“The Leitz ELSIE lenses have a lovely warmth to them and resolve beautifully. Contrast was consistent throughout the set even on the widest focal length, a tricky feat in wide lenses offering full frame coverage.”
Eve Cohen
Character by Design
The Leitz ELSIE lenses are purpose-built for cinematography with character-rich, beyond full frame performance to serve a broad range of productions. They exhibit a gentle fall off of focus, resolution, and illumination toward the edges of the frame that draws the viewer’s attention toward the subject creating a dimensional feel that is more pronounced than the lenses in our Performance series, but more subtle than the more extreme lenses in our Legacy series. Their warm color temperature makes sure that talent looks beautiful and colors remain accurate.
The ELSIE lenses offer cinematographers a look with personality, but without getting boxed into something too intense or limiting in scope. While the lenses can exhibit dynamic lenticular flares wide open, they can be controlled easily by stopping down so that scenes with windows and hot practical sources are easily manageable.
They exhibit a relatively high contrast which combines with their unique focus fall off to create separation that gives the appearance of a faster lens without the drawbacks of working at an ultra-fast aperture. The bokeh quality was fine-tuned in conjunction with Leica Camera to be smooth yet maintain structure to out-of-focus elements that maintains a sense of place without sacrificing the feeling of depth, separation, and dimensionality.
Built for Cinematography
Designed from the ground up to be cinematography lenses, the Leitz ELSIE primes feature many of the technical attributes expected from professional lenses. Available only in LPL mount and including /i metadata, the large set of 13 primes from 15 mm to 150 mm are all T2.1 and come in consistent sizes with matched focus and iris ring positions for quick lens changes. The LEITZ ZOOMs make an ideal pairing when looking for companion zoom lenses.
Designed by our optical engineers and hand assembled at our factory in Germany, the ELSIE lenses embody the mechanical precision and technical accuracy as well as the human touch that Leitz lenses are known for.
Who is Elsie?
The name ELSIE is inspired by lifelong humanitarian Elsie Kühn-Leitz, daughter of Ernst Leitz II, who championed the oppressed and suffering and risked her own life to help them. During World War II Elsie and her family helped save the lives of hundreds of their employees and fellow citizens by sending them out of the country. Her efforts to alleviate the suffering of Ukrainian forced laborers during the war landed her in jail, but her spirit persisted and after the war she continued to dedicate her life to improving the lives of others.
Shot with ELSIE
Check out these short films that were all shot on our LEITZ ELSIE Lenses
Night in Skopje
IRIOMOTE_The lights, winds of "Warp and Weft"
Compare Leitz Lenses
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Technical Specifications
Focal Length | 15 mm | 18 mm | 21 mm | 25 mm | 29 mm | 35 mm | 40 mm | 50 mm | 65 mm | 75 mm | 100 mm | 125 mm | 150 mm |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aperture | T2.1 | ||||||||||||
Image Circle | 46.5 mm | ||||||||||||
Close Focus (ft) | 1'2" | 1'2" | 1'2" | 1'2" | 1'2" | 1'2" | 1'2" | 1'8" | 2'2" | 2'6" | 2'10" | 4'2" | 5' |
Close Focus (m) | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.5 | 0.65 | 0.75 | 0.85 | 1.25 | 1.5 |
Horizontal angle of view "Full Frame" 36 mm x 24 mm | 100.4° | 90° | 81.2° | 71.5° | 63.7° | 54.4° | 48.5° | 39.6° | 31° | 27° | 20.4° | 16.4° | 13.7° |
Horizontal angle of view "Super 35" 24.9 mm x 18.7 mm | 79.4° | 69.3° | 61.3° | 59.2° | 46.5° | 39.1° | 34.6° | 28° | 21.7° | 18.8° | 14.2° | 11.4° | 9.5° |
Weight (lb) | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 5.3 | 5.3 |
Weight (kg) | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 2 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
Length (in / mm) | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 | 6.3" / 160 |
Lens Mount | LPL with Cooke /i | ||||||||||||
Front Diameter | 114 mm | 114 mm | 114 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 114 mm | 114 mm |
Front Filter | No filter thread | No filter thread | No filter thread | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 92 mm x 1 mm screw-in | M 112 x 1.5 screw-in | M 112 x 1.5 screw-in |
Rear Filter | Via Net Holder (expect 15 mm) | ||||||||||||
Matched Focus/Iris Ring Locations | All focal lengths | ||||||||||||
Focus Rotation | Iris Rotation | 270° | 51.45° | ||||||||||||
Focus Scales | Turnable scales, easy change from imperial to metric | ||||||||||||
Iris Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades | 13 Blades | 13 Blades | 15 Blades | 15 Blades |
Iris Shape | Circular through all stops |
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