The Panomicron Bismuth Anamorphic Leica M mount Lens is a 50mm lens, with an aperture of f/2.8. It has a 1.5x anamorphic squeeze ratio, so it will have a horizontal field of view similar to a 33.3mm lens (technically, it varies between 1.6x and 1.45x, so 1.525 average, to be exact).
The lens is designed for Leica M-mount cameras and is rangefinder coupled. Before you get overly excited, this lens is an experimental product, and it was designed entirely by Oscar Oweson. He will assemble it by himself (and maybe with some help if there is a huge demand) in his workshop. With this in mind, please understand that this is, for all intents and purposes, a small production artisanal product, so you should manage your expectations accordingly.
Oscar has been designing cameras as a hobby under the name Panomicron for close to a decade now. He has built a fair few cameras, from X-Pan style panoramas, to 6×7 Rangefinders. About two years ago, he launchedhis first product ever, an anamorphic 1.33x adapter called the Alum. After spending the last year teaching himself optical design, he’s now taking the next step and building his own lens from scratch. Oscar has been working on and off on this lens for about 9 months.
The lens is an experimental project born out of Oscar’s personal curiosity and interest in seeing an anamorphic lens designed specifically for rangefinder cameras. He wants to try something no one has done before.
Key features
- 50mm f/2.8, Elcan (Sonnar) derivative design
- Anamorphic Squeeze Ratio of 1.45-1.6x (avg. 1.55x over 1m)
- f/2.8 – f/22, de-click-able aperture.
- infinity – 0.7m focusing range
- Leica M Mount
- Rangefinder Coupled
- 52mm front filter threads
- 67mm length from mount, 74mm total.
- 7 elements in 7 groups, 1 anomalous partial dispersion lens
- Multicoated for the visible spectrum
- 36x24mm coverage, may cover beyond.
The Bismuth is based on the 50mm Elcan lens, developed by Edwards, Mandler and Wagner at Leitz Canada in the late 1960s. They developed a version of the Sonnar design with all high-index glasses to be able to achieve a very compact and high-speed 50mm lens that could come close to the performance of double Gauss designs with only 4 elements, and no doublets.
The Bismuth borrows this design idea, but reduces the speed slightly to f/2.8, to improve manufacturability and to keep the size small after the addition of the anamorphic group. The lens focuses entirely internally and does not change size throughout the focus range. There is also a more unusual and modern concept, a 90-degree rotated cylinder at the rear. This helps to counteract the loss of squeeze induced by changing the spacing of the front anamorphic while focusing.
Oscar designed the lens to be made entirely from glass sourced from the Japanese manufacturer Ohara, and it uses almost exclusively exotic glass types to achieve this speed and performance at this diminutive size. Ohara is one of the largest glass manufacturers and provides glass for almost all of the big names.
The lens features a single focusing ring that goes from infinity to 0.7m and is rangefinder coupled for the Leica M system. It has an aperture ring that goes from f/2.8 to f/22 in half-stop increments. The aperture has click stops and is de-clickable through a small adjustment screw on the mount.
The lens utilises a cam-based design to move the focusing group, instead of a helicoid system.
The Panomicron Bismuth Anamorphic Leica M mount Lens is a Kickstarter project. Oscar is trying to raise $100,182 by the 24th of November. Please remember that crowdfunding products come with no guarantees, so please use your best judgement when decideing to back a product.
Expected Timeline Prototype
Campaign Ends Late Nov 2025
Production Dec 2025 – Feb 2026
Assembly March-April 2026
Delivery June-July 2026
