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

Light Lens Lab 75mm f/2 "SPII"

Light Lens Lab · Leica M · 2026 · Double Gauss with achromatic elements

Also known as: LLL 75mm f/2 SPII · Light Lens Lab 75mm SP-II · LLL 75 Speed Panchro · Light Lens Lab M 75mm f/2 SPII

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Aluminium / Black Paint Leica M 2026 — —
Aluminium / Chrome Leica M 2026 — —
  1. The element-count argument against a rescale. Light Lens Lab's published 8-in-5 for this lens and 7-in-5 for its own 50mm f/2 'SP II' are both the maker's own figures, but no source sets them side by side or draws the conclusion that a lens gaining an element cannot be the same formula scaled up. That comparison, and the conclusion that the 75mm is a new design within the SP-II line rather than a reproduction of any single historical Speed Panchro, is this catalog's.
  2. STATUS: SHIPPED, and the evidence is not only the maker's. Announced in production 5 February 2026, pre-orders from 1 March 2026, fulfilment scheduled 20 March 2026 across all finishes. Both finishes were orderable in the maker's own product feed on 4 September 2026 at $799 and $749. Beyond that: PRONEWS reported the black version released 27 March 2026 and weighed it, Leica Rumors reported the chrome available from 19 August 2026, and Milan Swolfs published a written review from shooting the lens whose specification figures match the published ones. This is a lens in customers' hands, not a prototype photographed at a trade show.
  3. The maker separates prototype from production reviews here as it does on the 50mm f/2 "SP II", and the separation is worth respecting. Its product page labels one review "Early Prototype" and lists two others without that qualifier. The prototype one is video and so is outside this catalog's sources; of the two unlabelled, one is a forum thread and the other is Milan Swolfs' written review, cited above. Nothing on the page says which copy Swolfs shot, so his figures are treated here as corroborating the published specification rather than as a teardown of a retail lens.
  4. WHAT THE ORIGINAL IS, DISPUTED THREE WAYS. Light Lens Lab names no maker, no focal length and no aperture for the lens it draws on, describing only "a historically significant 1940s Double-Gaussian optical design" and "one of the four most celebrated optical schematics of the 1900s". Three published readings circulate. (1) A Cooke Speed Panchro Series II of 75mm f/2 — PetaPixel's 2023 headline, "Light Lens Lab is Recreating the Legendary Cooke 75mm f/2 Speed Panchro II". (2) A Cooke Speed Panchro Series II of 50mm f/2, rescaled — PRONEWS, April 2026. (3) A Speed Panchro Series II of 75mm T2.2 — the body of the same PetaPixel article, which identifies the original as "the Cooke Speed Panchro Series II 75mm T2.2 lens" one paragraph below its own f/2 headline. Reading (2) is the one closest to Light Lens Lab's own production announcement, which says the 75mm "draws from the optical foundation of the existing 50mm f2 'SP-II'". No source reconciles the three.
  5. Against a straight rescale of any of them: Light Lens Lab publishes eight elements in five groups for this lens and seven in five for its own 50mm f/2 "SP II". A rescaled formula does not gain an element. Whatever the 75mm draws from the 50mm, it is a new design in the SP-II line rather than the same design at a longer focal length.
  6. Leica Rumors is the only source consulted that names the original's maker: "produced by Taylor, Taylor & Hobson (now Cooke Optics) in Leicester, England", and the industry standard for Hollywood production from the 1930s through the 1950s. It gives the original no focal length, so it does not settle the dispute above.
  7. Weight is disputed by 8 g: 310 g per Light Lens Lab's own specification, approximately 318 g per PRONEWS. On material the two are close but not identical: the product page's "Materials Used" block states that "Black Paint and Chrome versions feature bodies and accessories made from 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum alloy", while PRONEWS adds brass internal components, which Light Lens Lab does not mention. Note that the maker's own page is inconsistent with itself — its marketing line calls the construction "lightweight aluminum alloy" without a grade, and the specification block names 7075.
  8. Prices are the maker's: $749 for Aluminium Chrome, $799 for Aluminium Black Paint, confirmed against the shop feed on 4 September 2026. Leica Rumors reports the silver version at $799, which matches neither the announcement nor the feed for that finish.
  9. Light Lens Lab claims sensor coverage to 44 × 33 mm, "a significant enhancement over the original optical schematic", while listing design frame coverage as 135 full frame.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Integrated hood machined into the barrel, with a separate A46 clip-on Reid-style hood as an option — the in-body hood distinguishes it from the 50mm SP-II lenses
  • Twelve blades, the highest count in the current Light Lens Lab range
  • Preset diaphragm in half-stop increments, f/2 to f/22; E43 filters
  • Eight elements in five groups — the 50mm f/2 "SP II" it descends from has seven in five

Aluminium / Black Paint:

  • Black painted aluminium barrel

Aluminium / Chrome:

  • Chrome-finished aluminium barrel

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss with achromatic elements
Construction
8 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/22
Diaphragm blades
12
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
54 × 73 mm
Weight
310 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
2026
Country
China
Material
7075 aircraft-grade aluminium alloy (black paint and chrome)
Original price
$749 (Aluminium Chrome); $799 (Aluminium Black Paint)

What reviewers say

History

SPII is Speed Panchro Series II, the Taylor, Taylor & Hobson cine lens that Cooke Optics inherited and that shot a great deal of Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1950s. That much is uncontested. Which Speed Panchro this 75mm reproduces is not, and the reason it is not is that Light Lens Lab has never said.

The maker’s copy is careful to the point of evasiveness. The product page offers “a historically significant 1940s Double-Gaussian optical design, forming part of the SP-II lineage”. The production announcement says the lens “pays homage to one of the four most celebrated optical schematics of the 1900s” and, in the same sentence, that it “draws from the optical foundation of the existing 50mm f2 ‘SP-II’”. No maker is named. No focal length is attributed to the original. No aperture either.

Into that gap, three published values. PetaPixel’s 2023 headline announced a recreation of the Cooke 75mm f/2 Speed Panchro II. The body of that same article identifies the original as a 75mm T2.2 — a T-stop, which is what a cine lens is actually marked in, and therefore probably the more careful of the two figures in one piece of writing that contains both. PRONEWS, reporting the release in April 2026, describes the lens as inspired by a Cooke Speed Panchro Series II 50mm f/2 from the 1940s, the 50mm formula stretched to a longer focal length. Only Leica Rumors names Taylor, Taylor & Hobson at all, and it gives the original no focal length, so it cannot arbitrate.

Light Lens Lab’s own sentence points at the 50mm reading, since it says the optical foundation came from the firm’s existing 50mm f/2 “SP II” rather than from any historical lens directly. But the numbers make even that awkward. The 50mm SP II is seven elements in five groups; the 75mm is eight in five. Scaling a formula to a longer focal length does not add an element to it. Whatever the relationship is — a shared design philosophy, a starting point, a family resemblance — it is not reproduction, and the honest description of the 75mm is a new design inside a line named after an old one.

That leaves a lens whose provenance is a set of claims rather than a schematic, which makes the hardware the more solid part of the page. Eight elements in five groups, double Gauss with achromatic and low-dispersion elements paired with lanthanide glass, a twelve-bladed preset diaphragm running f/2 to f/22 in half stops, 0.7 m minimum focus, E43 filters, a hood machined into the barrel with an A46 clip-on Reid-style hood available on top of it, 73 mm long, 54 mm across, 310 g. The barrel is 7075 aircraft-grade aluminium alloy in both black paint and chrome, which is the maker’s own specification block — its marketing copy on the same page says only “lightweight aluminum alloy” and leaves the grade out, so the page disagrees with itself in a small way. PRONEWS adds brass internal components that Light Lens Lab does not mention, and weighs the lens at about 318 g against the published 310 g. Coverage is claimed to 44 × 33 mm.

The commercial history has its own small oddity. Pre-orders opened 1 March 2026 for a 20 March fulfilment across all finishes; the black version is reported to have arrived on 27 March and the chrome not until 19 August, five months later. And the chrome is the cheaper lens at $749 against $799 for black paint, which reverses the premium chrome usually carries — including on this catalog’s Leitz entries, where a black barrel is the scarce one. Both were in stock on 4 September 2026.

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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 75mm f/2 "SPII"? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $810 across 12 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $750–$840). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $810.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$810$750–$84012
2026-09-06$810$750–$84012

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 50mm f/1.9 "Rigid-ZS6"

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.