Omnar CX38-28 Matte Silver Special Edition

The Omnar CX38-28 Matte Silver Special Edition is a M-mount lens for Leica rangefinder cameras. Leica price index ↗

Reference maintained by Thomas Boots

Model number(s): CX38-28

Focal Length: 38mm

Aperture: 𝑓/2.8

Release Year (from): 2024

Diameter: 51 mm

Length: 17 mm

Minimum Focus Distance: 0.45m

Elements in Groups: 5/3

Aperture Blades: 7

Mount: M

Material Weight: Brass, 120g

https://omnarlenses.com/

Omnar CX38-28 Matte Silver Special Edition

The Omnar CX38-28 takes the Carl Zeiss 38mm f/2.8 Sonnar built into the Contax T and T2 compact cameras and gives it a second life as a fully manual, rangefinder coupled Leica M lens. [1] The conversion keeps only the original glass elements, their carriages and the donor aperture blade assembly, discarding the camera's leaf shutter, circuit boards, ribbon cables and plastic spacers, and rehouses the retained optics in a newly designed brass optical block and barrel. [1][2] The Matte Silver Special Edition is the silver chrome finish offered alongside the matte black and high-gloss black with antique brassing versions of the same lens, a small-batch product designed, machined, hand painted and hand assembled in the UK by Omnar Lenses, the collaboration between 35mmc and Skyllaney Opto-Mechanics. [1]

In its rehoused form the lens is a 5-element Sonnar pancake that protrudes only 17 mm from the camera, weighs 120 g, and carries an E40.5 filter thread integrated into the same component as the aperture control ring to save space. [1] It is rangefinder coupled from 0.65 m to infinity with a short focus throw, and offers an uncoupled close-focus extension down to 0.45 m. [1] The barrel uses an all-brass helicoid for a medium-weight focus feel. [1] Omnar describes the effective focal length as roughly 37.5 mm, which the maker notes is a close match to the Leica M4 to M6 era 35 mm frame lines while remaining easy to use with any 35 mm frame line. [1] Because the Sonnar's image circle exceeds 60 mm, the new optical block was given a baffle opening starting at the rear element so that the full circle passes unobstructed, allowing the lens to be adapted not only to mirrorless bodies but also to Fuji GFX and Hasselblad XCD digital medium format, where it behaves like a 29 mm f/2.2 equivalent. [1][2]

Identification is straightforward given how few were made. The first production batch comprised 17 lenses in total, including two prototypes, one production test lens and two lenses built for regular customers, leaving 12 production examples split as eight matte black, two silver and two high-gloss black with antique brass. [1] The conversion also required two slightly different internal optical block designs depending on whether the donor glass came from a Contax T1 or a T2, since the two cameras share the same optics but differ in the shape of their element carriages and aperture assemblies. [2]

Optical qualities

Rendering The CX38-28 carries the rendering of the original T* coated Zeiss Sonnar formula. The maker reports good sharpness, strong colour, smooth bokeh and pronounced three-dimensional separation, with performance on Leica film bodies said to match the lens in its original Contax housing but with added manual control. [1]

Distortion and vignetting Because the conversion preserves the full 60 mm image circle, there is no hard mechanical vignetting on full-frame use, and the design covers the larger 44 by 33 mm medium format sensor without dark corners. [1][2]

Digital use On Leica digital rangefinders the lens is reported to work without colour shift into the corners, though some field curvature can produce corner softness on bodies with thicker sensor stacks. [1] On medium format, the older 50 MP front-side-illuminated Sony IMX161 sensor used in the Fuji GFX50 and Hasselblad X1D series can show purple edge colour shift, while the 100 MP back-side-illuminated IMX461 sensor in the GFX100 and X2D series does not exhibit the issue. [1][2]

History

Development and Launch Omnar Lenses, a UK venture jointly owned by Hamish Gill of 35mmc and Christopher Andreyo of Skyllaney Opto-Mechanics, develops M-mount lenses built around glass salvaged from notable compact cameras. [3] The CX38-28 was previewed in early 2024 and released for sale around Easter that year, the product of a multi-year design effort the makers describe as a labour of love driven by their interest in the Sonnar formula. [3] During development the team discovered that the 38mm Sonnar's unusually large image circle covered digital medium format sensors, which shaped the rehousing design internally nicknamed "Project Goldilocks" so that rangefinder coupling and full image-circle coverage could coexist. [2]

Special editions The CX38-28 is sold in three finishes: matte black, silver chrome and high-gloss black with antique brassing, with the silver examples among the rarest given the small batch size. [1] Beyond these finish variants and the T1 versus T2 donor distinction, no other major factory variants are widely documented. [1][2]

Collector Notes The lens is rare by construction, with very few units per finish and the makers stating that a second run would not follow until at least the end of 2024. [1] Buyers should be aware that value rests on the donor Zeiss optics and aperture assembly, since these are the only original parts retained, and that two internal block designs exist depending on whether T1 or T2 glass was used. [1][2] The integrated E40.5 filter thread and the split coupled and uncoupled focusing ranges are worth confirming in person, as is the finish, given the silver edition's scarcity. [1]