LEICA APO SUMMICRON M 90mm ASPH.

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

Gallery

Photo example by LEICA M9

Review

Apo Summicron M 90mm is a medium telephoto lens for Leica M mount.
This lens was released in 1998 and is currently in use as of 2024.
It uses an aspherical lens, has a built-in hood, and has a lens barrel design that complies with Leica modern lens standards.
A 6-bit lens recognition code can be added to lenses without a code. Depending on the year of manufacture, some lenses may have a code added to them at the time of sale.

For the focal length of 90mm, I used Voigtlander Appolanter 3.5/90mm and Summicron 2/90mm, but both rangefinder cameras had problems with focus accuracy and were not used often and I did not have them on hand for a long time.
I started to lean toward R lenses, but since I couldn’t get the Leica R mount Apo Summicron R 90mm, I got this M mount Apo Summicron.
However, like other 90mm rangefinders, the Leica Digital M9’s finder had poor focusing accuracy at maximum aperture compared to the Apo Summicron 75mm.
With the LEICA M typ240, I no longer have to worry about focusing accuracy due to the magnified EVF display, and I think now is a good time to use a telephoto lens. However, I still feel uncomfortable with the style of using an EVF on a camera with a rangefinder mechanism.

I got the Leica R mount Apo Summicron R 90mm and was wondering which one to keep. At that time, mirrorless cameras were not in full swing, so I decided to keep the R-mount Apo Summicron because of the advantages of the R-mount lens, such as the shortest shooting distance of 0.7m and the long flange back.

I will post similar images from when I went out to shoot with both M and R mount APO-SUMMICRON when I owned them at the same time. Strict comparisons cannot be made because the shooting positions are slightly different, but if you look at the details, each one has its own personality.

Specification

Item	Value	note
focal length(mm)	90.9
Maximum aperture	2
Minimum aperture	16
Lens configuration	5groups 5elements
Minimum distance(m)	1.0
Lens length(mm)	78	Distance from mount flange
Lens max diameter(mm)	64
Filter diameter(mm)	55
Weight(g)	660