LEICA ELMARIT M 28mm ASPH. (5th)

Review and Photo example of the ELMARIT-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH. (5th).

Gallery

Sample photos taken with the LEICA M8 and HEXAR-RF +Kodachrme64

Review

The fifth generation Elmarit 28mm aspherical lens is a lens that is significantly lighter and more compact than the conventional Elmarit 28mm. It was released in 2006, at the same time as the Leica M8, the first digital M camera.

I bought this lens at Fuji Camera in Nakano when I bought the Leica M8. At that time, Leica’s latest aspherical lens could be purchased for 150,000 yen. Now in 2024, I feel that a new Leica lens is no longer a price that you can easily replace.

Looking at the shooting records of past shootings using this lens, in addition to the digital Leica M8, I often used it with the Konica Hexar RF rangefinder film camera, and I have posted photos taken with the Hexar RF in the gallery.

The lens barrel design is almost the same as the Summicron-M 35mm, which uses aspherical lenses, and uses a straight lens barrel with no bumps or ridges. The appearance is not very interesting, but the finger loop added to the focus ring is well-made, and the helicoid of the new M-type Leica lens is very smooth and comfortable to use.

The lens has a 6-bit code added to it to recognize the lens name on a digital M-type Leica, and when using a digital M-type Leica or a Leica SL using an M-L adapter, the lens name is recorded in exif. Unfortunately, this 6-bit code does not have the function of conveying shooting distance and aperture information, so not much information can be left in exif.

The lens is compact and the image quality is impeccable, but I started using old Elmarits and got tired of the flawless image quality of this lens, so I sold it when I bought another lens.

The exterior of this Elmarit 28mm ASPH.5 was renewed in 2016. Since the lens itself is a finished product, this is thought to be a measure to only align the appearance with lenses from the 2010s.

One change is that the lens hood has been changed from a hook type to a screw-on type.

The lens I owned was the one before the renewal, with a hook-attached hood 12526 and a special cap that fits onto the end of the lens hood 14043, while the renewed lens, which is the same as the SUMMICRON 35mm ASPH., has a 12470 hood, but the special cap does not seem to be sold separately, so I don’t know the model number. It seems that the ones for the SUMMARIT 2.5/35 and 2.5/50 can be used, but I’m not sure.

Specification

Item	ELMARIT 5th Early	KM HEXANON	M ROKKOR 28	G ROKKOR 28	GR 28
focal length(mm)	28	28	28	28	28
Maximum aperture	2.8	2.8	2.8	3.5	2.8
Minimum aperture	22	22	22	←	16
Lens configuration	8elements in 6groups	8elements in 7groups	7elements in 5groups	5elements in 5groups	7elements in 4groups
Leaf blade	10	10	10	9	10
Minimum distance(m)	0.7	0.7	0.8	←	0.7
Lens length(mm)	30	40.4	35.5	19.5	23
Lens max diameter(mm)	52	52	51	51	49.5
Filter Size(mm)	39	46	40.5	←	←
Lens hood	Square hook type	Round with slits, screw-in	Dedicated bayonet	Trumpet-shaped screw type	Trumpet-shaped screw type
Weight(g)	180	230	135	110	180
Release date	2006	1999	1981	1998.9	1997
Production numbers	–	–	–	2000	3000
Price(Yen/No-tax)		¥113,000-		¥110,000-	¥98,000-