Thypoch Simera 75mm f/1.4 Review: A Lovely Pocketable Portrait Prime

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Thypoch Simera 75mm f/1.4 Review: A Lovely Pocketable Portrait Prime

I love the 75mm focal length. In fact, anything around 70mm to 90mm is more like a normal lens for me than a 50mm. And if the lens has a fast aperture, I’m even more enamored.

I’ve reviewed Thypoch lenses before and found them to be beautifully machined and full of character, but that doesn’t always mean they are good optically. I also hate the locking mechanism on the manual focus ring with a passion. These are just a couple of reasons why I was so pleasantly surprised by the new $850 Simera 75mm f/1.4.

I hate this locking switch and am thrilled about its absence on the Simera 75mm.

A black Thypoch camera lens with aperture and focus markings lies on a gray grid cutting mat. — All the machining work is expertly done.

A close-up of a black Thypoch camera lens, showing aperture and focus markings in white and orange, set against a dark blurred background with a faint grid pattern below. — The manual focus ring and aperture ring have engraved font and turn very smoothly.

Thypoch Simera 75mm f/1.4 Review: How It Feels

Make no mistake: the Simera 75mm is beautifully machined, but Thypoch has done away with the frustrating locking mechanism on the focus ring. I still love the clever visual depth of field gauge, and the aperture ring can be set for smooth or click-stop functionality.

At just over thirteen ounces (372 grams), the 75mm has some heft to it, which only serves to make the lens feel solidly well built. The Simera 75mm f/1.4 takes 58mm filters, and there are 16 aperture blades inside the lens, which should make for some smooth-looking bokeh.

I had a black one for testing, but they also come in a handsome chrome finish.

A black Thypoch camera lens stands upright on a grid-patterned surface with a dark background. The lens features various focus and aperture markings in white and orange. — The Simera 75mm is somewhat bulky-looking but quite practical in the hand.

A camera lens positioned upright on a gray grid-patterned surface, with a dark blurred background. The focus is on the lens glass and markings around the rim. — The front element takes 58mm filters.

A black Thypoch camera lens with focus and aperture markings is placed on a gray gridded surface with white intersecting lines and angles. — The depth of field scale can be seen here as a series of dots.

The Simera 75mm is currently only offered in Leica M mount, and for my testing, I adapted it to a Sony a7RV so I could really evaluate image quality. However, I also shot some black and white film on an M mount Voigtlander Bessa R2a so that I could evaluate other ways that the lens would commonly be used.

It’s important to remember that these lenses do not have autofocus or any sort of electrical communication with digital bodies, so there is no EXIF data, and any image stabilization in the body has to be set manually.

Close-up of a black camera lens labeled "SIMERA 75mm," with focus and aperture adjustment rings, placed on a surface featuring a white grid pattern. — There is a switch to declick the aperture if desired.

A close-up view of a camera lens placed on its side on a gray, grid-patterned surface, with the lens mount and glass elements clearly visible against a dark background. — The Thypoch lenses are designed to fit on Leica M mount cameras.

Black and white photo of a sunlit cobblestone street next to a stone wall, with geometric shadows and the partial shadow of a person holding something, possibly an umbrella, entering from the right.

Thypoch Simera 75mm f/1.4 Review: How it Shoots

It seems that many of the manual focus lenses trade image quality and optical corrections under the guise of being rich with character. You’re supposed to love the flaws and embrace the issues, but I don’t always want that present in my images. So, how did the Simera 75mm do?

Well, flare is the first thing I tested, and the Simera does a pretty good job when shooting wide-open and using the hood. There is some loss of contrast, but the lens doesn’t have too many issues. Stop the lens down a bit, and you will start to get some very obvious ghosting and colorful reflections. If the hood is left off, you can also get some pretty heavy ghosting when the light source is just outside the frame.

Flare is handled quite well but some ghosting will show.

LoCA is obvious on both our test and the sharpness charts, too.

A nighttime view of the Palazzo hotel tower in Las Vegas, illuminated with gold lighting, with a palm tree in the foreground. — I shot in Las Vegas for some of the digital tests and the lens performed great.

LoCA, or longitudinal chromatic aberration, is very difficult to get rid of in the editing phase, and it never looks nice. Unfortunately, the Simera 75mm does suffer from some visible LoCA, especially at f/1.4. Shooting black and white images is one fix, but if you are shooting color and shooting with shallow depth of field, LoCA will rear its ugly head.

However, bokeh is quite beautiful on the Simera. There is a pleasant cat’s eye effect to the specular highlights at f/1.4, which can give you a nice swirly look to your images. Stopping the lens down, we see the benefit of that very round-shaped aperture: bokeh is quite smooth with no onion ring issues. The backgrounds can look slightly harsh, but I would say that overall, the bokeh is smooth and pleasant.

A large white sphere with colorful polka dots and a cartoon-style face with a black X for one eye and a curved smile, set against a background of twinkling yellow lights and blurred trees. — Bokeh is pleasant with a slight harshness to the backgrounds, but clean-looking highlights overall.

A cluster of vibrant yellow flowers is in focus in the foreground, with a blurred background featuring a pond and lush green plants. — Background can look strong and slightly harsh but I still like the shallow depth of field possible on this lens.

Black and white photo of a crosswalk with cracked lines and a round metal object on the pavement. A diagonal patch of sunlight highlights part of the crosswalk, contrasting with the surrounding shadows.

I was also really pleased with the sharpness at f/1.4. There is excellent detail retained in the center of the image, and it exhibits decent contrast, too. Stopping the lens down just makes it better, but I would happily shoot this lens at wider apertures all day long. The corner sharpness suffers a bit, although this is of minor concern on portrait-range lenses like the 75mm focal length. Again, stopping down the lens helps here, but the extreme corners never become excellent by any stretch.

Side-by-side test chart images compare photo sharpness at f/1.4 (left) and f/2.8 (right), with color bars, grayscale, currency image, and a woman’s portrait visible on both charts. — Sharpness is good at f/1.4 and boasts good contrast in the center of the image.

Side-by-side comparison of two photos showing a Canadian one dollar bill above a focus test chart. Left image is labeled “f/1.4” and right image “f/2.8.” The right image appears sharper than the left. — Corners can get a little smooshed on the Thypoch lens.

A person stands alone on a paved plaza near a modern building with large curved metal panels, partially in the shadow, while holding something to their ear, possibly a phone. — You can still get punchy contrast out of the Thypoch lens by simply stopping down the aperture.

Thypoch Simera 75mm f/1.4 Review: M-Mount for the Masses

For $850, I feel like the Simera 75mm represents decent value. M-mount lenses from Voigtlander and especially Leica tend to be pricey, and the Simera 75mm f/1.4 certainly comes in below as a viable alternative. Most importantly, the image quality is good where a 75mm f/1.4 needs it to be. The lens is sharp and the bokeh is high-quality, so it’s easy to forgive the other flaws.

I wouldn’t often reach for this lens on a digital body with an adapter, but I would absolutely use it for analog pursuits or as an affordable portrait and street photography lens on a digital Leica M camera. The Simera 75mm f/1.4 has an almost dreamy look at f/1.4, which is particularly nice on 35mm film and can always deliver more mainstream results when stopped down slightly.

A woman wearing sunglasses and a black leather jacket sits in the driver's seat of a silver car, looking out the open window with a serious expression.

A man sits at a bar counter talking to a bartender in a cozy pub with brick walls, neon signs, trophies, beer taps, and colorful decor. A “Craft Beers” chalkboard menu is displayed on the wall behind them. — A 75mm lens has a look that I love and a tighter frame than 50mm lenses.

A person stands by large windows, talking on a phone. Sunlight streams through the window, casting strong shadows and grid patterns on the tiled floor and walls. The atmosphere is calm and contemplative. — The architecture of train stations and civic buildings is wonderful to capture in Prague.

A modern glass building reflects distorted images of nearby older buildings, creating an abstract, wavy pattern across its mirrored surface. The scene is in black and white. — The Simera 75mm has a nice tonality which renders beautifully on film.

Black-and-white photo of a person sitting alone on a bench in front of a small tree, with a building in the background and a quiet street in the foreground. — Prague is a wonderful city for street photography moments.

Are There Alternatives?

If you are going to adapt it to a digital mirrorless camera, the autofocusing 85mm lenses that are available are often a better buy. For example, the $1100 Sigma Art 85mm f/1.4 is slightly more money but infinitely cleaner optically. If you are sticking to native M mount lenses, the Voigtlander Nokton 75mm f/1.5 is a good option and is usually found around the same $850 mark. It boasts similar performance and would be an excellent option, too.