The Omnar 35mm f/3.5 Pantessa FLB is a premium Yashica T* lens rehousing for Leica M-mount, with an image circle large enough for Fuji GFX 100ii and Hasselblad X2D¹.
“The optical formula has been modified[…] to reposition the glass elements into a continually optimized state[…] we have designed the lens so the position of the optical block subtly moves within the housing as the aperture is adjusted[…] This design feature, which is entirely unique to our rehousing, is the key reason the Pantessa lens maintains such high optical performance and rangefinder accuracy across the entire 0.65m through Infinity RF coupled focus distance.” — Omnar.
The Omnar 35mm f/3.5 Pantessa FLB is available to pre-order off the Omnar Lenses website today for £1950 (~$2,435).
This lens’s first limited production run has just 20 units, which Omnar expects to ship by the end of February 2025.
¹ — With adapter. Some vignetting on Hassy. See samples below.
Omnar Lenses was found by Hamish Gill of 35mmc.com and Chris Andreyo of Chris Andreyo of Skyllaney Opto-Mechanics.
Omnar has released a few rehoused lenses, taking vintage optics and improving their performance (as they have with Pantessa FLB) and handling. The handling bit seems to be driving the price of these ultra-low-run creations: practically everything is made of machined metal, hand-finished and hand-assembled in the UK.
Even the screw-on lens cap is made of metal.
The Pantessa weighs 108g (3.8oz) and protrudes 16.5mm (.65”) from the camera.
There were a lot of sample images in the press package for this lens. Hamish mentioned that he’s even got some on 35mm film in his Leica that’s almost ready to scan. Some reminded me of my experience with my Yashica T2, particularly the optics render the out-of-focus foliage. But of course, digital sensors do render photos differently.
This photo was snapped on M11. I think it shows this lens’s bokeh and low-light performance pretty well.
My favourite samples of this lens’ renderings from all the digital Leicas (amongst the M9s, the M10s, and the M11s) were made with the Monochrom body. I’m not used to digital sensor colours, even the premium ones, which is why I found black-and-white ones more compelling. Can’t articulate why just yet.
In any case, this lens appears to make sharp photos, as you’d expect from Zeiss optics that brought Yashica back out of the hole (a bit of history here: analog.cafe/r/yashica-t2-f…).
This black-and-white image seems to be pushing the lens’ limits: if you look closely, there’s some softness and swirl in the corners and a tiny bit of motion blur in the leaves. Yet the photo has a nice contrast and a great overall sharpness (there are a few things that can affect the sharpness of your photos with any lens — I wrote about it earlier here: analog.cafe/r/how-to-make-…).
Yashica’s T* point-and-shoot cameras were and are relatively affordable (thanks to the all-plastic bodies) and well-designed. Of course, the handling or reliability that you get with them won’t be the same as on a M-mount rangefinder.
A $2.5K purchase of a lens made with elements sourced from a point-and-shoot camera makes the same sense as finding the legendary Minolta TC-1 (analog.cafe/r/minolta-tc-1…) 28mm G-Rokkor lens in a M-mount. When Minolta made those outstanding point-and-shoot cameras in the late ‘90s, they also produced a limited number of the same lenses for Leica rangefinders.
Some point-and-shoot cameras made in this period have incredible optics; however, those cameras can not last forever. My TC-1 bricked after two years of use, which wouldn’t happen with the lens alone. The reliability is a huge factor when it comes to these cameras, no matter how well they were built.
The folks at Omnar went a little further with their rehousing, however, making the Pantessa in a way that it projects an enormous ~60mm image circle — which means it can work with medium format digital cameras.
This shot was made with the lens adapted to Fuji GFX 100ii.
It’s cool that this lens can work with a digital medium format camera. Those sensors are a bit smaller than some of the giant image areas medium format film will have, but that’s with a tiny pancake lens.
There are compromises, of course. The Fuji GFX 100ii sample above shows vignetting and fairly significant softening in the corners. Hasselblad X1D’s sensor also adds a purple-blue cast. But if you want a lens this light and this compact with your big digital camera, this would be the limiting factor with almost any optics you’ll throw at it.
Dmitri Dec 20, ‘24
Dmitri Dec 20, ‘24
Dmitri Dec 20, ‘24
Dmitri Dec 20, ‘24
Dmitri Dec 20, ‘24
Dmitri Dec 20, ‘24