Tremendous Six Reborn for Leica M

In the event you’ve ever chased that classic “Tremendous Six” look and given up as a result of the originals break the bank and barely mount cleanly on a contemporary physique, DK-Optic simply handed you one other route. The brand new DK-Optic Chiaro 1.5-inch f/1.9 is a from-scratch recreation of that legendary mid-Twentieth century British optic, constructed for native Leica M-mount and priced at $1,600.

🛒 DK-Optic Chiaro 1.5-inch (38mm) f/1.9
Worth: $1,600
The place to Purchase: DK-Optic

What DK-Optic truly copied

DK-Optic pitches the Chiaro as a duplicate moderately than a reinterpretation. The corporate says it stored the six-element, four-group association of the unique as an alternative of including the corrections a contemporary designer would attain for by default. Its personal advertising and marketing calls this a 1:1 restoration freed from “scientific” components, which is a roundabout method of claiming the quirks are the entire level.

That lineage traces again to J.H. Dallmeyer, the British maker whose Tremendous Six collection ran from 1 inch to eight inches, almost all at f/1.9, constructed on a double Gauss method and produced from roughly 1930 till someday within the Nineteen Seventies or early Nineteen Eighties, relying on which reference you belief. DK-Optic’s web page solely says “British Tremendous Six,” however Leica Rumors and PhotoRumors each identify the Dallmeyer Tremendous Six 1.5-inch f/1.9 as the precise ancestor right here. Surviving Tremendous Sixes now promote at collector costs, which is strictly the hole a recreation like that is aiming at.

The way it renders extensive open

Broad open at f/1.9, the promise is depth. DK-Optic describes a topic that reads as lifted away from its environment, with the falloff behind it going comfortable and swirled moderately than simply blurred, and that distinction is your complete cause a lens like this exists.

Cease it down and the corporate says the lens tightens up, gaining distinction and biting more durable because the aperture closes. Taken actually, which means you’re shopping for two moderately completely different lenses on one barrel, and which one you get comes all the way down to the place the ring sits.

A ten-blade diaphragm retains the opening rounded throughout the vary, which ought to assist out-of-focus highlights keep round as an alternative of turning into hard-edged shapes. All of that’s DK-Optic’s personal characterization moderately than measured outcomes, so the true query is how the lens behaves outdoors the corporate’s personal pattern photos.

Specs that matter

The DK-Optic Chiaro 1.5-inch f/1.9 covers 135 full body at 38mm, a focal size that sits simply extensive of regular and works for road and environmental portraits with out making you again up. Its aperture runs from f/1.9 to f/22 as a handbook preset with cinema-grade dampening, so the ring glides as an alternative of clicking by means of stops. There aren’t any digital contacts anyplace in that description, so every little thing from focus to aperture stays mechanical.

Minimal focus lands at 0.75m and it’s coupled for rangefinder use, in order that’s your sensible close-focus restrict on an M physique moderately than an tailored mirrorless one. The filter thread is 37mm on the physique, with 46mm and 49mm choices relying on the way you stack equipment. Bodily it’s 48mm lengthy with the hood mounted, 53mm at its widest, and roughly 188g, gentle sufficient that it received’t unbalance a compact rangefinder. You additionally decide between blue-coated and uncoated glass, which is a rendering choice moderately than a beauty one, and it’s the sort of alternative that probably exhibits up most in flare and distinction.

Construct, mount, and what’s within the field

That is the place DK-Optic leans on its cinema-lens background. The outer shell makes use of 7075 aluminum, the sunshine choice, whereas the transferring elements inside run on brass, the heavy one. That cut up appears to be like deliberate, providing you with a barrel that stays manageable on the digital camera and focus and aperture motion with actual mass behind it.

Meeting occurs by hand in DK-Optic’s personal store, with the brass elements lower on 5-axis CNC machines. The element the corporate pushes hardest is the glass, which it says was floor from decades-old inventory moderately than present manufacturing. That’s an uncommon factor to promote at this value, and it’s plainly meant to be the rationale you’d decide this over a contemporary equal.

The native M-mount issues greater than the spec sheet lets on. It means the lens {couples} with a rangefinder moderately than pushing you into dwell view, which is the entire level of shopping for M glass within the first place. You possibly can nonetheless adapt it to full-frame mirrorless our bodies with the correct adapter if that’s your system.

Within the field you get the lens, a precision metallic entrance cap, a vintage-style threaded metallic hood, a bamboo presentation field, and a one-year guarantee. The hood is removable and threads on, so you possibly can depart it off while you need a extra compact profile.

The case for and in opposition to

The strongest argument for the Chiaro is the mount. A real native Leica M match with actual rangefinder coupling is uncommon at this finish of the market, and it means you aren’t stacking adapters simply to chase a classic look. Add the aluminum and brass building, the hand meeting, and the low weight, and also you’re getting lots of bodily high quality for the cash.

The case in opposition to it’s simply as clear. At $1,600 you’re paying critical cash for a single rendering signature, with no autofocus and no digital coupling to fall again on. Delivery runs from China on a 7 to 14 enterprise day estimate, and DK-Optic says pre-order batches can take longer than that. The larger query is whether or not that look is well worth the outlay, and no spec sheet settles that one for you.

Worth and availability

DK-Optic sells the Chiaro instantly and ships worldwide from Shenzhen or Hong Kong by means of DHL, UPS, or FedEx, with an estimated 7 to 14 enterprise days in transit. It’s supplied in blue-coated and uncoated variations.

🛒 DK-Optic Chiaro 1.5-inch (38mm) f/1.9
Worth: $1,600
The place to Purchase: DK-Optic

For context on the place this sits within the vary, DK-Optic lists the 2-inch (51mm) Chiaro at $1,599 and the 3-inch (76mm) at $1,899. Leica Rumors and PhotoRumors have each printed a $100 off code, DKOPTIC202607, for DK-Optic’s M-mount lenses, although it isn’t on the product web page and the code reads like a July 2026 promotion. Deal with it as price attempting at checkout moderately than a assured low cost.