Expensive soft focus: Leica revisits classic THAMBAR 90mm f/2.2 lens with new M-mount version
posted Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 1:45 PM EDT
What's old is new again for Leica. The German camera company has announced a new THAMBAR-M 90mm f/2.2 lens. Its design is almost identical to the original Thambar lens, including a black paint finish, similar proportions and shape and its aperture engravings. Designed for the Leica M mount, the new version has had a few alterations to make it fit in with modern M-mount lenses. Leica states that the largest difference between the new version and the original is the single-coating which protects the glass against environmental influences and surface corrosion.
The Leica THAMBAR-M 90mm f/2.2 is designed for soft focus imagery. To this end, the lens comes with an included center spot filter which Leica says works to "increase the drama of the dreamy effect for striking, ethereal image quality." Further, the lens is designed to deliberately under-correct spherical aberration and uses a 20-blade diaphragm which creates a circular rendition of out-of-focus highlights which is exaggerated as you near the edge of the frame.
On the technical side of things, the manual focus lens has a close focus distance of 3.3 feet (1 meter), four elements across three groups and weighs about 1.1 pounds (500 grams). The lens' dimensions are 2.2 inches x 3.5 inches (57 x 90 millimeters) and it has a 49mm filter thread.
The revised classic THAMBAR-M lens does not come cheaply. The Leica THAMBAR-M 90mm f/2.2 lens is available for preorder now for US$6,495.
(Via Leica Rumors)