If you’re suffering from GAS like me, being aware of a rare, expensive, and sought-after lens that you know you definitely don’t want is a great thing. 6 years ago Leica re-released one of their classics, the Thambar 9cm f/2.2. Apart from collectors and hardcore Leica aficionados, not many have heard of it before then. …
Most of my other lens reviews have been pretty straightforward. I’d offer a little bit of their history followed by physical characteristics, compatibility issues, and finally my subjective impressions on the images they create. I try to stay down to earth, especially when writing about Leitz/Leica lenses or those with cult-appeal, in order to demystify them. I figure in a time when the prices of vintage lenses are skyrocketing, the last thing we need is snobbery.
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.
