Lomography has unveiled its Kickstarter for the Atoll Ultra-Wide 17mm f / 2.8 Art Lens for Nikon Z, Canon RF, Sony E and Leica M-mount. The fully manual lens delivers very high promises for the price of $ 550.
The Lomography Atoll Ultra-Wide 2.8 / 17 Art lens (its official name) is a compact primary lens optimized for photos and videos with a helicoid focusing mechanism, a muted aperture, and a short focus lens. It is also provided with an included optical viewfinder mounted on a shoe.
The lens is made up of 13 ‘multiple’ elements arranged in 10 groups with an 8-blade aperture with a range of f / 2.8 to f / 22.
Lomography enables its ultra-wide lens to handle a range of tasks, from landscape and action to street and travel photography. The company claims that it is good for photos that are carefully focused, and are also ideal for wide, cattle shots without distortion.
The lens has a wide field of view of 103 degrees with ‘minimal distortion’, along with what the company calls ‘vibrant colors and strong contrast’. These colors are created by enhanced linear optics used by Lomography to provide ‘striking colors and beautiful saturation, even in low light situations.’
It has a narrow focal length of 0.1 meters (~ 3.9 inches) on Canon RF, Nikon Z and Sony E with a slightly further distance of 0.25 meters (~ 9.8 inches) with M-mount cameras. Speaking of M-mount, it is connected for digital and analog rangefinders. If nothing else, the number of lens mounting options that the lens offers prospective buyers is impressive.
To ensure that this amazing invention can be used with as many camera setups as possible, Lomography has cleverly designed it to work with Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony E cameras when the nearby lens base is fitted and the analog of the M Mountain and digital cameras when it is not. Voilà! Now you can reproduce iconic Lomography aesthetics across an impressive field of view using digital and analog cameras with just one compact primary lens.
Below are some examples of Lomography to showcase the lens’ capabilities:
Lomography is offering the lens for $ 150 off the final sale price “for the first 24 hours” of the Kickstarter. At the time of publication, the lens was therefore offered in all four lens details for $ 400. The final retail price, which is also the supposed Kickstarter price after the first day, will be $ 550. Lomography says it plans to ship the lens orders in August 2021.
Remember, as always, that Kickstarter is not a pre-order platform and that Lomography has successfully completed twelve previous crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, but with caution.