Is the Lailens 50mm f/1.1 the smallest f/1.1 lens in existence? It certainly looks like it, and this tiny nifty fifty is also one of the fastest camera lenses you can buy.
The information comes from the Chinese social media site Weibo, via a post that states that the “Night Owl Abyss from the domestic Mirror Casting Workshop has been updated.”
It cites the successor as being over 50g lighter than its predecessor, which weighed 388g. Plenty of lenses are lighter, of course, but I can’t think of a lens of that speed that would be anywhere near an approximate 338g. The same price lists the lens at CN¥2,999, which is approximately US$420 / £313 / AU$643.
Visiting the Lailens website, it would appear that the Night Owl Abyss moniker has been dropped in favor of the simpler Lailens 50mm f/1.1. The little prime is set to be available for the easily adaptable Leica M and L39 mounts, the former being a black edition and the latter being silver.
However, it would appear that only the M-Mount black version is currently available for pre-order. The pre-order listing prices the lens at US$800, approximately £596 / AU$1,224.
The Lailens 50mm f/1.1 is constructed from 6 elements in 5 groups, but other specs are thin on the ground. There’s no mention of autofocus, so it’s likely this is a manual-only optic, which might not be a problem for the retro Leica fan.
The black variant was originally listed for release in spring 2025 and the silver version is listed for release in the fall. Judging by the imagery, it’s certainly small enough to look right at home on a Leica rangefinder camera.
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