The Leitz Elsie primes will be priced around €19,000 / $22,200 USD per lens. A cornerstone of their work is the partnership with local communities to adapt solutions for their local conditions and create jobs by training community members to continue the work after they are done. Translated as “Engineers Without Borders”, the German-based organization works with communities in need across the globe to provide technical assistance and secure basic supplies for people in the areas of water and sanitation, energy, building and bridge construction, and others. In honor of her work helping others, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar will be donating a portion of the proceeds from this line of lenses to the non-profit charity Ingenieure ohne Grenzen. After the war, she was active with other charitable groups in Africa and Europe. She also secretly provided food and aid to forced laborers installed by the Nazis at the Leitz factory before being caught and imprisoned by the Gestapo. Elsie risked her life during WWII helping Jewish employees of her father’s company and their families escape Germany. The lenses are named after the daughter of Ernst Leitz II, Elsie Kühn-Leitz. Lens designs have always followed camera formats and Leitz expects that other lens companies will follow their lead. Leitz believes that cameras with shallow flange depths and interchangeable mounts are the future of cinematography. According to Rainer Hercher, Managing Director at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar, Leitz chose to anchor its design to the LPL mount specification to create smaller and faster optics while still maintaining the Leitz standard in both image quality and mechanics. It is interesting to see that the Elsie lenses will only be available in LPL mount. They also feature a noticeable but gradual falloff of resolution and illumination as the image approaches the corners to create a dimensional pop that gently draws the viewer‘s eye toward the center of the frame.Īll of the lenses feature a 270° focus throw and an aperture rotation of 51.45°. The lenses are also said to incorporate the warmth and resolution that Leitz lenses are known for.
Other FeaturesĪccording to Leitz, the Elsie series features a new aperture design so that the bokeh more closely resembles that of the M lenses. The average weight is around 4.4 lb / 2kg. The Elsie lenses measure 6.3” / 160mm) in length and most of the focal lengths feature a 95 mm front diameter. Leitz has a long history of making cine primes such as the SUMMILUX-C, SUMMICRON-C, THALIA, and LEITZ PRIME. All of the lenses feature a consistent aperture of T2.1.
The Leitz Elsie lenses come in 13 different focal lengths, ranging from 15mm up to 150mm. Leitz has announced its new Elsie range of full-frame cine prime lenses.