LEITZ TELE ELMAR 13.5cm F4

Review and Photo example of the LEITZ TELE ELMAR 13.5cm F4.

Gallery

The sample photo were taken with the HASSELBLAD X2D.

Review

The Tele Elmar 13.5cm is a Leica M mount lens with a focal length of 135mm.

The distribution format in the used market is basically M mount, but this lens, Elmer 13.5cm, and Hector 13.5cm can be separated from the M mount helicoid. Having a helicoid allows you to use the lens with other mounts. Sometimes they are sold with a VISO helicoid installed.

In order to use TeleElmer with VISOFLEX, you can convert the mount to VISO-M using the helicoid 16464 /OTZFO, which is also used with Elmer 65mm for Vizo.
To use it with LEICA-R, add the Leica 14167, a Leica M (VISO-M) to Leica R mount lens adapter, to the above.
The shortest shooting distance is 0.9m, which allows you to get close to the lens because the helicoid OTZFO can be extended for a relatively long distance. When using an M-mount helicoid, the minimum shooting distance is 1.5m.

Elmer and Hector can be changed to VISO-L39 by attaching it to a special short helicoid.
VISO-L39 can be changed to VISO-M mount using OUBIO/16466, and VISO-M can be changed to Leica R mount using 14127.

The flange back of the camera is important in order to use the lens from infinity, and the following is a summary of the flange back of the Leica mount.

Mount name	Frange back size	note
L mount	20mm	For digital mirror less camera
M mount	27.8mm
L39 mount	28.8mm	The L/M mount adapter is 1mm thick.
R mount	47.4mm	R-M mount adapters are provided by various companies.
S mount	53.3mm	Since I can’t find an official value for the flange back, I’ll write the value by subtracting the thickness of the S-C645 adapter, 10.7mm, from the CONTAX 645 mount’s 64mm.
VISO-M	68.8mm	If you use 14127, it becomes R mount.
VISO-L39	91.1mm	If you use OUBIO/16466, it will be a VISO-M mount.

The 16464 /OTZFO used in this lens is not difficult to obtain as it can be obtained second-hand for around 10,000 yen, but this helicoid is quite old, so be careful when feeding it out. We recommend that you check the actual product before purchasing. A helicoid with proper grease can be extended smoothly.

Terre Elmar completely covers the sensor size (44 x 33mm) of the XASSELBLAD
There is no peculiarity in both the front and back blurs, and there is no suspicious bokeh that looks like it’s spinning in circles. Even at F4, the focus is thin and it is possible to take photos that emphasize the in-focus area. However, it is not as strict about focus as the Elmarito 135mm F2.8, and even with 100 million pixels, you can enjoy sharp photos that are satisfying enough.

The photo below shows a 4-layer stack of lens body + OTFZO (16464) + 16466M + NOVOFLEX R-X mount adapter.

I had always thought that infinity was suspicious, so I checked to see where the dimensions were off. As a result, the thickness of the decorative cover that covered the gap between the lens head and OTFZO (16464) was excessive. Specifically, when the cosmetic ring is removed and the helicoid and lens are attached, the gap is 6.7mm, which is no problem in this state. The thickness of the decorative cover was 7.5mm, which is 0.8mm longer, so the lens could not be used at infinity.
The decorative cover is made of aluminum, so by filing the ring down by 0.6mm and making the cover 6.9mm thick, I was able to shoot at infinity.

Specification

Item	Value	note
focal length(mm)	135
Maximum aperture	4
Minimum aperture	32
Lens configuration	5elements 3groups
Minimum distance(m)	1.5	When the M helicoid is used, the entire range is linked to the camera rangefinder.
Lens length(mm)	107
Lens max diameter(mm)	56
Filter diameter(mm)	39-
Weight(g)	550

Reference links

Leica Wiki TELE ELMAR 4/135

Update history

2024.05.21
2023.03.25

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