Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 "Rigid"
Light Lens Lab · Leica M · 2025
Also known as: LLL 50mm f/2 Rigid · Light Lens Lab Rigid 50 · Light Lens Lab 50mm f2 Rigid
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Leica M | 2025 | — | — |
| Black Paint | Leica M | 2025 | — | — |
| Black Paint with Brassing Special Edition | Leica M | 2025 | — | — |
| Bare Brass Special Edition | Leica M | 2025 | — | — |
- Two readings this project makes rather than takes. First, the cross-link: the maker calls the original the 50mm f/2 V2, meaning the second body type of the Summicron 50, which in this catalog is the `rigid` variant inside summicron-50mm-f2-i and not the separately catalogued 1968 second design. The published element count settles it — seven elements in six groups is the 1951/1956 formula, where the 1968 lens is six in five. Second, the platform chronology: the Rigid Series is presented as beginning here, but the Rigid barrel had already shipped a year earlier on the 50mm f/2 Rigid-SPII of December 2023, so this lens founded the name rather than the hardware.
- SHIPPED. Announced 12 December 2024, ordering from 15 December 2024 at midnight EST, shipping from 14 February 2025. This entry describes the production lens.
- THE GLASS CLAIM, AND WHY IT IS THE MOST LITERAL IN THE RANGE. The maker names the type: "Lanthanide-infused elements, code name 'LaK-9', with changes to lens coating for better durability and render performance". LaK9 is a real designation with a real history, and it is Leitz's own. The Leica Society International's survey of rare-earth glass in Leica lenses describes it as "Krown Lanthanum glass (later licensed to Schott Glass Works as LaK9) that was formulated by Broemer and Meinart in Wetzlar's renowned glass division", not available until late 1952 and then only in limited quantities, and it ties the glass to the lens: "Later iterations of the classic 7-element 50mm f/2 Summicrons ... that employ lanthanum (LaK9) glass provide noticeably better imaging performance, especially wide open." Two caveats belong with that. LSI attaches LaK9 to a serial band within the seven-element Summicrons rather than to every rigid, so "the glass of the original" is truer of some originals than others. And naming a glass is not the same as having been shown to use it: no source consulted has tested the recreation's elements. The coating is stated as changed; the glass is stated as matched, by the maker.
- THE MOUNT THAT DID NOT ARRIVE. The announcement listed an LTM version as in development alongside the M-mount lens. Eighteen months later the storefront still lists M only, and the feed carries no LTM part number. Announced is not shipped.
- A material discrepancy in the maker's own pages. The specification block says the body is brass or titanium depending on finish, but all four orderable finishes in the product feed are listed as brass, and no titanium version appears. Read the titanium line as unrealised until a part number exists for it.
- Stock and price, read from the maker's product feed on 4 September 2026: chrome $799, black paint $849, black paint with brassing $879, bare brass $899 — all four sold out, with the product page still live. Launch prices were the same four figures.
- Departures from the original that the recreation does not hide: it focuses to 0.7 m where the 1956 rigid Summicron stops at 1 m, and it clicks in even half stops where the original clicks in whole ones. Keith Wee's review of a production copy lists both, along with slightly softer corners wide open than the Leitz lens.
How to tell them apart
- Seven elements in six groups — the 1951/1956 Summicron formula, not the 1968 redesign
- 43.5 mm long and 266 g in brass, with an E39 thread and an A42 hood
- Even half-stop clicks from f/2 to f/16, where the original clicks in whole stops
Chrome:
- Chrome over brass; $799, the cheapest of the four
Black Paint:
- Black paint over brass; $849
Black Paint with Brassing Special Edition:
- Black paint worn through to the brass from the factory; $879
Bare Brass Special Edition:
- Unplated brass; $899, the dearest of the four
- Black Paint with Brassing Special Edition: A finish sold pre-aged. The brassing is applied, not earned, which matters to anyone reading wear as evidence of use on a lens that has never left the box.
Specifications
- Construction
- 7 elements / 6 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2–f/16
- Diaphragm blades
- 10
- Min. focus
- 0.7 m
- Dimensions
- 54 × 43.5 mm
- Weight
- 266 g
- Filter
- 39 mm
- Years manufactured
- 2025
- Country
- China
- Material
- Brass
- Original price
- $799 chrome to $899 bare brass (2024 launch prices, unchanged on the storefront in 2026)
What reviewers say
- Keith Wee (blog) — He calls it a faithful and close reproduction of the original rigid Summicron with similar build and optical performance, sharp without being clinical, and lists the real differences as half-stop clicks, a tougher coating, slightly softer corners wide open and a 0.7 m minimum focus against the original's 1 m.
History
The first thing to settle about this lens is which Summicron it copies, because the maker’s own phrasing points at the wrong entry in this catalog. Light Lens Lab calls the original the legendary 50mm f/2 V2 — the second body type of the Summicron 50, which is the rigid barrel of 1956. In this catalog that lens is the rigid variant inside summicron-50mm-f2-i, not summicron-50mm-f2-ii, which is the 1968 redesign to six elements in five groups. The recreation publishes seven elements in six groups, and that is the 1951/1956 formula. The element count decides the cross-link on its own.
What follows from that is a claim more specific than anything else in the range. Most of these recreations say lanthanide-infused and leave it there. This one names the glass: code name LaK-9, with the coating declared as changed for durability and render performance. That name is not decoration. The Leica Society International’s account of rare-earth glass at Leitz describes LaK9 as a lanthanum crown formulated by Broemer and Meinart in Wetzlar’s own glass division and only later licensed to Schott, unavailable until late 1952 and scarce after that, and it credits the glass with the improved wide-open performance of the later seven-element Summicrons. So Light Lens Lab is claiming to have matched a particular optical glass rather than to have found something that behaves like it, and it is testable in a way that a phrase about rare earths is not. Two things keep it a claim rather than a finding: LSI ties LaK9 to a serial band inside the seven-element run rather than to every rigid ever built, and nobody has published an analysis of what is actually in the recreation’s elements.
Against that, the honest departures are mechanical and easy to list. It focuses to 0.7 m where the 1956 rigid stops at 1 m. It clicks in even half stops where the original clicks in whole ones. The body is brass at 266 g and 43.5 mm long, with an E39 thread and an A42 hood, and the finish comes four ways including one sold pre-brassed — paint worn through to the metal from the factory, which is worth knowing before reading that wear as a history of use. Keith Wee, reviewing a production copy, found it a faithful and close reproduction with slightly softer corners wide open than the Leitz lens, at roughly a third of what an original costs.
Two announcements did not survive contact with the storefront, and both belong in the record. An LTM version was listed as in development in December 2024; the shop lists M only, and no LTM part number exists in the maker’s product feed as of September 2026. And the specification block says the body is brass or titanium depending on finish, while all four orderable finishes are brass. Neither is a scandal, but both are the ordinary failure mode of a maker that publishes intentions and product on the same page, and the rule this catalog applies is that announced is not shipped.
Finally, a small correction to the way the range is usually described. The Rigid is presented as the founding member of a Rigid Series — the announcement says it will be part of a Rigid Project to be announced later, and the platform has since grown to include a 50mm f/1.9 Rigid-ZS6. But the barrel itself is older than this lens. The 50mm f/2 Rigid-SPII shipped in a Type Two Rigid body in early 2024, a year before this one. What began here is the name, not the hardware.
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 "Rigid"? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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