It is said that the one lens which every photography should own is the ‘nifty fifty’ – a 50 mm prime lens. The 50 mm lens is considered a ‘normal’ as images produced with a 50 mm lens results in an image which, when viewed at normal viewing distances – usually at arm’s length – matches the real-world perspective. ‘Normal’ lenses can for full-frame cameras are usually considered around 40 mm to 55 mm. Although the Q3 I usually travel with nowadays has a 28 mm fixed lens, 50 mm has always been one of my favourite focal lengths, and I have shot some of my favourite photographs with a nifty fifty.

Out of all the 50 mm lenses which I have had the pleasure of shooting with, the Light Lens Lab 50 mm f/2 Speed Panchro II has definitely been one of my favourite. If you are after technically perfect corner-to-corner sharpness even when wide open, this lens is not for you. But, if you are after a lens which can make all your wide-open shots look like a still taken from a classic Hollywood film, then look no further!

The Speed Panchro II is a rangefinder coupled Leica M-mount lens created by Chinese lens manufacturer Light Lens Lab. Light Lens Lab excel in making replicas of classic lenses which make these classic renderings accessible to a wider range of photographers, as many of these classic lenses would cost an arm and a leg, and maybe a kidney too, if you were to buy the original. Reviewers have commented on how the rendering of the Light Lens Lab 35 mm f/2 is pretty much identical to the eight-element Leica 35 mm f/2 v1 on which it is based.

The Light Lens Lab Speed Panchro II is based on Cooke 50 mm f/2 Speed Panchro II, a classic cinema lens from the 1940s. Films shot with the Cooke lens include The Godfather, and Taxi Driver. Whilst I have not actually shot with an original Cooke 50 mm f/2 Speed Panchro II, I have read reviews which suggest that the Light Lens Lab Speed Panchro II bears the hallmark of the classic ‘Cooke look’.

Basic stats

Focal length: 50 mm
Minimum focusing distance: 0.7 metres (rangefinder coupled)
Apertures: f/2 to f/22 with half-stop detents.
Weight: 345 g
Length: 61 mm
Diameter: 51 mm

Handling

The copy of the lens which I have handles really well with nice detents on the aperture ring, although I tend to just leave this lens at f/2 for that Hollywood glamour look. Having said that, I would prefer if the aperture ring was a little stiffer. It’s not easy to knock out of place as the focusing ring with its tab is very distinct and far back from the aperture ring, but it’d be nice to have a bit more feel to it.

My copy has a fairly dampened focusing ring which has quite a long throw, but still operates very smoothly and is easy to focus with. The ‘normal’ version of the Light Lens Lab Speed Panchro II, which is the one I have, comes with an inbuilt UV filter that is removable, but it has a 43 mm filter thread allowing for additional filters to be used.

I mentioned the ‘normal’ version of the Light Lens Lab Speed Panchro II. That is because they have another version of the lens which is available in the style of the 50 mm f/2 rigid. The ‘rigid’ version does not come with a lens hood whereas the ‘normal’ version does. Nor does the ‘rigid’ version come with a UV filter.

The lens mounts onto my M bodies smoothly, and does not appear to have any give when locked in place. I find that the rangefinder coupling is accurate according to my M bodies when shooting wide open.

What I love about the lens

Whilst there is a place for ultra corner-to-corner sharp lenses, it is worth remember that whether a lens is considered ‘good’ or not is not necessarily based only on how sharp a lens it or how much it does or does not vignette, but rather how it works for any one photographer’s use case. It is a purely subjective thing. So, as with all my talk about gear, I am going to simply focus of why I think this lens really works for the kind of shots I shoot with it.

To give you an idea of some of the kind of uses I love for this lens, my girlfriend refers to this lens as the “make me beautiful lens”, as portraits shot with this lens wide-open has this really glamourous glow to its rendering.

I personally really love editing photographs shot with this lens with a more classic filmic look, not to mention cropping it to an aspect ratio of 2.4:1 gives a very cinematic look to the photograph, making it feel even more like a still frame taken from a classic Hollywood film. The Cooke Speed Panchro II is an aspherical lens, so it would not have those oval bokeh ball or light flare streaks which are associated with anamorphic cinematic lenses. And the anamorphic distortion is also not present – the Light Lens Lab Speed Panchro II renders straight lines pretty well as the above and below shots demonstrate.

When shot wide open, it is not the sharpest lens, but it renders enough detail for it to be suitable for portraits – I find that I have to actively unsharpen my shots if I use the Leica Q3 to take a photo of people as that Summilux 28 mm f/1.7 lens renders every pore and wrinkle at 60 megapixels! Great for amazingly detailed low light landscapes, bad for portraits!

What I do not like about the lens

Whilst is is not big or heavy on the grand scale of all lenses, I think it is comparatively larger and heavier than many Leica M-mount lenses with a length of 61 mm and a weight of 345 g. Leica’s own Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 has a length of 47 mm and weighs in at 300 g. Voigtländer’s Nokton 50 mm f/1.5 II has a length of 36.9 mm and the lightest version weighs only 198 g. For a 50 mm f/2 lens, it is larger and heavier than what I am used to in terms of Leica M-mount lenses.

As mentioned when discussing handling, I would also like it if the aperture ring were a little stiffer, but that is a really minor issue as it is not loose – I would just like to feel it a bit more, and this is an entirely personal matter.

I do not really have anything to say about what I do not like about the lens. I bought it knowing what kind of look I was going to get, and already having an idea of what kind of photos I would like to be shooting with it. In that sense, it is exactly what I expected.

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