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

Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 "SP II"

Light Lens Lab · Leica M · 2023 · Double Gauss

Also known as: LLL 50mm f/2 SP II · Light Lens Lab Speed Panchro II 50mm · Light Lens Lab 50mm f2 SPII

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Chrome Leica M 2023 — —
Black Paint Leica M 2023 — —
Black Paint with Brassing Leica M 2023 — —
Bare Brass Limited Edition Leica M 2023 — —
Time Limited Edition Leica M 2023 — —
  1. The observation that the coating went the wrong way on purpose. No source states it as a decision, but the sequence is on the record: this lens ships single-coated in 2023, the same seven-element block ships multicoated in the Rigid-SPII in 2024, and a reviewer briefed before launch expected multicoating here and did not get it. Read together, the single coating on the SP II looks like a fidelity choice rather than a cost one — an inference, offered as such.
  2. SHIPPED. Pre-orders opened 20 March 2023 with shipping stated as beginning in April 2023, in order of purchase, and a price rise flagged after the initial pre-order. Chrome was the only finish announced at that point; the maker's page said other finishes would follow, and four more now exist.
  3. PROTOTYPE VERSUS PRODUCTION — THE MAKER SEPARATES THEM, AND SO SHOULD ANYONE WEIGHING THE REVIEWS. The product page lists reviews by Bluemoon Camera, LSI Viewfinder, Ted Forbes, Kevin Fickling and Richard Clompus as prototype reviews, and reviews by phillipreeve.net and Keith Wee as production-copy reviews. Rendering claims drawn from the first group describe hardware that changed before it shipped.
  4. The change that proves the point. Ed Schwartzreich, writing in March 2023 from a prototype, describes single-coated amber elements and states that the production model will be multi-coated. The shipped lens is single-coated: the maker's own specification says so, and the multicoating went instead into the Rigid-SPII of the following year. The expectation of a knowledgeable reviewer, sourced from the maker, did not survive to production.
  5. THE ELEMENT COUNT IS THE COPY'S, NOT THE ORIGINAL'S. Seven elements in five groups is Light Lens Lab's published specification for this lens. No source consulted gives an element or group count for the Taylor Hobson Speed Panchro Series II — Cooke Optics' own history of the Panchro, its "Classic Cookes" page on the Series II 25mm T2.2 and Film and Digital Times' interview with Cooke optical designer Graham Cassely all describe the line's character, glasses and coatings without publishing a construction. Ed Schwartzreich's remark that "the lens is a 7-element double gauss design" is made of the Light Lens Lab prototype in front of him. Nobody consulted has set the two prescriptions side by side, so the fidelity of the count is unverified rather than confirmed.
  6. WHEN THE ORIGINAL WAS MADE IS DISPUTED, and the maker of the original gives a later date than anyone else. Light Lens Lab dates the Speed Panchro II to the 1940s in its own product description. Thomas Pindelski gives 1945 for the optical design. Ed Schwartzreich, writing for Macfilos, puts the Series II's introduction in the 1930s and quotes Mr. Zhou saying it has been a staple of Cooke lenses since its introduction in the 1930s. Against all three, Cooke Optics itself dates the line to the 1950s: Gordon Cook began redesigning the Speed Panchro line after joining Taylor-Hobson in 1948, the first Series II lens — a 25mm T2.2 — was released in 1953, and a complete set was available by 1958. That account is corroborated independently by Cinelenses. Four published values; this entry records all four and notes that the 1950s dating is the only one coming from the firm that built the lens.
  7. Deliberate steps backward. Single coating is chosen to approach the original's flare behaviour, not for economy — the same workshop multicoated the same optical block a year later. Bastian K's production-copy review documents the consequence: veiling flare that robs most of the contrast wide open, and large blue artifacts when a strong light source is in frame stopped down.
  8. Things the cine original never had: a rangefinder coupling, an M bayonet, and a UV filter integrated into the barrel. The optical block is the claim of fidelity; the mount is entirely new work.
  9. Prices and stock from the maker's product feed on 4 September 2026 — chrome $849, black paint with brassing $899.90, black paint $949, bare brass limited edition $1,049, time limited edition $1,149. Only the chrome is orderable; the other four are sold out.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Single-coated: the recreation moves backwards toward the original's flare behaviour on purpose
  • A removable UV filter built into the lens, not a screw-on accessory
  • E43 thread and a Reid-style clip-on hood; 61 mm long, 51 mm diameter, 345 g in solid brass
  • Ten aperture blades, where the Rigid-SPII that shares its optics has eight

Chrome:

  • Chrome over brass; the pre-order finish, $849

Black Paint:

  • Black paint over brass; $949

Black Paint with Brassing:

  • Black paint worn through to the brass from the factory; $899.90

Bare Brass Limited Edition:

  • Unplated brass; $1,049

Time Limited Edition:

  • $1,149, the dearest finish in the family

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
51 × 61 mm
Weight
345 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
2023
Country
China
Coating
Single-coated
Material
Solid brass
Original price
$849 chrome to $1,149 for the Time Limited Edition (maker's storefront, 2026); pre-orders opened March 2023 with a price rise flagged after the first batch

What reviewers say

History

This is the one recreation where Light Lens Lab spells its own code out. The page says a recreation of the famous SP II 50mm f/2 cinema lens from the 1940s, and SP II is Speed Panchro Series II — Taylor, Taylor and Hobson’s fast double Gauss, made in Leicester, sold under the Cooke name, and the glass behind the look of a great deal of 1940s Hollywood. The published formula is seven elements in five groups — and that figure is Light Lens Lab’s, for the copy. No source consulted here publishes an element or group count for the original Series II: not Cooke Optics’ own two-part history of the Panchro, not its “Classic Cookes” page on the 25mm T2.2 Series II, not Film and Digital Times’ interview with Cooke’s own optical designer. Ed Schwartzreich’s “7-element double gauss design” describes the Light Lens Lab prototype he was handling, not a Taylor Hobson lens he had measured. So the count on this page is a manufacturer’s specification for a recreation, and whether it matches what it recreates is not something the written record currently settles. The original is not in this catalog; the only Taylor Hobson lens here is the Cooke Aviar 15.2cm, a wartime aerial anastigmat and a different design entirely.

What the workshop did not do is quietly modernise it. The elements are single-coated. That is a step backwards, taken on purpose, toward the flare behaviour of the lens being copied — and the evidence that it was a choice rather than an economy is that the same seven-element block came back a year later, multicoated, inside the Rigid-SPII. Bastian K, reviewing a production copy, documents what single coating costs: very soft at f/2 from spherical aberration, veiling flare that strips most of the contrast wide open, and large blue artifacts when a bright source sits in frame stopped down. Sharp from f/5.6, and not a lens to buy for that.

The prototype-to-production gap is unusually well documented here, because the maker documents it itself. Its product page sorts the reviews into two lists: prototype reviews by Bluemoon Camera, the LSI Viewfinder, Ted Forbes, Kevin Fickling and Richard Clompus, and production-copy reviews by phillipreeve.net and Keith Wee. Anyone weighing a rendering claim should check which list it came from. The clearest illustration is Ed Schwartzreich’s Macfilos piece of March 2023, written from a prototype: it describes single-coated amber elements and says the production model will be multi-coated. The shipped lens is single-coated. A well-briefed reviewer stated the opposite of what came out of the factory, and both statements are honest.

The rest of the specification is a cine block given a life it never had. A rangefinder coupling, an M bayonet, 0.7 m minimum focus, even half stops from f/2 to f/22, ten blades, solid brass, an E43 thread, a Reid-style clip-on hood, 61 mm long and 345 g, with a removable UV filter built into the barrel rather than screwed onto it. None of that existed on a Speed Panchro in a cine mount. The optical block is the fidelity claim; the mount is new work.

One fact refuses to settle, and it is the date of the thing being copied. Light Lens Lab says the 1940s. Thomas Pindelski gives 1945 for the optical design. Schwartzreich puts the Series II’s introduction in the 1930s, and quotes Mr. Zhou himself saying it has been a staple of Cooke lenses since its introduction in the 1930s — the maker’s founder and the maker’s product page a decade apart on the same lens. And Cooke Optics, which is the firm that actually built the original, dates the line later than any of them: Gordon Cook joined Taylor-Hobson in 1948 and set about redesigning the Speed Panchro, the first Series II lens shipped in 1953, and the set was complete by 1958. That is a fourth value, it is first-party, and it puts the Series II a full generation after the decade printed on the recreation’s own product page. Four published values are recorded above; none is asserted here as settled, but only one of them comes from Leicester.

Five finishes now exist, from $849 for the chrome to $1,149 for the Time Limited Edition. On 4 September 2026 the chrome was the only one that could be bought.

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 "SP II"? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

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 50mm f/2 "Rigid-SPII"

Sources (11)

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.