LEICA ELMARIT R 28mm (2nd New)

New Leica R mount 28mm wide-angle lens

A review and photo examples of the ELMARIT-R 28mm (Type II).

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Gallery

The sample photos were taken with the SONY α7Sii

The sample photos were taken with the CANON EOS-1DsMK III

1．Overview

The new Elmarit R 28mm (late model) is a compact wide-angle lens with a built-in rectangular hood.

It has a filter diameter of 55mm, a minimum shooting distance of 0.3m, and weighs 435g.

It was released in 1993, when the R8 and R7 were mixed, and 3-CAM, R-CAM, and R-CAM+ROM for the new R-mount body, R8, and R9 were released to support older R-type cameras.

For lenses with a ROM terminal, if you use the LEICA R-Adapter-L (16076) on a Leica L-mount Alliance body, you can record information such as aperture value and lens name in the exif of the captured image file.

2．Usage

The angle of the focus ring is 90 degrees from infinity to the minimum shooting distance of 0.3m, which is a little shallow, and it is designed to allow quicker adjustment of focal length than manual focus (MF).

The image quality is satisfactory even at full aperture, and there is no degradation even in the periphery of the image with both digital and film, and you can obtain photos with good overall resolution.

It is also compact for an SLR lens, and the lens hood is effective and easy to use.

The exterior design makes it a new generation R lens. This lens is the only lens with such a built-in square hood, and it has a distinctive appearance. Other new generation R lenses include the SUPER ELMARIT 15mm, SUMMILUX 50mm E60, APO SUMMICRON 90mm, and APO ELMARIT 180mm.

3．Add Info.

The old (early model) Elmarit 28mm comes with a separate square hood (12509). This lens is relatively common on the second-hand market, but the new model is rarely seen. A fair number of them are always listed on eBay in the United States, but they are lined up with fairly aggressive price tags, so when purchasing, it is necessary to determine whether it is worth your money.

This new Elmarit 28mm can sometimes be seen with a Nikon mount, and before mirrorless cameras became popular, it was difficult to make a mount adapter for any camera with a similar flange back, so if you wanted to use a Leica R lens, you had to change the mount.

With the popularity of mirrorless cameras with short flange backs, there are now many mount adapters for each camera, so R lenses can be used easily, and the price of used lenses is rising.

When used with the X1D2 medium format digital camera with a sensor size of 44mm x 33mm, the image circle is insufficient at the periphery for a medium format digital sensor, but the percentage is only 10%.

The 36 x 24 mm of the 35mm format is 20% smaller than a medium format digital sensor, so the shooting range of this lens is larger than that of the 35mm format.

When using a Leica R mount wide-angle lens on a 35mm full-frame sensor camera via a mount adapter, some lenses cannot be used because the protrusion of the rear lens is detected by the EOS sensor and causes an Err. However, this lens is a valuable wide-angle lens that can be used with the EOS-1DsMKIII.

Specification and Competitor

Items	I型	II型
Focal length(mm)	28	28
Max aperture	2.8	2.8
Min aperture	22	22
Leaf blade	8	6
Lens Construction	8 elements in 8 groups	8 elements in 7 groups
Min distance(m)	0.3	0.3
Lens length(mm)	40	48
Max diameter(mm)	63	67.5 Width of square hood = 76mm
Filter Size(mm)	Series 7,48 mm	55
Hood	12509	Build in
Weight(g)	390	435
Release date	1970	1993