Omnar Bertele 50mm f/2 for Leica M Mount

In this episode, I review the brand new Omnar Bertele 50mm f/2 MC FLB - a modern recreation of the classic 5cm f/2 Sonnar Jena from 1934 by the legendary lens designer Dr. Ludwig Bertele. This special Leica M mount rangefinder lens is the result of 5 years of research, development, design and engineering. It retains the original 6 elements in 3 groups lens formula while eliminating the most common problems of the vintage lens such as focus shifts in the mid-aperture range, focus shifts at closer distances below 1 meter, lack of or limited coating and soft glass that can be easily scratched. This lens is multi-coated and comes with a major innovation called Floating Lens Block which effectively eliminates focus shift problems in the mid-aperture range. The creators not only developed this painstakingly but also made it available to other lens designers in an open source fashion.

This lens is made by hand in Scotland by Christopher Andreyo and his company Skyllaney Opto Mechanics for Omnar Lenses. It is naturally quite limited and rare. The first batch of 30 lenses is currently being produced and ships in September 2025. The second batch of 50 units will be produced in winter 2025 and the third batch of 50 units in spring 2026. The lenses are all numbered and engraved.

The lens costs 2.750 Pounds (excl. tax) - so Leica territory but offering arguably much more as it also covers medium-format image sensors, including the 44 by 33-millimeter ones found in Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad XCD series cameras. The lens features a large 62mm image circle, allowing it to cover even some large-format cinema cameras.
This is a hand-made masterpiece that uses all sorts of innovations to revive a classic lens and make it accessible to today’s photographers without having to worry about cleaning marks, air bubbles, focus shifts and all the other problems from which the original vintage lens copies from the 1930s and 1940s typically suffer.

Full disclosure: I have this lens on loan to do a review and am not being paid to do so. As always, you get my honest view on this lens with as many nuances as possible.

I took the lens out for various photo walks in Munich & Zurich and a portrait session with Sam from MostWantedModels in Munich. I shot Ilford FP4 for the portraits and Ilford FP4, Kodak Ultramax 400, Kodak Tri-X and Ferrania Orto 50 for the street shots. As always, these images were scanned and developed by my trusted OnFilmLab in Frankfurt.

Gear used:
Leica M6 with
Omnar Bertele 50mm f/2 MC FLB

Films used:
Ilford FP4
Kodak Portra 160
Kodak Ultramax
Kodak Tri-X
Ferrania Ortho 50

Developed and scanned by my trusted OnFilmLab:
https://www.onfilmlab.de

More about the Omnar lens:
https://omnarlenses.com/omnar-bertele...

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