Leica 11808

[Alayna Rother]

The90mm lens is the third part of the classic Leica holy trinity, and probably felt rather neglected when we were all using the M8. I used to have a Macro Elmar 90 (along with the macro kit) but sold it as the macro facility wasn't so impressive and the f4 limit meant it was a sunny day lens. I replaced it with a Canadian Summicron 90 pre-ASPH, but found the lens a bit heavy, slow to focus and ultimately not as sharp as I wanted it to be. So it was sold too. Having discovered how very good the Summarit 75 was, I obtained a Summarit 90, but was never quite as happy with it as its shorter brother, again because it didn't seem so sharp. It is light, the fixed lens hood is a great protector for the front element and the rubbery short-throw focussing ring is just lovely. But.....on the M9 it front focuses, and will have to be adjusted when the wait for such things has grown shorter, and when I might consider sparing the M9 to go away with it. So, with the help of the ever-helpful enablers at KEH, I have revisited the pre-ASPH Summicron 90, and compared it with the Elmarit-M 90. Of the two, the Elmarit is a clear winner in the sharpness stakes, even when both are used at f2.8. Admittedly, it has a longer slower focussing throw than the Summarit, but it is still quicker than the Summicron. I regard the difference between f2.5 and f2.8 as immaterial. The Summicron has one stop advantage in speed, but if I have to stop it down to get some sharpness I wonder why I would bother with the extra weight. Some examples will show you what I mean. This is a rather boring shot of the view from my back deck (the view is wonderful, the photograph is uninspired but shows what I want). Apologies for the compression - I saved these as 90% JPEGs, but the forum reduces them to something horrid on uploading! The light changed a bit between pictures with passing clouds too.

I bought the Elmarit back in pre-Summarit days. I considered the Summicron, but already owned the 75 'lux, which I got for its dual personality, and I didn't want another large, heavy long lens. On the M8 the Elmarit is a terrific IR lens (I shoot a lot in IR). On the M9 it was fair to say that I was stunned at how good it is corner to corner wide open. There's never any question about whether it goes in the bag. It's particularly useful for stitches - a three frame stitch (50% overlap) yields a 55 mm or so perspective and an image that looks like it was taken on a 39 meg back wih a digitar.

I tried a few more times with the Summicron once Lightroom had shown me the 100% crops and couldn't do any better. I might test it out on a scale to see if it has any front/back focussing problem, but at the moment this is consistent with my experience with my first Summicron 90. Perhaps one day I will be inspired to save up for an ASPH Summicron 90, but when KEH keep dangling these goodies in front of me for just a fraction of the new price it is hard to resist... (I have a goggled Elmarit 135 to play with too for a similarly small price).

Scratch that, it arrived and it's the old 60's Elmarit (11129) instead of the recent 90's E46 Elmarit (11808). Funny thing is Adorama listed it as 11808 and showed a picture of the modern one. I've sent them an e-mail asking how they intend to resolve it. I asked for pictures of the actual lens several times and got nothing... now I know why. Quite disappointed

I bought a second-hand 1998 Elmarit-M in pristine shape, and now I know why -- the lens near-focused something remarkable! Its previous owner had not used it at all after grunting "ah, that Elmarit is no sharp lens, uh." I had to send in the lens AND the M8 to Solms to have the Elmarit adjusted. That took over six weeks, but now I have a razor-sharp lens. And I too sold my old pre-ASPH Summicron.

I sold my 90mm M Elmarit since I hardly used it on my M8 but when I did, the results were very satisfying. Recently I picked up a 90mm R Elmarit for my Canon 5D II and I am having a hard time putting it down. It does make a difference when you can use the 90mm Elmarit lens FF. I believe the lens design is the same for both the M and R versions. Here's a recent shot.

Another 90 Elmarit-M fan here. It is so small and neat and for user friendliness, the built in hood is a great asset. It makes the screw on reversible hood on my 75 Summarit, seem very clunky in comparison. I also prefer its lively colour rendition to my slightly subdued 75. As and when my M9 finally arrives, I think it is going to see even more use.

I have been an Elmarit-M 90 user for 4 years. I find that it is excellent since F4 but a bit soft wide open. If you look for ultimate sharpness, you should go for the 90'cron AA. This one is a monster. It's wide open sharpness surpasses the one of Elmarit-M at F4.

I am not sure about this. I think you will find, if you look at tests by Ken Rockwell, Sean Reid and Erwin Puts, that the Elmarit-M 2.8 (the final version) is as sharp as the 90AA at the centre and edges at f2.8 and stopped down, it may be even sharper. If yours is not sharp at f2.8, it may need service. I seem to recall the E90 also has slightly less distortion than the 90 Cron - effectively the 90AA has very little but the E90's was barely measurable in Ken Rockwell's report. I was going to buy a 90 Cron until I read Sean Reid's report.

Your eyesight must be better than mine. If I could be bothered to mount and unmount a magnifier (which I can't) I would go for a Megaperls 1:1.35 one. I will stick with the 1:1.15 one. I think I will be sending off for another from Dirk for the M9 but will wait to see how I get on.

I've got old fool eyesight, but I wear disposable contact lenses instead of varifocals (reading strength in left eye, distance strength in right eye). It works for me! I did try using a magnifier, but it just irritated me so I got rid of it.

3a8082e126