The Leitz Elmar 10.5cm f/6.3 – Third time’s the charm! Read the exciting conclusion of my search for a pocketable telephoto lens. Don’t miss the comparison of all three lenses’ characteristics at the end of this chapter!
This is a review of the Ernst Leitz (Leica) Elmar 9cm f/4 Collapsible lens. Hamish recently reviewed the huge and very fast TT Artisan 90mm 1.25. This is perhaps the antithesis of that lens.
Leica is a polarising company and there’s a lot of polarising opinions circulating about their products. One of them is if you want to make full use of Leica camera bodies, you absolutely must use Leica lenses. It’s because they are “the world’s finest”. So good in fact that the folks at Leica have come up with trademarked names for them (Elmar, Summicron, Summilux, etc) in order to establish them as “the finest in their class”. At least that’s what Chuck Norris of lens reviews (you know who I’m talking about) says, before immediately contradicting himself saying that actually those names on their own are meaningless, like Kleenex or Tang. And then calling Oskar Barnack “The Prophet”, ironically or not I honestly have no idea. Ever the wordsmith and always so measured…
Out of all the gear and films I’ve written about over the last few years, none has provided me with a more daunting task to review than this lens, the Leica 90mm f/2 APO. There is so much for me to balance in order to offer an accurate, measured, and importantly unbiased assessment of my absolute favourite lens, representing what I feel is the best focal length for my photography, and the absolute pinnacle of optics with which to comprise that length. My story with this lens is not one of love at first sight – as with my current frustration with 35mm I found it a chore to adapt the way I had learned to that point to see at 50mm on the rangefinder, and to work out exactly it would give me depending on where I was standing.
It transpires a limited edition Contaxt T2 with all its paraphernalia is the equivalent of a practically new Summarit-M 35mm f/2.4, a Yashica Matt 124g, and a pub lunch. I for one can’t refuse a good pub lunch, especially if it involves pie. Though for clarity, I don’t mean one of those evil rogue imposter pies that laugh at you from their non-edible ramekin suit and puff pastry hat.
The Leica 40mm Summicron is an odd little lens, both in terms of what it is, and its reputation. I guess this is why I was attracted to the idea of trying one out; that and it’s match to my little Leica CL…
