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Why is the 50mm f2.8 called an Elmar, not an Elmarit?


Ruhayat

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The Elmar is a 4-element in 3-group Tessar formula lens, going back to the 1920s with Leica. Originally it was made as an F3.5 max aperture. In the 1950s, the design was extended to F2.8.

 

This was before the max aperture of a lens placed it into a named series. The optical formula of the lens was used to name the series. The 9cm F4 Elmar is also a 4 element in 3 group Tessar, as is the 3.5cm F3.5 Elmar.

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Historical reasons.

 

The tradition that Leica's lens names represent their speeds has developed over the decades; it was not like that from the beginning. But in the beginning, there was the Elmar 50 mm 1:3.5 lens. The very first Leitz cameras' (Leica) lenses were called Anastigmat, then Elmax (a short-lived five-element predecessor to the Elmar). But then it was the Elmar 50 mm 1:3.5, for more than 30 years. Built-in at first, then as a screw-mount lens, then with M bayonet. Four elements, three groups, almost a Tessar but not quite—for patent reasons.

 

In 1957 it was updated to a 50 mm 1:2.8 lens but retained its famous name, Elmar. In 1972, production was discontinued. In 1994, it had a comeback, in a new design with modern glass types but still four elements in three groups, now as a Tessar copy, better than ever before (patent had expired). In 2007, it was discontinued again. But the famous name persisted, as an exception to the current naming convention, a tribute to the lens that got 35-mm-format photography started.

Edited by 01af
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Oh, and thanks everyone for the explanations. I was just wondering why the name didn't change when they changed the max aperture, as the current version was produced fairly recently (1994-2007).

 

So when did Leica start using the current naming convention, then? Anyone know?

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So when did Leica start using the current naming convention, then?

It just developed over time.

 

Many names of yore were names of single lens models and thus not connected to a speed category ... Elmax, Hektor, Summaron, Summitar, Summarex, Summarit, Thambar, etc. Others were established as a speed category before World War II, like e. g. Summicron. The name Summarit (originally for a 5 cm 1:1.5 lens, predecessor to the Summilux 50 mm) was extinct for decades and became resurrected as the new name for the 1:2.5 speed category only a few years ago.

Edited by 01af
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Actually it started when they started using Kron glass for the Summicron, replacing the Summaron. Originally the intention was to call it Summikron for obvious reasons, but the direction thought Summicron was better from a marketing point of view (and a bit easier to engrave. Engravers hate "straight" letters).

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I hope to own one soon, too! If you have some photos from it, I'd love to see them. Cheers!

 

A few from today, as I am starting to use it and take my beloved 35 off !

 

So far I am impressed and like the way it renders, all at F2.8 or F4. If you don;t need F2 or F1.4 very nice. I tried to show some OOF rendering

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The Elmar is a 4-element in 3-group Tessar formula lens, going back to the 1920s with Leica. Originally it was made as an F3.5 max aperture. In the 1950s, the design was extended to F2.8.

 

... The optical formula of the lens was used to name the series. The 9cm F4 Elmar is also a 4 element in 3 group Tessar, as is the 3.5cm F3.5 Elmar.

 

There are also the 65 mm f3.5 Elmar (for Visoflex) and the 100 mm f4.0 Macro-Elmar and Macro-Elmar-R.

 

Guy

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There is a story behind that question – as always.

 

In the old days of lens design B.C. (Before Computers) designing a lens was a gruelling long-term project with an uncertain outcome. When you were lucky enough to have something that worked well, you wanted to exploit it to the full. So a successful design got a name; and then it was adjusted and tweaked to produce a different focal length, or speed, but the basic layout was always recognisable. And named.

 

So Zeiss had the Tessar, and Biogon, and Biotar, and Sonnar. Schneider had Xenon and Xenar and Xenotar and Angulon designs. Voigtländer had Skopar and Nokton … the phenomenon was universal. It was accepted marketing practice. Leitz had the Elmar, which was recognised to be better than a Tessar.

 

With the computer, lens design was liberated and speeded up. Coating and new glass also contributed. New designs proliferated. There were not names enough to impress on the consumer's mind.

 

Some companies dropped design names entirely. Some used one generic brand name like Nikkor or Zuiko for all their lenses. Zeiss continued to use their old design names for lenses that sometimes have a tenuous likeness to the old famous ones. But Leitz decided to change the names into names for speed categories.

 

This was done over a period of years at the end of the 1950's. The first lens to be given a speed category name was the 90mm Elmarit, of 1958 (which was actually a Hektor design). The last one to be design-named was actually the 1958 50mm Elmar 1:2.8, in the old-style rotary mount. Current lenses were not renamed. The second coming of the Elmar, in 1994, had historical reasons: It was still an Elmar design, and originally part of a retro design package, the M6J. Today, 'Elmar' is just a name for any Leica lens with a speed of 4.0–3.4 which is not a telephoto design and therefore a Telyt. Like my 21mm Super-Elmar.

 

I might add that the category names are completely redundant – the actual speed is already engraved on the front ring to one decimal point. So the real reason for the names are just tradition (if you want to be nice) or market nostalgia (if you prefer to be cruel but fair).

 

The old man from the Age B.C.

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F4, F5.6, F8 close up in that order. B&W jpg no processing :D

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Actually it started when they started using Kron glass for the Summicron, replacing the Summaron.

 

Jaap, the Summaron (at least the 2.8/35 version) uses Kron glass, too. And the Summicron did not replace the Summaron either, it replaced the Summitar :). Or came as an addition, if you are looking at 35mm and 90mm lenses.

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