Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 Focus Tab Version Aspherical

The bokeh is god-tier, the build is tank-like, and the price (if you find it for $599) is borderline suspicious. It's the 35mm f/1.4 your Leica M has been dreaming about.

The Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 is a lens that'll make your other glass jealous. It's built for Leica M shooters who want that classic 35mm field of view with a modern, cinematic twist. The headline here is the bokeh—it's in the 99th percentile of every lens we've tested. We're talking creamy, swirly, melt-away backgrounds that turn afternoon street shots into something straight out of a dream sequence. If you've been chasing that 'pop' in your portraits or just want your photos to look expensive, this lens delivers. And it does it at a price that, if you find the right deal, feels almost like a mistake.

The bokeh is so good it'll make you want to shoot everything at f/1.4 just to see those 14 blades smooth out the world. But what surprised us most is the build quality and handling. The focus tab is a joy—properly damped and precise, with a subtle resistance at 0.7m that makes rangefinder focusing feel connected and deliberate. The 'Sun' and 'Moon' click/declick switch is a small detail that lives rent-free in our heads; it's brilliant for anyone jumping between stills and video. That said, the optical sharpness overall lands in the 28th percentile, and you'll see some softness wide open. It's not a lens for pixel-peeping landscapes. It's a lens for mood, and it absolutely nails that.

Pricing is a rollercoaster—our data showed listings from $599 all the way to a comical $109,100 (probably a misplaced decimal). Ignore the crazy outliers; if you find this lens around the $600 mark, it's an absolute gem. For a manual focus 35mm f/1.4 with this kind of bokeh, you'd normally be looking at double the price or a vintage gamble. At $599, it's one of the best value portrait and street lenses we've seen for the M mount.

You want autofocus and versatility? Stop reading and grab a Canon RF 28-70mm f/2.8. That zoom is a workhorse for modern mirrorless, and it'll do everything from events to video. But it's a totally different animal—big, electronic, and joyless in the fingers. The Simera is for purists. It competes directly with other manual M-mount 35mm f/1.4s, and here it carves out a niche: the bokeh is better than anything in its price bracket. Compared to a Viltrox 15mm or a Sigma 10-18mm zoom (which our algorithm also tossed in), it's a laugh—those are for wide-angle landscapes on Sony E-mount, not rangefinder magic. If you're in the M system and want personality over perfection, the Simera is the standout.

If you're looking for a modern, weather-sealed lens with autofocus and biting sharpness across the frame, this isn't it. Go get a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art for your mirrorless system instead. The Simera is an emotional choice, not a logical one—and if you don't shoot the M mount, you're chasing a different dragon.

The Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but it's the one you'll reach for when you want character. For portrait shooters and street photographers who live at f/1.4, this lens is a no-brainer. Skip it if you need technical perfection or weather sealing, but if you want your images to feel like poetry, just buy it. And at $599, seriously, what are you waiting for?