The Leica M system has never been short of interesting third-party glass, but this might be one of the more unusual new options to appear in a while. Lailens has released its new 35mm f/3.5 lens for Leica M-mount cameras, nicknamed “The White Queen,” and it is now available to buy through eBay for $599.
There is a catch, though: only 299 examples are being made, so this is very much another small-production lens aimed at photographers who want something a little different on the front of their M camera.
Rather than chasing modern sharpness charts and increasingly complicated optical formulas, Lailens has looked firmly backwards for inspiration. The 35mm f/3.5 pays tribute to a classic British Dallmeyer 35mm f/3.5 design, with Lailens reportedly disassembling two original lenses before reproducing the optical structure and its imaging characteristics at a 1:1 ratio. It is an increasingly familiar approach among smaller M-mount lens manufacturers, where the objective is not necessarily to create the technically “perfect” lens, but to recreate some of the character that made older optics interesting in the first place.
That vintage influence is certainly obvious from the outside. The White Queen has a silver metal barrel paired with a gold-colored aperture ring, giving it an appearance that should feel perfectly at home on both classic film bodies and modern digital M cameras. Focusing is entirely manual, as you would expect, with Lailens emphasizing the mechanical feel of the focus ring as part of the overall experience. This is not trying to disguise itself as a modern Leica lens; its slightly eccentric styling is really part of the appeal.
Optically, you are getting a 35mm focal length with an aperture range of f/3.5 through f/22 and an Anastigmat-derived design. Minimum focusing distance is listed at 0.6 meters, while the lens accepts particularly small 23.5mm filters. It is designed to cover full-frame 35mm cameras, making it a natural match for the Leica M system, whether you are shooting one of the latest digital bodies or something considerably older.
Of course, f/3.5 is hardly fast by modern 35mm standards. Leica shooters can choose from plenty of f/2 and f/1.4 alternatives if maximum light gathering or extremely shallow depth of field is the priority. But I suspect that rather misses the point of a lens like this. The attraction here is its size, mechanical simplicity, limited-production nature, and most importantly the promise of an older optical character recreated for photographers who do not want every image rendered with clinical modern perfection.
And at $599, it is also entering the Leica M world at a price considerably below many first-party Leica lenses. The Lailens 35mm f/3.5 “White Queen” is currently listed through eBay, with production limited to just 299 pieces worldwide. Whether its vintage-inspired rendering can live up to its wonderfully unusual appearance remains to be seen, but in a market increasingly filled with technically exceptional lenses, there is something rather refreshing about a new piece of glass whose biggest selling point might simply be character.
