Thambar 90mm f/2.2

Every other Leitz lens of the 1930s aimed for maximum sharpness. The Thambar went in the opposite direction: its designers deliberately left spherical aberration uncorrected so that portrait subjects would be rendered with a luminous, dream-like softness wide open. A central stop disc could be inserted over the front element to further soften the image by blocking the sharper central rays.

For beginners: the Thambar is one of the most unusual lenses in the Leica canon — a technical step backward executed with great skill. It is a portrait specialist's tool rather than a general-purpose lens. Few were made (around 3,000 over its 14-year run) and surviving examples with their original disc and caps command significant collector premiums. Leica reissued the Thambar in 2017 with updated coatings, introducing it to a new generation of photographers who had only read about the original in magazines. The reissue renders identically in character if not in minute detail.