Legendary Biotar 75 F/1.5 Is Making A Return

Bringing legendary vintage lenses back to life is a trend that seems to be continuing with the Biotar 75/1.5 lens now popping up on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. 

The lens has a reputation for producing beautiful, swirly bokeh and even though very few were originally manufactured, the lens quality is so impressive, people are still paying quite considerable amounts of money to own one. 

The new version of the lens, which is much more reasonably priced, is being redesigned by 'Oprema Jena' under the leadership of Dr. Stefan - a name you may recognise from a Meyer-Optik Trioplan 100mm f/2.8 resurrection story we covered last year. 

"The Biotar 75 is legendary but it was our goal to maintain the exact Biotar characteristics while carefully improving the mechanical aspects and making it feasible for modern camera equipment and different mounts," says the team behind the new lens. 

The original lens was capable of producing images that were pin-sharp in the centre but framed by distinctive swirling bokeh and Oprema Jena has worked hard to reproduce this in the new version of the lens, along with the lens offering crystal-clear, overall sharpness when used at f/5.6 or f/8.

As well as how the lens performs, the team have paid close attention to how it looks, giving it a finish that's much more like the one from the 1930s rather than the later version that had a straighter silhouette.

"The goal was not to create a 'looks like a famous vintage lens' but to follow the legendary imaging abilities of the Biotar and gently change the mechanical design of the lens to reach a more modern, but still classic design that pays respect to this legend," say the team on their Kickstarter page. 

The 15 aperture blades of the new Biotar still create the famous swirly bokeh and are constructed from steel. They also feature an anti-reflective coating so problems with reflections the original lens faced won't occur. 

The lens will be available with mounts for Canon, Nikon, Sony-E Leica-M (rangefinder coupling supported.), FujiX, M42 and the Pentax-K. Units will start shipping this summer and backers can pay $949 to secure their lens purchase today. Although, the Kickstarter campaign is already a huge success with the team securing 4x their original goal. 

Here are some example images captured with the Biotar 75/1.5: 

(Via DPReview)