LEICA APO SUMMICRON M 90mm ASPH.

LEICA M mount, aspherical lens, medium telephoto lens

A review and Photo example of the APO SUMMICRON M 90mm F2 ASPH.

Gallery

Photo example by LEICA M9

Review

Usage
Lens overview
Comparison with competitors

1．Usage

The Apo Summicron M 90mm is a medium telephoto lens for the Leica M mount.

However, like other rangefinder 90mm lenses, the viewfinder of the Leica Digital M9 made it difficult to frame the lens in the extremely small framing window at full aperture, and the focus accuracy was poorer than that of the Apo-Summicron 75mm.

I don’t like this way of using it, but when it comes to framing and focusing, if you have a digital M camera from the LEICA M typ240 onwards, you can use an add-on EVF to enlarge the focus position while shooting, so there is no need to worry about the focus accuracy. It may be a good choice for using a telephoto lens, but I feel that it is a more rational choice to use a Leica SL series lens from the start, as the camera itself is cleaner and more rational than the style of adding an EVF to a camera with a rangefinder mechanism.

The hood is built-in, and although the hood itself is about 25mm, it actually functions as about 14mm. The Leica R-mount APO Summicron R 90mm, which has the same specifications, has a hood length of about 19mm, but the actual function is less than 10mm, so it has a better light-blocking effect.

I bought the APO Summicron M 90 because I couldn’t get the APO Summicron R 90, but then I was fortunate enough to get the APO Summicron R 90. Depending on the timing, I might not have used this lens. There’s no point in having both, so after thinking about which APO Summicron 90 to keep, I decided to keep the APO Summicron 90R because of the advantages of R-mount lenses: a minimum shooting distance of 0.7m and the versatility of the long flange back.

2．Lens overview

The APO Summicron M 90 is a lens released in 1997 that is still on sale in 2024.

The lens is a simple 5-group, 5-element design that uses aspherical lenses, and the lens barrel design conforms to the standards of Leica modern lenses of the 2000s. The hood is built-in and has a length of about 14 mm when pulled out.

A 6-bit lens recognition code can be added to lenses without a code. Depending on the year of manufacture, some lenses have a code added at the time of sale.

3．Comparison with competitors

I have used the Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar L39 3.5/90mm, Summicron-M 2/90mm, and Macro-Elmar 90mm for the 90mm focal length, but I didn’t have them for a long time because I didn’t use them often and they had problems with focus accuracy on rangefinder cameras.

When I owned both the M-mount and R-mount APO SUMMICRON at the same time, I took some similar photos when I went out shooting with both. The shooting positions are slightly different, so a strict comparison cannot be made, but if you look at the details, each has its own personality.

For a long time, the Apo Summicron 90 was the latest and brightest M-type 90mm lens, but it was replaced by the Summilux-M f1.5/90mm ASPH. released on December 21, 2019. However, the Summilux 90 is priced at 1.5 million yen, which is quite a steep price, so if you are looking for a high-performance telephoto lens that is easy to use, the Apo Summicron M 90 could be an option.

Specification and Competitor

Item	APO SUMMICRON R	APO SUMMICRON M	SUMMICRON R
focal length(mm)	90.9	←	90
Maximum aperture	2	←	←
Minimum aperture	16	←	←
Leaf blade	8	←	←
Lens configuration	5groups 5elements	←	4groups 5elements
Minimum distance(m)	0.7	1.0	0.7
Lens length(mm)	59.3(R-mount)	78(M-mount)	61.4(R-mount)
Lens max diameter(mm)	71	64	69
Filter diameter(mm)	60	55	←
Weight(g)	520	660	522
Release date	2002-2003	1997-	1970-1995
Production Numbers	2,000-	14,820 (~2005)	37,954