Character designed for film

Leitz ELSIE lenses are designed specifically for cinematography - offering exceptional image quality in a format wider than full frame, with a wide range of productions in mind. They feature a gentle gradient of sharpness, resolution and brightness toward the edges of the frame, which naturally directs the viewer's attention to the main subject of the shot, creating a three-dimensional effect. It is more pronounced than in the Performance series, but more subtle than in the more extreme Legacy series lenses. Their warm color temperature makes the characters look attractive, while the colors remain true to reality.

ELSIE lenses offer cinematographers an image with crisp character, but without exaggerated intensity or limiting styling. Although they can produce striking lenticular flares at maximum aperture, they can be easily controlled by closing the aperture, allowing for relaxed light handling in scenes with windows or intense light sources.

These lenses feature relatively high contrast, which, combined with the unique nature of the drop in focus, allows for object separation that gives the impression of working with a brighter lens - without the typical problems that accompany extremely large apertures. The quality of the bokeh has been fine-tuned in collaboration with Leica Camera - it is smooth, but retains the structure of the out-of-focus elements, allowing the camera to maintain the impression of depth and location without losing the sense of three-dimensionality and separation.