straight)". The original ELCAN also has ten, so the two agree; but that agreement is a reviewer's figure set against the original's, not a correspondence the maker ever claimed or published.
  3. The design name is given two ways. The maker's specification table says "Ultrastigmat design"; Japan Camera Hunter's November 2021 piece prints "Ultra-Astigmat design". Both give four elements in four groups, which is the original's construction. Neither publishes a cross-section.
  4. Minimum focus does not match. The original is quoted at 30 inches — 0.76 m — because the figure came from an American military contract. The recreation focuses to 0.7 m with rangefinder coupling, a round metric number and 60 mm closer.
  5. Price moved, though less than a single figure suggests. Japan Camera Hunter reported in November 2021 that "pricing will start from around $1,500 and will go over $2,000 for the titanium version". The storefront does not sell at one price: on 4 September 2026 it listed eight configurations from $799 for chrome or black paint in M, through $849 to $999 for the screw-mount versions and $899 for brassing, to $1,249 for the bare brass commemorative set and $1,799 for the titanium grey limited edition set. So the top of the range is within reach of Japan Camera Hunter's titanium figure while the bottom is roughly half its predicted floor. Nothing published explains the gap at the bottom; the earlier figure is a pre-release report and the later one a live storefront.
  6. Japan Camera Hunter is explicit that the copy stops at the optics: "it is remarkably doubtful that the LLL ELCAN is a faithful replica of its robustness amplifying features and rather just a copy of the lens design." The features named are the original's infrared-absorbing lanthanum glass and the gaskets fitted to absorb blast shock. The characterisation of lanthanum as radioactive is that article's; the Leica Wiki's account of the original's hardness rests on the absence of optical cement rather than on any glass type.
  7. Nothing in the published specification corresponds to the original's removable lens head, the field-repair feature the KE-7A contract asked for. Its absence from the spec table is not the same as a statement that the recreation lacks one, and no source addresses it directly.
  8. Dealers batch the lens V1LC, V2LC and V3LC — Kamerastore's V2LC listing gives four elements in four groups. No published account says what changed between batches, so this entry asserts no difference between them.
  9. Finishes listed: chrome, black paint, black paint with brassing, bare brass, a commemorative edition set and a titanium grey limited edition set. Weight is published as 200 to 235 g by finish; BastianK weighed his at 227 g without hood or caps.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Listed by the maker as a bare 50mm f/2 — the word ELCAN appears nowhere on it or on its page
  • Four elements in four groups, no cemented pair — the original's defining construction
  • E39 filter thread, which the military original does not have
  • Ten straight blades — counted by a reviewer on a production copy, not published by the maker; the original has ten too

Leica M bayonet:

  • M bayonet; the finish list runs chrome, black paint, black paint with brassing, a bare brass commemorative set and a titanium grey limited edition set

Screw mount:

  • 39mm screw thread; shipped with an LTM-to-M adapter in the box
  • Offered in chrome, black paint and black paint with brassing only — the bare brass and titanium grey sets are M-mount

Specifications

Formula
Ultrastigmat — four air-spaced elements
Construction
4 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
51 × 36 mm
Filter
39 mm
Years manufactured
2021–2023
Country
China
Material
Solid brass, or titanium and aluminium, by finish
Original price
$799 (M chrome or black paint) to $1,799 (titanium grey limited edition set), storefront list September 2026; screw mount $50–$100 dearer than bayonet in each finish. Japan Camera Hunter reported a launch price starting around $1,500 in November 2021

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Flare & ghosting
weak when backlit

History

The original of this lens is one of the scarcest things in the catalog: 460 ELCAN 50mm f/2 built for a United States military contract and 55 sold to the public, four elements in four groups with nothing cemented anywhere in it, because cement softens in heat and separates under blast. Light Lens Lab copied the optics and sold them for $799.

The copy is close on the numbers that describe the glass. Four elements, four groups — that much is the maker’s own specification. The ten straight blades are not: Light Lens Lab publishes no blade count at all, and the figure comes from BastianK, who counted them on a production copy. The original has ten as well, so the numbers agree, but the agreement was established by a reviewer rather than claimed by the workshop. What the copy adds is an E39 filter thread the military lens does not carry, and what it changes is the focusing distance: the original stops at 30 inches, which is 0.76 m and reads as an inch measurement because the contract was American, while the recreation goes to a round 0.7 m.

What it does not reproduce is the reason the lens exists. Japan Camera Hunter put that plainly in November 2021: “it is remarkably doubtful that the LLL ELCAN is a faithful replica of its robustness amplifying features and rather just a copy of the lens design.” The features in question are the infrared-absorbing lanthanum glass and the gaskets fitted to absorb the shock of an explosion. Nothing in the maker’s specification answers to either, and nothing answers to the removable lens head the contract asked for so a damaged front could be swapped in the field. This is the shape of the ELCAN without the brief that produced it.

Then there is the naming, which is why the lens looks as though it has vanished. The word ELCAN appears nowhere in the maker’s own copy. The product is listed as a bare “50mm f/2” — and in the same collection sit a “50mm f/2 Rigid”, a “50mm f/2 SP II” and a “50mm f/2 Rigid-SPII”, each recreating a different Leitz fifty. The only thing on the page that identifies which lens it is is the description: a recreation of the 50mm f/2 “on the KE-7A kit”. Search the site for ELCAN and nothing comes back.

The naming is also why the mount has been reported wrongly. Because the specification block on that page reads “Lens Mount: M-Mount” and stops, the lens is often described as bayonet-only, and Leica Rumors’ October 2021 announcement of an M39 version reads like a rumour that never came true. It did. The same page that prints the M-only spec block also carries a Mount selector offering M and LTM, six screw-mount part numbers across chrome, black paint and brassing, the sentence “Fully compatible with all LTM/M-mount cameras”, and — in the list of what is in the box — an “LTM Screw Mount to M-Mount Adapter if it is LTM Mount”. A maker does not pack an adapter for a mount it does not sell. The screw version cost $50 to $100 more than the bayonet in each finish, and the two special-edition sets were bayonet only.

It was withdrawn on 20 March 2023. The announcement gives the reason as a lens that “requires a highly-specialized manual grinding and polishing process”, says remaining stock would continue to be allocated until it ran out, and undertakes to keep servicing lenses already sold. The product page is still live, still listed at $799, and has been sold out since. There is a symmetry in that: the design was chosen by an army for being difficult to break and abandoned by its copyist for being difficult to make.

Expand Collapse

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/2 ("ELCAN")? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $900 across 18 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $830–$980). First day tracked.

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

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Listings updated 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: ELCAN 50mm f/2

Sources (8)

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.