Development of the Kistar 40mm f/2.4 lens for Leica M cameras

The Japanese company Kinoshita Optical has announced the development of a Kistar 40mm f / 2.4 lens for the Leica M mount. A similar lens has already been released for Sony E. The optical design of a Tessar type lens with 4 elements in 3 groups.

The manufacturer says that many are no longer impressed by today’s sharp and boring lenses, so they decided to release a 40mm pancake lens for everyday shooting, which brings not only softness to the picture, but also a certain vintage look.


Kistar 40mm F2.4 for M mount


Appearance of the Kistar 40mm F2.4 in M-mount According to the company, in the M-mount version, the lens barrel has become slightly smaller

Kistar 40mm F2.4 sectional view. Optical construction type Tessar with 4 elements in 3 groups

To talk in words about the soft drawing that the lens provides is fundamentally wrong, so it makes sense to cite the official photographs provided by the manufacturer. However, the lens for the Leica M is still under development, so we can evaluate sample images captured with a similar lens for the Sony E. The Leica M version will probably have a similar pattern.


α7R IV + Kistar 40mm F2.4, Aperture Priority AE, F2.4, 1/5000 second, ISO 100, AWB, RAW


α7R IV + Kistar 40mm F2.4, Aperture Priority AE, F2.4, 1/320 second, + 0.7EV, ISO 100, AWB, RAW


α7R IV + Kistar 40mm F2.4, aperture priority AE, F2.4, 1/3200 second, ISO 100, AWB, RAW

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