APO TELYT R 280mm F4
A telephoto lens close to 300mm F4 for R mount
A review and Photo Examples of APO TELYT R 280mm F4 Telephoto Lens for Leica R.
Table of contents
Gallery
- Sample photos taken with the LEICA SL typ601.
Review
1．Overview
The APO-Terito R 280mm F4 is a telephoto lens with an aperture of F4 that was released in 1993 at the end of the Leica R mount.
Production began in 1993, and by 1997, about 2,000 units had been made, including 3-CAM, R-CAM, and ROM terminal versions.
The lens specifications are as follows: 6 groups, 7 elements, minimum shooting distance of 1.7m, 8 aperture blades.
A tripod mount is standard, which cannot be removed, but can be rotated by loosening the screw on the side. The camera’s orientation can be changed while attached to a tripod.
The hood is built-in, so you just pull it out to use it, and there is no mechanism to turn it to lock it.
The filter diameter is 77mm, which is rare for Leica. In addition to the front filter, a drop-in filter can be inserted at the base of the lens.
2．Usage
The image quality is said to be among the best among Leica R lenses, and because it is an apochromatic lens, there was no noticeable color bleeding.
With a minimum shooting distance of 1.7m, this lens can get close enough to capture still insects and flowers in close-up.
The lens I owned was a 3-CAM lens, and the focus ring was light and quick, even for an R-mount lens of that time. The light focus ring made it difficult to make subtle adjustments.
This may have been because the lens was used and the grease had worn off, but some newer R-mount lenses from a comparatively old era have lighter focus rings, so this may be appropriate.
Since it has a rotation angle of nearly 360 degrees from infinity to the minimum shooting distance of 1.7m, the heavy focus ring can be difficult to achieve depending on the purpose of the shoot.
3．Add info.
As a lens option, it is compatible with APO extenders x1.4 and x2.0. When the APO extender x1.4 is attached, the lens becomes 392mm F5.6, and when the APO extender x2.0 is attached, the lens becomes 560mm F8. Either way, I did not notice any significant deterioration in the image.
It seems that it would be very difficult to adjust the focus at 560mm F8 with the R8/R9 viewfinder, but fortunately, the body I used this lens on was the LEICA SL typ601, and the 4.4 million dot Eye Res viewfinder allowed me to adjust the focus at 560mm/F8 to a reasonable extent.
The LEICA SL does not have an image stabilization mechanism, so even if the focus is correct, there may be camera shake, but the new LEICA SL2/SL2-S is also equipped with image stabilization, so it would be more suitable to use this lens.
Every year, I go to Shirakaba Pass in Nagano Prefecture to watch the hawk migration, and a focal length of 500mm or more is preferable for shooting there (this is the only place where you can see Nikon or Canon 800mm/F5.6 in the field), so I change cameras and lenses every year to take pictures there. In 2017 and 2018, I used this lens and x2 APO-EXTENDER on a LEICA SL.
Leica telephoto lenses have slightly different focal length increments than major Japanese manufacturers, with older ones being 250mm and 350mm, and newer generations being 280, 400, 560, and 800. In Japan, the standard focal length increments are 300, 400, 500, 600, and 800.
This lens is a telephoto lens close to the so-called SsangYong (300mm F4), and is a relatively inexpensive telephoto lens in Japan, but this is not the case for Leica.
Leica R-mount telephoto lenses are produced in small numbers, so their list price is set higher than Japanese-made lenses of the same specifications. Furthermore, they are rarely seen on the Japanese market, so the second-hand price does not drop.
I saw this lens used at an affordable price on an online shopping site I often visited in 2017, so I stretched out a little and bought it.
Compared to the APO-Telito R 280mm F2.8 (integrated lens) and APO-Telito Module System R of the same name, this lens has a reasonable list price. However, in the second-hand market, this lens is traded at almost the same price as the APO-Telito R 280mm F2.8 (integrated lens), which has a more expensive list price mentioned above, which suggests that there is little demand for Leica R-mount telephoto lenses.
Specification
| Items | APO TELYT 280mm F4 | APO TELYT 280mm F2.8 |
| Focal length(mm) | 280 | 280 |
| Max aperture | 4 | 2.8 |
| Min aperture | 22 | 22 |
| Lens Construction | 7 elements in 6 groups | 8 elements in 7 groups |
| Leaf blade | 8 | 7 |
| Min distance(m) | 1.7 | 2.5 |
| Lens length(mm) | 208 | 261 |
| Max diameter(mm) | 88 | 125 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 77 | 112 |
| Weight(g) | 1875 | 2750 |
| Production number | 2000 | 3011 |
| Release date | 1993 | 1983 |
Reference links
- Descriptions of APO-TELYT-R 280mm F4 on Leica wiki
- Descriptions of APO-TELYT-R 280mm F2.8 on Leica wiki
Update
- 2025.1.17
- 2024.03.11
- 2023.12.09
Affiliate links
- Amazon Affiliate link / Leica lens
- Amazon Affiliate link / Leica digital
- Amazon Affiliate link / Leica camera body
- Amazon Affiliate link / Leica accessory
- Amazon Affiliate link / Leica book
