Introduction

Those of you that already had a look at my other reviews of Light Lens Lab lenses already know, their mission is to bring back rare and expensive lenses from the past at more affordable prices to give more people the opportunity to use them. After the 35mm 2.0 8-element they tackled the 28mm 2.8 9-element – a lens going for almost 10 grand on the used market for reasons I have yet to understand. Let’s see how this lens compares to the tiny Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar.
This lens will be reviewed on the 24mp Leica M10 and the 42mp Sony A7rII.

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.

Specifications

This Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 nine-element has the following specifications:

• • Diameter: 52 mm
  • Field of view: 75° (diagonally)
  • Length: 40 mm
  • Weight: 302g (without hood[41g] and caps)
  • Filter Diameter: E49
  • Number of Aperture Blades: 10 (straight)
  • Elements/Groups: 9/6
    
  • Close Focusing Distance: 0.7 m
  • xMaximum Magnification: 1:14.2 (measured)
  • Mount: Leica-M

You can order this lens from the official homepage as well as ebay.com (affiliate links) starting at $949

Disclosure

This Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9-element was kindly provided free of charge by the Light Lens Lab NA distributor for reviewing purpose for a duration of 4 weeks.

Handling / Build Quality

I have never had the “original” 28mm 2.8 by Leica in my hands, so I cannot tell you in great detail how the mechanics and casing design compare. From the pictures I tend to say this Light Lens Lab lens looks slightly more refined.

The focus ring has a nice, even resistance and turns a little less than 180° from the minimum focus distance of 0.7 m to infinity. The focus ring is also equipped with a focus tab.

The focus tab has another feature, as it features a hidden infinity lock. Regular readers know I am not a fan of infinity locks, but it seems the original lens featured the same exact design.

The aperture ring has equidistantly spaced half-stop click-stops.

Light Lens Lab also offers a hood that faithfully resembles the original. It significantly increases the size of the lens though, as can be seen from the picture above.

Without the hood there is only a moderate amount of rangefinder blockage, with the hood attached there is significantly more.

This Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9e is not a big lens, there are two “buts” though. As you can see from the picture above it is significantly bigger than the Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar and more the size of the Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.0 Ultron. The other thing is, that because of its protruding rear element it needs a special lens cap (like the Zeiss 16mm 8.0 Hologon), which can be quite bothersome in the field when changing lenses.

The lens can of course be adapted to modern mirrorless cameras. When coupled with a Sony E-mount or Nikon Z-mount camera you can e.g. use the TTArtisan 6-bit adapter to give it basic Exif data or the Techart LM-EA9 to equip it with autofocus or a close focus adapter to let it focus closer.

Vignetting

At its maximum aperture this Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9e shows noticeably less vignetting than the more compact Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar. Stopped down to f/11 they are pretty much the same though.

This Light Lens Lab lens has a rear element very close to the sensor, leading to the light rays hitting the sensor in rather unfavourable ways, so I expect it to show a lot less vignetting on film.

It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.

Sharpness

infinity (42mp Sony A7rII/24mp Leica M10)

Light Lens Lab says that they improved upon the original formula by adding an ED element and fluorite elements, leading to better across frame sharpness (especially used when on a digital camera) and less distortion.

On the Leica M10 this Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9e shows indeed a very good performance from f/2.8. Midframe and corners benefit from stopping down a bit, but I wouldn’t mind using this lens at f/2.8 if needed.

Now in a direct comparison my sample of the Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar looks even better at f/2.8 though and – like most modern Voigtländer lenses – it has very high contrast, whereas this Light Lens Lab lens has a slightly softer rendering.

On cameras with a thicker sensor stack like the Sony A7rII the situation is very different though. The midzone dip is greatly exaggerated and the corners need stopping down to f/11 to look somewhat okayish.

close 0.70 m (42mp A7rII)

A minimum focus distance of only 0.7 m in a 28mm lens is not something I am very fond of, but this is supposed to be a faithful recreation and the old lens also only offered 0.7 m. Performance at this distance is very good.

Flare resistance

Light Lens Lab decided to go with single coating here, which means we should expect to see some artefacts.

Indeed we see a lot of veiling flare and also a notable amount of ghosts.

Stopped down to f/11 the situation is similar. With lenses that are only single coated I often found colors to come out very different in backlit scenarios, which is also the case here.

In this category the Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar is the completely opposite, thanks to the latest multi coating it is almost impossible to create any such artefacts with that lens.

Coma

We do see some artefacts at f/2.8 and f/4.0, for a design that dates back to 1965 this is still very impressive though. Here the Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar looks a little better at f/2.8 to f/4.0, from there on there is hardly a difference. The VM 28mm 2.0 MK II also shows an impressive performance here, as despite being a stop faster, it creates smaller artefacts.

Distortion

Distortion is low and mostly uniform. There is no profile in Lightroom available, but dialing in -4 in Lightroom/Photoshop is doing a good job at correcting it and should be sufficient for most subjects.

Bokeh

The combination of a 28mm focal length with an f/2.8 maximum aperture means there is not a lot to talk about here. The minimum focus distance of 0.7 m doesn’t help either.

So on a Leica camera, even when the lens is set to its minimum focus distance and to f/2.8, the backgrounds are simply not blurred that much, as can be seen from the sample above, which was taken with the lens set to 0.7 m.

At longer focus distances the backgrounds will be just barely out of focus, you need to print pretty big to actually notice it.

Sunstars

Similar to many of the Voigtländer VM and Zeiss ZM lenses also this Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9e makes use of 10 straight aperture blades. Compared to the Light Lens Lab 35mm 2.0 8e the sunstars are not as pronounced at wider apertures though and look best in the f/11 to f/16 range.
If you want to know more about sunstar rendering of different lenses have a look at this article.

Chromatic aberration

lateral

Lateral CA are on a low level and easy to correct in post. Interestingly they seem to be strongest in the outer midframe and not the corners though.

longitudinal

Now this test was a bit ruined by the single coating leading to warm veiling flare. Nervertheless, we do see some cyan/magenta outlining at f/2.8 which is mostly gone by f/4.0.

Purple fringing is almost non-existent.

Conclusion

When it comes to wide angle lenses, we have seen a big leap in performance thanks to the wide availability of aspherical elements. This means not in every category this “classic” all-spherical Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9-element can compete with the latest designs.

But that also isn’t its purpose. Its purpose is, to give more people the opportunity to use one of Leica’s rare and famous lenses from the 1960s, when – unlike today – Leica was the company offering the highest performance lenses with cutting edge technology.

And actually, it performs surprisingly well, as in many categories it can still compete with modern designs.

There is one thing I am torn about though: while the optical design has been slightly adjusted to give better performance on digital cameras (and that seems to have worked), Light Lens Lab decided to go with single coated elements, faithful to the original. Also the minimum focus distance does not have been improved. Now I would have preferred better flare resistance and a closer focusing lens, but what does the majority think? True to the original or improved with today’s coatings and with better MFD? Please tell me in the comment section what you would prefer.

This one I saved for last: this lens does feature a beautiful mechanical design. The coating of this black version fits my black Leica M10’s top plate perfectly, better than many of Leica’s own lenses.

You can order this lens from the official homepage as well as ebay.com (affiliate links) starting at $949

Alternatives

I reviewed quite a few 28mm M-mount lenses ranging from f/1.4 to f/5.6 all listed on this page and I will only talk about the real obvious alternatives here.

Leica 28mm 2.8 Elmarit “9-element”:
The original from 1965 this Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 is based on. On the used market these seem to go for something around 10 grand. Only the most deluded collectors will pay that price and I hope none of you is stupid enough to do that, but if you are, by all means: please use one of these affiliate links. For everyone else this Light Lens Lab 28mm 2.8 9e looks like a great alternative.
buy from ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $10000

Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.8 Color-Skopar:
The modern 28mm 2.8 M-mount lens. It uses the latest technology and great coatings, making it perform least as good as this 60 years old design in every category – except for vignetting at f/2.8 – despite being a lot smaller and lighter. Be sure to check out the VM 28mm 2.0 Ultron MK II further down as well though.
buy from ebay.com | B&H (affiliate links) for $699

Leica 28mm 2.8 Elmarit-M:
Leica’s modern 28mm 2.8. According to Fred Miranda’s comparisons the aforementioned Voigtländer is sharper in the center at wider apertures whereas the Leica is sharper in the midframe and shows slightly less vignetting.
I rather take the better minimum focus distance of the Voigtländer and $2100 in my pocket.
buy from B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de | amazon.com (affiliate links) for $2795

Voigtländer VM 28mm 2.0 Ultron MKII:
I consider this the best balanced 28mm lens for M-mount. It is similarly sized and lighter, yet one stop faster, which can sure come in handy. If you are looking for a modern 28mm lens and you are not after the smallest/lightest 28mm lens, this f/2.0 version is probably the best choice.
buy from B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $799

Minolta 28mm 2.8 M-Rokkor:
Minolta’s take on a compact and affordable 28mm 2.8 M-mount lens when released together with the Minolta CLE in the early 80s. Taking into account this Minolta lens suffers from durability issues that seem to be unavoidable, yet good samples cost almost as much as a new Voigtländer lens, I find it very hard to recommend.
buy from ebay.com (affiliate link) for $200–$450+ depending on its condition

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.

Further Reading

• All Reviews of Leica M/M39 lenses
• Analogue Adventures
• Review: Laowa 28mm 1.2 Argus
• Review: Nikon AF 28mm 1.4D
• Review: Viltrox AF 28mm 1.8 FE

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BastianK

My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses. Don't ask me anything about macro or wildlife shooting though.

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