A Star is Born - a photo on Flickriver

A Star is Born

            Thypoch is a Chinese company with a long history in cinema, but a new entrant to 35mm photography. Their three prior lenses marketed under the Simera line, comprised 28mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4 fast primes. Each of these lenses generated growing positive reviews.

Since I already own three superb lenses at these focal lengths that I have no intention of changing (Voigtlander 28mm f/1.5 Nokton and 28mm f/2 Ultron II, Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon ZM, and Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M 2023 version), I did not pay much attention to the Thypoch lenses. But I did take note that these Thypoch lenses were getting good reviews.

Then Thypoch introduced its Simera 75mm f/1.4. The only two lenses in this focal length that I had previously tried were the old Walter Mandler Leica 75mm f/1.4 Summilux-M (a lens that I strongly disliked for its soft and ghostly rendering) and the modern Leica 75mm f/2 APO Summicron-M, which is a very good lens.

I sold my Leica 75mm f/2 APO Summicron after buying the more compact and practical Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 Apo Skopar, which I then replaced with the brilliant Voightlander 90mm f/2 Apo Ultron. But I did miss the 75mm focal length and I was debating if I should buy another used Leica 75/2 APO Summicron-M.

Then Thypoch came out with the 75mm f/1.4 priced at a modest $829 in the USA. However, I was quite surprised to see B&H Photo had four of these lenses in its used department. The lens has not been around long enough to even have a used market!

Still, the used prices were like $150-200 cheaper, so I ordered one. It was horribly out of sync with the rangefinder on my Leica M11 camera, which I know is working flawlessly. So the problem was with the lens. I still took 100+ test shots using the EVF, and I was very impressed by the sharpness of the lens where focused even at f/1.4, even with the subject placed in a corner. There was zero doubt that this was exceptional optics.

There was another problem: it was very hard to put on or take out the lens hood. It took me over ten minutes(!) of fidgeting with it to finally put the lens hood on.

So there was a problem with the lens, but I thought the reason it ended up in the B&H Photo used department was probably because of the problems I ran into. So I ordered all the three remaining used lenses B&H Photo had, thinking I would pick the best.

Amazingly all these lenses had the exact same two problems: they were badly decoupled with the RF on my M11, which I knew to be 100% good, and they all had a problem with their lens hoods. Still, every one of them delivered lovely images when I used it with the EVF.

So I returned all four used lenses, and ordered a brand new one, paying the full price. To my amazement and delight, the new lens had solved both problems I saw in the used copies. The RF coupling on this lens was spot on accurate for subjects ranging from minimum focusing distance to infinity. Also, the lens hood was very easy to put on and take off.

So the fifth time was a charmer. This is an amazing lens and after some 300+ test shots, I’ve been very pleased with it. this one is a keeper!

Taken on: May 6, 2025

Tags:

Thypoch

75mm

Leica

M11

M10

Prasad

royprasad

F1.4

bokeh

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Sets appears in: • Thypoch Simera 75mm

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