Lomography, a boutique photo brand with a deeply artistic spirit, is bringing an all-new lens to market today. The Atoll Ultra-Wide Art Lens is a 17mm f/2.8 for full-frame mirrorless camera systems. It’s available for pre-order now via a Kickstarter campaign, with deliveries slated for August 2021.
It’s an all-manual lens with a native design for Leica M rangefinder cameras. If you own a Canon RF, Nikon Z, or Sony E mirrorless, you’ll get the appropriate adapter along with the lens. Lomography isn’t offering adapters for other systems, but they are readily available for Fujifilm X, L-mount, and Micro Four Thirds cameras.
The Atoll’s 17mm focal length captures a wide view, about 103 degrees, on a full-frame system. It’s a rectilinear optical design, so you won’t see fish-eye distortion, with the ability to focus very close. The lens itself focuses to about 9.8 inches (0.25m), but can get a bit closer (3.9 inches / 0.1m) when paired with the included Close-Up adapter.
Rangefinder coupled focus is available, too, a plus for photographers looking for a wide lens for a 35mm Leica M6. An external optical viewfinder is included—the built-in viewfinder on an M camera isn’t wide enough to show what the lens sees. You’ll have to do some guesswork when focusing close with a film camera, a fact of life with an optical viewfinder system, but many digital models offer live view focus.
Lomography isn’t just touting the Atoll as a photo lens. Manual focus lenses are popular for video, and the wide view and close focus can set shots apart from those captured with other lenses. The aperture control ring is dampened for quiet operation and the lens can be used in conjunction with follow focus systems.
The Atoll Ultra-Wide Art Lens is available on Kickstarter starting today. Lomography is offering early bird pricing, $399, for the first 24 hours of orders. The Atoll will sell for $549 when it goes on general sale in August.
