L-mount ultra-wide-angle lens SUPER VARIO ELMAR SL 16-35mm
A review and photo examples using the Super Vario-Elmar 16-35mm with a LEICA SL Typ601.
Table of contents
Gallery
Sample photos taken with the LEICA SL typ601.
Review
1．Overview
The SUPER VARIO ELMAR SL 16-35mm is an imposing, gigantic lens with a total length of 123mm, a maximum barrel diameter of 88mm, and a weight of 1g.
The lens barrel only has a zoom ring and focus ring, and the aperture is controlled on the camera side.
The zoom ring is on the camera side of the lens, and turning it to the right changes it to the telephoto direction. The lens uses an internal zoom, so the total length of the lens does not change.
The lens has a focus ring on the tip of the lens, which is also internally focused, so the total length of the lens does not change. Perhaps because it is an electronic mount, there are no distance scales on the focus ring.
The minimum shooting distance is 0.25m across the entire focal length range.
2．Usability
The SUPER VARIO ELMAR SL 16-35mm’s depiction is flawless, with no distortion even on the wide-angle side of the Raw image, and almost no vignetting due to the abundant light generated by the large lens diameter.
The telephoto end of 35mm is a little dark at F4.5, but it depicts a stable image.
At the same time, I also owned a 28-90, so I rarely used it at the telephoto end of 28mm, and often started at 16mm and zoomed in a little to adjust it, like cropping. It’s a convenient wide-angle zoom lens to take with you on trips to various places. Since it’s a heavy wide-angle lens, there was almost no camera shake if you handled it normally, even without image stabilization.
The AF focusing speed is quite fast, and when shooting with the LEICA SL typ601, there were no instances where the autofocus focusing speed was slow and frustrating.
The autofocus accuracy depends on the camera’s sensor, so it is difficult to evaluate because the accuracy varies depending on the camera, but there was no confusion or miss with general landscapes or people.
With difficult subjects such as cats or birds deep in the bushes, the photographer may not be able to focus as intended, but this can be dealt with by interrupting the manual focus.
The lens focus ring has no indications at all, which is inconvenient when pre-focusing at a specified distance, but this type of use is probably not recommended for digital cameras, which require strict focus accuracy.
As is the fate of high-performance zoom lenses, it is very large, so it requires a lot of effort to carry it around. I mainly took it out when traveling by car.
When attached to a Leica T typ701 or Leica CL typ7323, the lens was too large and the balance during shooting was very poor. As expected, this lens suits a larger camera such as the SL, and looks good when attached to a large camera, but it requires a fairly large camera bag to store it in, and it felt very heavy when I was moving around the shooting location by hand. Unfortunately, when I got rid of the SL, my use frequency decreased dramatically, so I got rid of it.
Ever since I bought the Leica SL, as a wide-angle lens lover, I couldn’t pass up this lens, so I went out of my way to buy it new, and I was a little happy that the last two digits of the lens serial number were 00, which was a round number.
3．Summary
In conclusion, to sum up the SUPER VARIO ELMAR SL 16-35mm is a large wide-angle zoom lens.
The competing L-mount wide-angle zoom lenses are unique and low-priced, so the SUPER VARIO ELMAR 16-35mm feels expensive and has an old design. However, since it is an original Leica lens, if you like wide-angle lenses, it is a lens worth trying out regardless of cost performance.
Specification ,Study and more
The direct competitor of the SUPER VARIO ELMAR SL 16-35mm is the Panasonic wide-angle zoom lens “LUMIX S PRO 16-35mm F4 S-R1635” (lens length 100, lens diameter 85, filter size 77, weight 500g). This lens has a constant F3.5 aperture, but is slightly smaller than the Super Vario Elmar, and is half the weight, so this lens is more suitable for street snapshots.
Sigma’s wide-angle zoom lens “SIGMA 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN” has a constant F2.8 aperture and a wide end starting from 14mm, so the difference of 2mm on the wide-angle side makes a noticeable difference within the range that fits in the frame. The telephoto end is 24mm, and the zoom ratio is kept to 2x, which gives the impression of a design philosophy that prioritizes image quality. This lens is supplied to Leica on an OEM basis and was released in November 2023 as the “SUPER VARIO ELMARIT SL f2.8/14-24mm ASPH.” with the same specifications.
| Items | SUPER VARI ELMAR | SIGMA 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN | Panasonic S-R1635 |
| Focal length(mm) | 16-35 | 14-24 | 16-35 |
| Max aperture | 3.5-4.5 | 2.8 | 4 |
| Min aperture | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Leaf blade | ? | 11 | 9 |
| Lens Construction | 18elements in 12groups | 18elements in 13groups | 12elements in 9groups |
| Min distance(m) | 0.25 | 0.28 | 0.25 |
| Lens length(mm) | 123 | 131 | 99.6 |
| Lens diameter(mm) | 88 | 85 | 85 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 82 | – | 77 |
| Image stabilizer | No | No | No |
| Weight(g) | 990 | 798 | 500 |
| Release date | 2018.05.10 | 2019.8.23 | 2019.12.25 |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | ¥760,000- | Open(¥148,000-) | ¥156,000- |
| Lens name | SUPER VARIO ELMAR | VARIO ELMARIT | APO VARIO ELMARIT | SUMMILUX |
| Focal length(mm) | 16-35 | 24-90 | 90-280 | 50 |
| Max aperture | 3.5-4.5 | 2.8-4.0 | 2.8-4.0 | 1.4 |
| Min aperture | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Lens Construction | 18elements in 12groups | 18elements in 15groups | 23elements in 17groups | 11elements in 9groups |
| Min distance(m) | 0.25- | 0.3-0.45 | 0.6-1.4 | 0.6- |
| Lens length(mm) | 123 | 138 | 238 | 124 |
| Lens diameter(mm) | 88 | 88 | 88 | 88 |
| Filter Size(mm) | 82 | 82 | 82 | 82 |
| Weight(g) | 990 | 1,140 | 1,710 | 1,065 |
| Image stabilizer | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Release date | 2018.05.10 | 2015.11.28 | 2016.04.29 | 2016.12.28 |
| Price(Yen/No-tax) | ¥760,000- | ¥650,000- | ¥820,000- | ¥770,000- |
Reference links
- SUPER VARI ELMAR・Official page
- SIGMA14-24mm F2.8 DG DN・Official page
- Panasonic S-R 1635・Official page
- VARIO ELMARIT 24-90・Shige’s hobby
- APO VARIO ELMARIT 90-280・Shige’s hobby
Update history
- 2025.7.14
- 2024.10.9
- 2024.03.10
- 2023.09.01
ate links
- Leica Lens・Ads by Amazon
- Leica Books・Ads by Amazon
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