Lomography Atoll 17mm f/2.8 Art
Intro
Lomography is a company dedicated to analog and experimental photography. They’re primarily known for instant cameras, film stocks like Lomo Metropolis and Lomo 400/800, and vintage lenses.
It was to my surprise that this company forayed into creating premium ultra-wide optics with the Atoll 17mm f/2.8 Art Lens. This lens was initially a kickstarter campaign that eventually became a full-time product on Lomography’s shop.
The Atoll 17mm f/2.8 Art lens is specifically designed for Leica M-Mount rangefinders and mirrorless cameras such as the Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Sony FE cameras. The lens is a native Leica M mount lens so a separate adapter is necessary to use with your mirrorless camera, which is widely available and in-stock on Lomography’s shop. I used my Voigtlander M-E Close Focus Adapter for this review.
The Atoll Ultra-Wide 17mm f/2.8 is significant and quite unique considering that there aren’t any Leica M mount lenses that matches the profile of this lens. It’s rangefinder coupled, ultra-wide at 17mm, and has a max wide aperture of f/2.8. You won’t find a lens that has all these qualities for the M Mount and definitely not at the pricepoint of $499.00 USD!
Worth mentioning that the lens comes in amazing packaging. You’ll want to hold onto the box it comes with as it contains some very cool booklets. Rather than just supplying warranty or manual pamphlets, Lomography included a booklet containing photos by other professional photographers and even provided tips on how to effectively use this lens.
Specs
Focal Length: 17mm
Leica M Mount (Full Frame) Can be adapted to Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Sony FE with an adapter.
Minimum Focus Distance: 25cm/.25m (10cm/.10m with a Close Focus Adapter)
Max Aperture: f/2.8
Minimum Aperture: f/22
Optics: 13 multicoated elements in 10 groups; 8 Diaphragm Blades
Weight: 445.6g (Without Lens Cap)
Dimensions (Diameter x Length) 73mmx79mm
Filter Size: 67mm
Weather Proofing: None
Price: $499.00 USD
Build Quality
As with most wide lenses that can open up to f/2.8, the Lomography Atoll 17mm f/2.8 Art lens is quite hefty. It’s not the heaviest ultra-wide lens I’ve ever used, but it’s quite large by rangefinder lens standards. The lens has an all metal construction consisting of anodized aluminum. It has a built in petal-style hood, clickless aperture ring, and a buttery-smooth focus ring. Overall, I’m quite impressed with the build quality that Lomography committed to here. They easily could have gone with cheaper material, but the construction rivals other Leica M rangefinder lenses out there.
There is a marked “hyperfocal point” indicator with a sharp red line that is intended to line up with f/5.6 to indicate hyperfocal distance. This just means that anything at .9 meters to infinity will be in focus. Quite handy if you’re doing street photography or just looking to get rapid shots without having to focus through the viewfinder. Personally, I kept this lens at the hyperfocal point for 75% of shots that I took , except for some late-night portrait shots.
The aperture ring is “clickless”, meaning that it won’t stop at each demarcated aperture number. This is useful for any video creators out there, but tends to get quite annoying since it’s very easy to accidentally bump the aperture ring without noticing.
The focus ring is incredibly smooth and dampened. The lens hood is built in (like many ultra-wide lenses) and seems to do a decent job at preventing flaring.
There is a slim 67mm filter thread for any filters you might want to use, but I don’t think it’s of any practical use. The filter threads are very thin and none of my 67mm filters could fit within the diameter of the lens hood. Even if you manage to fit a filter in there, it might be impossible to unscrew or turn your filter if you’re using a VND or CPL. I’d advise against using a filter with this lens. The filter thread is there as an option but it seems like it wasn’t built with the idea of proper spacing for a filter.
Overall, surprisingly well built and not too many complaints here.
Since most rangefinder cameras don’t have framelines as wide as 17mm, Lomography was kind enough to supply an external viewfinder that comes with the lens. If you’ve read other reviews about this lens and viewfinder, you’ll hear some complaints that the viewfinder is cheaply made. It definitely doesn’t have the premium build quality of the lens itself, as it’s build out of cheap plastic. I don’t have too many comments here as I think it gets the job done in terms of providing a field of view. I had the lens on my Voigtlander Bessa R4A, which can go as wide as 21mm in the rangefinder window, so I just guessed the approximate frame lines without the external viewfinder.
Performance
This lens is best used for dramatic architectural shots or environmental portraiture. Focal lengths below 20mm will naturally have abnormal distortion in all areas of the frame, so you have to be a bit more cognizant of your composition and subject matter.
I took this lens to The Metropolitan Museum in New York as the museum has very dramatic architecture and incredible open spaces. The lens performed quite well and I wasn’t disappointed with the shots I was getting. I shot with my Sony A7IV and a Voigtlander M-E Close Focus Adapter and turned on Focus Peaking to aid manual focusing.
I also attempted some environmental portraiture in the evening which proved to be a bit more difficult. At f/2.8, the aperture is wide and great for relatively low-light situations, but I still had some noise in my images. Struggling to focus at f/2.8 informed me that peak sharpness is most likely achieved at f/4 or f/5.6 as there was quite a few soft and out-of-focus images wide open.
I’m typically shooting landscape at ultra-wide focal lengths, but trying architectural shots and dramatic ultra-wide portraits was an incredibly fun experience. I’d highly recommend anyone that likes to shoot wide street or travel photography to try out this lens.
The images shown above are from the portrait session and there were many photos that surprised me (in a good way!). Although I was at a high ISO for the outdoor shots, the images very much exceeded my expectations. The image is sharp in the center and encounters blurriness and vignetting toward the edges but that’s to be expected when shooting ultra-wide focal lengths. The only optical performance that was “disappointing” was the flaring when shooting against backlit subjects. They aren’t the most egregious lens flares I’ve seen, but I’m mentioning them here since I should talk about some drawbacks of this lens.
You’ll see some flaring occurring in the corners of the frame. They only occurred in a few photos so I didn’t think it was much of a big deal. Overall, the lens actually has a decent coating on the glass elements.
Sample Images
Click on the photo to view a larger image.
Final Thoughts
This is the most unique Leica M Mount lens in the ultra-wide focal lengths. No other M Mount rangefinder lens in the 10-20mm range has the same qualities as the Lomography Atoll 17mm f/2.8 Art lens. Most M Mount lenses in the ultra-wide range are f/4.5 or f/5.6 on the wide end and the closest lens to the Lomo Atoll is the Zeiss Distagon 15mm f/2.8 ZM. This lens comes in at a whopping $4750 USD and isn’t even rangefinder coupled.
If you’re looking for an ultra-wide M Mount lens that provides an external viewfinder, look no further and pick up the Lomography Atoll 17mm f/2.8 Art lens.
Pros:
Focal Length
Rangefinder Coupled
All-Metal Construction
Dampened focus ring and aperture ring
Decent image performance
Built-in Lens Hood
Premium Packaging, supplied with helpful guides
Cons:
Focus might be hard to achieve at wide apertures
Clickless aperture ring means you’ll be accidentally moving your aperture
Large and metal so it’s heavier than standard rangefinder lenses
External Viewfinder is cheap plastic
Other Comments:
I love to test more affordable lenses and I’m quite serious about money spent on gear actually providing quality images. This lens is currently $499 USD on the Lomography store and the Close Focus Adapter is $120. This is a very affordable wide angle M Mount option considering the closest lens that can compare to the Lomo Atoll is the Zeiss Distagon 15mm f/2.8 ZM which is almost $5000 USD.
Rating: 4.5/5
I give this lens a very high score due to it’s unique lens profile, premium build quality, and decent optical performance.