Whenever the Phoblographer reports on something, we try to find what makes it unique. That’s especially the case for lenses, as there are so many of them on the market more or less being clones of one another. So when I asked what makes teh new Thypoch Simera 35mm f1.4 and 28mmm f1.4 lenses so unique, I was seriously shocked. “They feature the same optics as the Leica-M version,” said Joey Tsang to the Phoblographer in an email. He continued to state that they’re also much cheaper than the Leica M versions. And today, they’re announcing the lenses for other camera mounts.
That’s a bold statement — especially coming from a manufacturer. When we reviewed the Simera 35mm f1.4 for Leica M mount, we noted how gorgeous the image quality is. And when compared to the images in our Leica 35mm f1.4 M mount review, we can surely see similarities. “The Thypoch Simera 35mm f1.4 is a well-constructed head-turner, we stated in our review. “…while it can deliver some decent images at a price point for Leica that some might consider a steal, it’s a lens you must spend lots of time with to love…The sharpness doesn’t jump off the screen like you’ve come to expect and cherish from native Leica lenses.” Surely, that might change with using a new camera mount, right?
On comparing the optical formulas of the lenses, we found this to not be the case. The Simera 28mm has 11 elements in 7 groups, while Leica’s website says the 28mm f1.4 ASPH has 10 elements in 7 groups. But on the other hand, the 35mm lenses have the same optical formula of 10 elements in 5 groups. However, the Simera 35mm is lighter than Leica’s — which leads us to believe that it probably isn’t as sturdily constructed.
When we reviewed the Simera 35mm f1.4, we didn’t do any comparisons against the Leica variant. However, both lenses can exhibit nice flare and have vignetting which is part of the charm of the optics. But we’d be quite shocked if they’re indeed the same optics. We can conclude that the 28mm f1.4 isn’t the same though. As it is, the Leica 28mm f1.4 is one of my favorite lenses for the M mount. I’m sure it’s better than the 7Artisans variant, which we’ve also reviewed.
The news today, however, is that both of these lenses are coming out for Sony E mount, Canon RF mount, Nikon Z mount, and Fujifilm X mount. They’re also only going to cost $649. They’re basically clones of the M-mount version, but for other camera mounts. Unfortunately, there is no L-mount offering.
Chinese manufacturers have been viewed as copying lenses from other brands for years. And we can surely look down on them for that in some ways. But other brands did the same thing. Canon started out as a brand copying Nikon. Nikon started out as a brand copying Leica. Viltrox started out as a brand copying Sony. Pretty much all of the companies making lenses tend to source glass from either Cosina, Tamron, Sigma, or Hoya. Of course, there are some exceptions: Canon makes everything in-house from what we’ve always understood.
So why get the Simera lenses? Because you want Leica quality for cheaper — at least that’s what they’re claiming. And we haven’t seen many brands make such a strong, upfront claim. But here we are.