Meyer Optik Görlitz has made a name for itself in the photo community by reviving its antique lens formulas for today’s digital cameras. The Primoplan 75 F1.9 II ($999), for instance, snaps shots with striking defocused backgrounds, and sports a wider aperture with more refined optics than the company’s similar Trioplan 100 F2.8 II. If you love butterfly bokeh and don’t mind manual focus, the Primoplan is worth your time.
The Primoplan Optical Formula
Today’s Meyer Optik isn’t the same company that produced lenses throughout the 20th century. The brand was well known to photographers buying lenses back in the 1950s, but eventually fell into obscurity and simply wasn’t a player when digital photography went mainstream.
It enjoyed a rebirth a few years back by way of Kickstarter, with a series of lenses made with the same optical formulas from Meyer’s heyday. But it failed to fulfill all of its promises and went into insolvency with a good bit of drama, as reported at Petapixel.
The brand was then purchased by a German company, OPC Optics, and relaunched last year. It’s leaned into the brand’s history. German optics are highly regarded, and the Primoplan is built (and priced) to compete with Voigtländer and Zeiss. To reinforce its premium position, Meyer Optik delivers it in a plush-lined presentation box.
The Primoplan 75 F1.9 II is made with an optical formula similar to the one patented by Meyer Optik in 1936. It’s been refined to deliver clearer results on digital sensors, but retains its character. At it’s heart it’s still pretty basic when compared with modern lenses, a three-element design that Meyer bills as an enhanced take on the classic Cooke triplet optics used in its Trioplan line.
Images show similar character in the bokeh. Defocused highlights take on a rounded shape, and while you can still see the hard, bright edges associated with the soap bubble look when you catch metallic objects in the right light, highlight edges are generally a bit softer.
But soft doesn’t mean smooth and devoid of character. Backgrounds are still a bit busy; out-of-focus objects are drawn as rounded highlights, and tend to overlap one another. It’s especially evident when working in scenes with foliage behind your subject.
Meyer Optik refers to it as butterfly bokeh in marketing materials. It’s a term that’s new to me, but not a concept. The defocused areas of the image are very similar to the look you get from Leica Summicron lenses from the ’60s and ’70s.
The 75 II F1.9 is one of two Primoplans in the Meyer catalog. If you prefer a wider view than this 75mm edition captures, you can opt instead for the Primoplan 58 F1.9 II, priced at $899.
The lens is available for a number of different camera systems. If you own an SLR you can choose between Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K, or M42 universal thread mount editions.
Mirrorless system owners can get a version for Fujifilm X, Leica L, Micro Four Thirds, and Sony E cameras. Meyer doesn’t offer its lenses for Canon RF, Canon EOS M, or Nikon Z systems, but you can always use an SLR edition and the appropriate adapter.
There’s a version sold for Leica M rangefinders camera too, but note that the lens isn’t coupled for rangefinder focusing. Owners of digital models with support for live view focus will need to use the rear LCD or a Visoflex EVF to set focus.
Purely Mechanical
The Primoplan 75 is a purely mechanical lens. Optics are housed in an aluminum barrel, anodized in black. The version for SLRs measures 2.2 by 2.1 inches (HD) and weighs 10.6 ounces, while the mirrorless edition is a bit bigger, about 3.4 inches long and 12.7 ounces. A short aluminum lens hood is included that screws into the 52mm filter thread.
There’s no electronic communication with your camera, so you’ll need to enter in the focal length manually if you use a camera with in-body image stabilization, and toggle any sort of manual focus aid manually. On the mirrorless a7R IV, it’s just a matter of using a custom button to punch in for frame magnification.
The lens also omits weather sealing and anti-smudge protection on the glass, though it does include the typical anti-reflective protection you expect from a newer lens. Aperture control is silent, with a ring that turns without detents from f/1.9 through f/16. The 15-blade diaphragm closes down to a circle through the range in order to get rounded highlights.
Manual focus is buttery smooth and the throw is long, around 200 degrees, for precise adjustments. There is some visible change in frame size along with focus—the breathing effect makes the lens less useful for video shots with racks from one subject to another, but the bokeh makes it a good fit for artistic cutaways.
The lens focuses as close as 30 inches (0.75m). It’s a fine working distance for day-to-day shots, portraits, and even some close-ups of bigger subjects. It’s not nearly macro, though. The Primoplan 58 focus quite a bit closer (19.7 inches).
Sharper Than You’d Expect
I paired the Primoplan 75m 1.9 II with a couple of Sony cameras, the 12MP a7S III and 60MP a7R IV. I used both out in the field to make photos, and ran our standard resolution tests with the a7R IV and Imatest software.
Photos show a modest soft focus glow at f/1.9, but detail shines through, at least in the central area of the frame. Expect a bit of blur and aberrations when framing subjects toward the periphery.
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The soft character is gone at f/2.8, but the crispest area of focus is still restricted toward the middle of the frame—it’s in the good range for the a7R IV (3,500 lines). It’s very good at f/4 and the lens actually delivers excellent resolution (4,500 lines) from f/5.6 through f/8. You can set the f-stop as small as f/16 if you’d like.
Much of the character comes at wider apertures. To get the Primoplan look, you’ll want to use it at f/4 or wider—the bokeh takes on a harder, more defined character at f/5.6 and beyond.
What’s Old Is New Again
There’s nothing wrong with 21st century camera lenses. They’re made to capture the world in exquisite detail, blur backgrounds away into nothingness, and remove any imperfections. If you’re after that look, there are hundreds of lenses that get you there, many for less money than the Primoplan, and with the convenience of autofocus.
But that’s not always the look you want. There’s some charm to be found in optics from the early days of mass market photography. Optical formulas weren’t nearly as complex, with some lenses netting images that approach impressionistic. Certain antique lenses gain a reputation and are sought after on the used market. Old Primoplan lenses start around $400 and pristine examples can fetch thousands.
The Meyer Optic Görlitz Primoplan 75 F1.9 II revives one of those old lenses, making some tweaks to work better with digital cameras, and boasts freshly made components. You’ll pay for it handsomely, as it’s priced in line with other premium mechanical lenses from Voigtländer and Zeiss. But if you like the photos the Primoplan captures, this is a lens with plenty of charm.
