LEICA SUPER ELMAR M 18mm
Review and Photo example the Super Elmar M 18mm F3.8.
Table of contents
Gallery
- Photo example are talen with a LEICA M9 and LEICA M6TTL +Velvia100
Review
The widest focal length of the M-mount Leica genuine single focal length lenses is 18mm.
It is very lightweight compared to the ultra wide-angle lens of a single-lens reflex camera. The hood is screw-in, and the notch acts as a stopper to help you position it, but the one I had had the screws loose, so they sometimes ended up spinning around in my camera bag. When the hood is attached, I can’t attach a lens protection filter, so I removed the hood and purchased a third-party screw-in UV filter to use.
There is a genuine filter holder (code number: 14484 filter adapter), but I have never used it because it spoils the compactness of a rangefinder camera because it requires attaching a fairly large diameter filter to the E77. LEICA probably doesn’t recommend installing filters because of concerns about the corners of the screen being kicked, but since it’s an expensive lens, I think it’s human nature to want to protect the front.
For LEICA M8/M8.2, a special UV/IR filter (code number: 13422) is provided, and the hood can be screwed onto the tip of the lens, and since the hood is externally threaded, it can be attached without interfering with the filter. This filter is provided for IR cut on the LEICA M8/M8.2 rather than lens protection. Also, the sensor size of the M8/M8.2 is APS-H size, which is smaller than a 35mm full-frame sensor, so peripheral vignetting can be ignored, so it was released in this form.
A lens that lets you experience the fun and difficulty of using a wide-angle lens with a rangefinder.
Since this lens can only get close up to 0.7m, many landscapes tend to look the same, and hebographers with little imagination were unable to find expressions that could go beyond this. While using this lens, I felt that around 21mm was the limit for a rangefinder.
After that, if you use a rangefinder lens from another company or a wide-angle lens such as 18mm, 17mm, or 15mm for a single-lens reflex camera that allows you to get closer, you can get really close shots and it’s quite fun.
However, if I continue to do that, I find it difficult to go beyond that because the photos end up in one pattern with no ingenuity.
So the fact that you can only get as close as 0.7m is probably just an excuse.
Although this lens is expensive, I felt that the aberration correction was well done when compared to Kosina Zeiss’s Distagon 18mm, which was released around the same time. When I looked back at the shooting results, I noticed that there were some shots where I felt that distortion correction and peripheral illumination were insufficient depending on the shooting distance.
If you are someone who doesn’t use wide-angle lenses very often, the cheap Chinese-made Lomography ATOLL 17mm is probably enough, and this cheap 17mm is well made.
Recently, lens design has been changing towards optically correcting aberrations other than aberrations that can be easily corrected using digital processing, but this lens seems to be a type of lens that has put a lot of effort into its optical design.
I used a genuine LEICA finder and a ZEISS finder, and the ZEISS had a higher magnification and was easier to see.
I used a third-party screw-in filter when shooting, so I’ve never used the square hood shown in the photo in real life, but I don’t remember having any trouble with backlighting.
As for the ultra-wide-angle lens, I was concerned about the size of the R mount lens, but it was easier to use due to its shorter minimum focusing distance, so I sold it because this lens is no longer available.
Specification
| Maker | LEICA | Carl Zeiss | LOMO | Ms-optics |
| Lens name | SUPER ELMAR 18mm | Distagon 18mm | ATOLL 17mm | PERAR 17mm |
| Max aperture | 3.4 | 4 | 2.8 | 4.5 |
| Min aperture | 16 | 22 | ||
| Leaf blade | 9 | 10 | 8 | 10 |
| Lens Construction | 8elements in 7groups | 10elements in 8groups | 13elements in 10groups | 4elements in 4groups |
| Min distance(m) | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.25 | 0.3 |
| Lens length(mm) | 58 | 47 | 79 | 10.2 |
| Max diameter | 61 | 63 | 73 | 50 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 77mm (with filter holder) IR/UV filter for M8 available | 58 | – | – |
| Weight(g) | 310 | 350 | 400 | 60 |
| Release date | 2009.03 | 2007.08 | 2021.03 | – |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | 315,000 yen (when first released) The price has since gone up. | ¥145,950 | ¥44,800-¥59,800 | – |
Reference links
Update history
- 2024.1.12: add discription
- 2023.5.7: Update gallery
- 2022.10.11: Original
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