ELMARIT-R 1:2.8/90(II)

A review of using LEICA ELMARIT-R 90mm with a digital camera.

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Gallery

Sample photos were taken with LEICA SL Typ006.

Review

1．Overview

The Elmarit R 90mm is a medium telephoto lens with a Leica R mount and a focal length of 90mm.

The lens introduced here has a modern barrel design called type 2, and its characteristic is that the lens hood is made of a single tube, and even when the lens hood is extended, the lens shape has a simple design with almost no cylindrical bumps.

The main lens specifications are a lens configuration of 4 elements in 4 groups, 8 aperture blades, and a minimum shooting distance of 0.7m.

The lens mount also varies depending on the release date, but type 2 is a 3-cam and R-cam, and some lenses have ROM terminals due to modification.

2．Usage

The image quality is not as wild at wide apertures as the Summicron, and it is a lens that can be used reliably from wide apertures, and along with the Elmarit R 28mm, it can be said to be a lens for connoisseurs.

The lens can be operated with a focus ring of about 270 degrees from infinity to 0.7m, which is the standard rotation angle for lenses with a focal length of 50mm or more.
With an angle of this magnitude, it is suitable for manual focusing on the subject.

With a digital camera, the difference in the half-stop aperture is hardly noticeable, so if you don’t use the 90mm lens often, it is a good lens to have as a backup lens.

3．Add info.

There is no Elmar brand for the R mount 90mm. This is in contrast to the M mount, which has had the Elmar 90mm since the early days of the M-type Leica.

The reason there is no Elmar 90mm for the R mount is presumably because the F4 lens barrel becomes thinner and does not look good when attached to the camera.

Instead of the 90mm, there is the Macro Elmar with a focal length of 100mm.

The minimum shooting distance for the M mount version of Elmarit brand lenses is 1m, which is bound by the specifications of the Barnack Leica, but close-up shooting is thought to be limited to 1m due to the problem of parallax, which causes a misalignment between the viewfinder and the actual shooting range.

The minimum shooting distance for the R mount, which is a single-lens reflex camera, is 0.7m because there is no problem with parallax.

This lens comes in two types, Type 1 and Type 2, and although the lens coating is thought to have changed over time, both have a built-in hood but different barrel designs. Type 2 is as explained in the overview, and Type 1 has a two-stage lens hood that creates a narrow lens when the hood is extended.

There are two higher-end Leica R-mount 90mm models, the Summicron-R 90mm and the Apo-Summicron-R 90mm, both with an aperture of F=2. The Elmarit is half a stop darker than the Summicron, so its lens barrel is slimmer and lighter, and it is cheaper on the used market.

Specification and Competitor

Lens name	ELMARIT	SUMMICRON	APO-SUMMICRON
Focal length(mm)	90	←	←
Max aperture	2.8	2	←
Min aperture	22	16	←
Leaf blade	8	←	←
Lens Construction	4elements in 4group	5elements in 4group	5elements in 5group
Min distance(m)	0.7	←	←
Lens length(mm)	61	62.5	59
Lens Max diameter(mm)	66	70	70
Filter size(mm)	55	55	60
Weight(g)	450	560	520
Production Number	16,615	37,954	2,000
Release date	1978〜1994	1970~1995	2002~2005