Fisheye Elmarit R 16mm
The only diagonal fisheye lens from Leica
A review and photo examples of Fisheye Elmarit 16mm F2.8.
Table of contents
Gallery
- The sample photos were taken with the LEICA R8 + FUJIFILM 100
- The sample photos were taken with the HASSELBLAD X2D.
Review
1．Overview
The Fisheye Elmarit 16mm is a Leica R-mount fisheye lens released in 1974, and about 3,000 were manufactured in the five years until production ended in 1979.
Made in Japan, the optical system is said to be the same as Minolta’s MC Fisheye Rokkor 16mm f2.8.
This lens has four built-in color filters, just like the SUPER ELMAR 15mm, SUPER ELMART 15mm, and ELMARIT 19mm (2-inch). These filters have become almost useless in the digital age.
The hood is flower-shaped and protrudes slightly forward from the lens barrel, cutting out excess light when shooting in 35mm format. The shadow of this hood can be seen on the medium-format digital sensor described below, so it seems to work in 35mm format. Even when the sun is in the backlight, there are no suspicious ghosts, so it has excellent backlight resistance.
Since it is not possible to attach a filter to the front of the lens, the lens can be protected by attaching a lens cap (14089, 14089M).
2．Usage
Fisheye lenses are not used very often because they intentionally leave distortion in the image, and I think it’s best to use them casually as a break from shooting, but close-up shots that take advantage of the minimum focusing distance of 0.3m are interesting.
The price of the lens is undeniably high, even including the cost of the Leica brand, as Russian-made fisheye lenses are sold for around 20,000 yen. What’s interesting is that the used price of the MC Fisheye Rokkor 16mm f2.8, which is said to have the same design, is also more expensive than other Minolta MC lenses, which I think is due to the influence of hearsay that it is used by the Leica brand.
The price of a Russian-made fisheye lens starts at around 20,000 yen, so even including the cost of the Leica brand, it is undeniably expensive.
This particular lens is a modified lens with a ROM terminal, and when Leica released the film cameras Leica R8/R9, they modified the lenses of conventional cameras to add a ROM terminal for a fee. Fisheye lenses with ROM terminals are quite rare, and are hard to find on eBay.
3．Mount adapter
For LEICA SL typ601, LEICA T series, and LEICA CL, if you use the Leica genuine mount adapter, Leica R-Adapter L (16076), you can transfer lens information to the camera if the lens has a ROM terminal. The information is recorded in the EXIF of the shooting results, so it is easier to organize the shooting results compared to using lenses before the R cam.
When shooting with a CANON EOS-1Ds MKIII, an error 20 (Err20) occurs every time you take a picture. As far as I can tell from my own cameras, this error occurs most often with wide-angle lenses, such as ELMARIT-R 19mm-II, SUPER ANGULON-R 21mmF4, VARIO ELMAR-R 21-35mm, ELMARIT-R 28mm(I), ELMARIT-R 24mm, and SUMMILUX-R 35mm F1.4. I haven’t attached it to check, but it’s likely that both the 15mm SUPER ELMARIT and SUPER ELMAR cannot be used.
Specification
| Item | Value | note |
| focal length(mm) | 16 | |
| Maximum aperture | 2.8 | |
| Minimum aperture | 16 | |
| Lens configuration | 11elements 8groups | |
| Minimum distance(m) | 0.3 | |
| Lens length(mm) | 60 | |
| Lens max diameter(mm) | 71 | |
| Filter diameter(mm) | – | Filters cannot be attached because the hood is integrated into the front of the lens. Three color filters for film cameras are built in. |
| Weight(g) | 470 | |
| Release date | 1974 *2 | |
| Production Number | 2,950 *2 |
Reference links
Update history
- 2025.2.14
- 2024.02.13:Update article
- 2022.12.07:First draft
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