Leitz HUGO Full-Frame Cinema Primes Introduced

Lens News

by Francesco AndreolaSeptember 6^th, 2022

German lens manufacturer Leitz has just unveiled a new set of high-end full-frame cinema lenses, the HUGO series. It will initially consist of seven T1.5 focal lengths, ranging from 21 up to 90mm, plus a 50mm T1.0. The 7-piece kit is priced at €107,300.

Before we dive into the technical specs of these new HUGO lenses, here’s a little curiosity. If you’re wondering where this new family of cinema primes gets its name from, it’s soon explained. Indeed, the Leitz HUGO lenses pay homage to Hugo Wehrenfennig, the engineer behind the M bayonet system.

According to Leitz, this new set of glass inherits the look of existing Leica M lenses. Particularly, the optical design is inspired by that of Leitz M 0.8 glass, but the new HUGO lenses should offer better build quality and operability. So let’s take a closer look!

Leitz HUGO: T1.5 and T1.0 full-frame lenses

Initially, the series will consist of 7 fast lenses, all sharing the same 11-blade circular aperture of T1.5, plus a light-starving 50-N mm T1.0. These will be joined by an 18 and 135mm at a later date. Hence, upon launch, the lineup will look like this:

• 21mm T1.5
• 24mm T1.5
• 28mm T1.5
• 35mm T1.5
• 50mm T1.5
• 75mm T1.5
• 90mm T1.5
• 50-N mm T1.0

Available lens mount options include LPL, L, and of course M mount. The series is designed to cover full-frame sensors (image circle: 43.3mm) and comes with good close focus capabilities. Indeed, the close focus distance of the 21 and 24mm is set at 0.3m/1ft.

Size, weight, and design

Lightness and compactness are the core of the new Leitz HUGO primes. The lightest lens in the series is the 35mm T1.5, which weighs 0.81kg/1.78lbs. Not much for a fast lens of this kind. The length of the barrel ranges between 68mm/2.7” and 112mm/4.4”. Next to a Sony VENICE 2, the 24mm looks crazy compact.

The build quality of the new HUGO primes show outperform that of existing Leitz M 0.8 glass. The lenses come with an improved cinematic housing with unified position of focus and iris rings across the whole series. They offer long focus and iris throws (270° and 70.5° respectively), have a standard front diameter of 95mm, and can accommodate 92mm screw-on front filters.

Price and availability

The official retail price of the 7-piece Leitz HUGO kit is €107,300, while the super fast 50-N mm T1.0 will retail for €18,900. Finally, the company also announced that in the future users will be able to have their M 0.8 lenses converted to a HUGO design. However, the price of this service is still unknown.

For more information, please visit Leitz’s website here.

How do you like the look of Leitz M 0.8 lenses? What do you think of the new Leitz HUGO series? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!