Using vintage lenses on digital camera bodies recreates some of that film aesthetic without giving up the benefits of digital — and the revived classic company Meyer Optik has another vintage favorite up its sleeves. The Meyer Optik Primoplan 75 II is the German-designed lens company’s second rendition of a classic 75mm lens known for creamy bokeh, but brings the lens to more mounts and cuts down the minimum focusing range for even more ability to fill the frame.
The P75 II contains many of the same features photographers loved about the first modern remake. The lens uses a maximum f/1.9 aperture combined with 14 aperture blades to bring back the original 1930s lens’ characteristic bokeh. The lens, Meyer Optik says, was known for the dream-like bokeh along with a smooth transition from the sharpness of the subject to the softness of the background, a characteristic that continues in the P75 II. Altering the distance between the subject and the camera or between the subject and the background allows the photographer to control the look of the bokeh from a smooth round shape to a more swirling effect.
The first remake launched and initially sold out earlier this year, which prompted the company to take another look at the lens. The P75 II uses a similar design and bokeh, but the lens will use a larger image circle, which will allow the company to sell the lens in a mount for the medium format Fujifilm GFX as well as mounts for most popular full-frame DSLRs and mirrorless cameras including Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, Leica and Pentax. The larger image circle, Meyer Optik says, also improves the color and contrast for 35mm bodies.
The updated lens also cuts the minimum focus distance by 30 percent to about 1.8 feet, allowing photographers to get closer to the subject. The lens also uses new coatings for more resistance to the environmental elements.
Like the first remake, the lens is inspired by the Primoplan lenses of the 1930s known for that same soft or swirling bokeh. While the company eventually went out of business, the Meyer Optik Gorlitz brand relaunched in 2014. Meyer Optik has also re-created the Primoplan 58mm and the Primagon 24mm, along with several others.
Meyer Optik is taking to Indiegogo to fund the P75 II — but as with the last lens, the company is having no trouble reaching its funding goals, and is now over 400 percent beyond the original goal with a month remaining in the campaign. The Fujifilm GFX mount needs at least 25 backers for that mount in order to be produced. If the manufacturing is successful in taking the lens from prototype stage to completed product, backers can pick up the lens for pledges starting at $649, with the lens expected to retail for $2,499. Shipping is expected for the fall of 2018. The first edition of the 75mm Primoplan is on sale now for $1,499.
