Setting the elements0%

HALDEN50mm · f/1.2

Chapter 00 — Halden 50 / 1.2

Built for the last ten minutes of light.

A hand-assembled 50mm f/1.2: twelve elements, eleven rounded blades and a focus ring you can feel in the dark.

Scroll to take it apart
  1. 01The GlassTwelve elements in nine groups, two of them ground aspherical.
  2. 02InsideA front group, a cemented doublet, the iris and a floating rear group.
  3. 03The IrisEleven rounded blades keep out-of-focus lights round.
  4. 04Made With ItThree frames made at f/1.2 after the sun went down.
  5. 05SpecificationEvery number, for the people who ask.
  6. 06The First RunFour hundred lenses, numbered on the mount.
01— The Glass

Twelve elements. Nine groups. One quiet image.

Most fast lenses trade sharpness for speed. The 50/1.2 is built around two ground aspherical elements and three of extra-low-dispersion glass, so it stays sharp wide open, right into the corners.

Every element is ground, polished and coated in our workshop, then set by hand into a brass helicoid. Finishing one lens takes a technician most of a day.

  • 12Elements
  • 09Groups
  • 02Aspherical
  • 03ED glass
02— Inside

Take it apart and it still makes sense.

A large front group gathers the light. A cemented doublet corrects colour. Behind the iris, a floating rear group moves on its own as you focus close, so the lens stays sharp at half a metre.

03— The Iris

Eleven blades, rounded, so the night stays round.

Stop down and the lights behind your subject stay circles, not polygons. At f/1.2 the opening is 42 mm across. At f/16 it is about the size of a grain of rice.

The aperture ring clicks in third stops. Turn one screw on the mount and it goes silent for film.

  • 11Blades
  • 1.2Widest
  • 16Narrowest
  • 1/3Stop clicks
04— Made With It

What it sees after sunset.

Three frames from our test roll, all made wide open at f/1.2, all after the light had mostly gone.

A night tram passing through rain, the city lights behind it melted into round highlights Night tram
Rain, 22:1001 / 03
Two pears on a linen cloth by a window at dusk, the background falling softly out of focus Still life
Window light, 19:4002 / 03
A harbour at blue hour, masts and distant lamps turned into soft circles over calm water Harbour
Blue hour, 20:0503 / 03
05— Specification

The numbers, for the people who ask.

Made in one focal length, in three mounts, in a first run of four hundred lenses.

  1. 01

    Optics 12 / 9

    Twelve elements in nine groups: two ground aspherical, three extra-low dispersion.

    Glass
  2. 02

    Aperture f/1.2 – f/16

    Eleven rounded blades, third-stop clicks, de-clickable at the mount.

    Iris
  3. 03

    Focus 0.45 m – ∞

    Three hundred degrees of throw on a damped brass helicoid. Floating rear group.

    Ring
  4. 04

    Body 480 g

    Brass and aluminium, satin black, 62 mm filter thread, 78 mm long.

    Build
  5. 05

    Mounts three

    L-mount, E-mount and a rangefinder-coupled M version.

    Fit

Chapter 06 — The first run

Fifty

The first run is four hundred lenses, each numbered on the mount. Reservations open on 1 November, and we will write to you when yours is on the bench.

Reserve a lens