Compare focus rotation of 90mm M lenses?

[ironringer]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Could users of the various Leica 90mm M-mount lenses comment on their experience about the different amounts of "focus rotation" needed to quickly adjust focus from about 10 feet to 100 feet, i.e. in typical street photography situations?

My son (using an M3 and M9) reports that he doesn't use his 1956 Elmar 9 cm lens, because it needs a relatively large rotation to change focus over a typical range.

Do later 90mm lenses need less rotation, i.e. have a coarser focus thread? I am thinking of the early-1970s Tele-Elmarit f2.8 as an almost-affordable upgrade, but only if it has a coarser focus thread to meet my son's user requirements.

[luigi bertolotti]

Yes, the focusing action has consistently became shorter/quickier in the years, in the picture hereunder you can see the dramatic differnce between the "new" Summarit 90 and the "old" Elmar 90 : roughly it's no more than 1/3 for a complete rotation infinity to closest focus, the Elmarit M 90 (at right) it's someway intermediate (see the "degree distance" from infinity to 7 m) : personally I like the intermediate one (also because the Elmarit M is my preferred 90)  : have not the Summarit 90, but I have the 75 and, while is an excellent performer, a so quick focus action always looks a bit strange to me... but probably is for the fact that the Summarit is the only lens that I have with such a "modern" feature.

 

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[giordano]

As far as I know all the later 90mm lenses had shorter focus throws than the 9cm/90mm Elmar.

 

As Luigi's picture shows, the latest lenses have the shortest throws - and that seems to be true even within the production run of the "thin" 90mm Tele-Elmarit (compare the pictures at http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00Q/00QIO2-59733984.jpg and http://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/images/90mm-f28-tele/D3S_5202-1200.jpg).

[Susie]

Hi.

 

I have just done a quick measurement of five 90mm lenses!  In decending order they are:

 

In joint last the Elmar f/4  and the collaspsable Elmar f/4 at  90 degrees. 

 

Third place, the Thambar f/2.2 at 84 degrees.

 

Second place, the Tele Elmarit f/2.8 at 51 degrees

 

But the winner with an easily  twistable 45 degrees is the Elmarit f/2.8!

 

These are for 10' to 100' (or infinity if the 100' isn't marked).

 

The Elmarit is a super lens and quite a bit cheaper than the Tele-Elmarit.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Susie

[Michael Hiles]

My 3 element Elmar from about 1969 (like the one at the left in the picture above) requires about 320 degrees rotation from infinity to 1 meter.

 

I like it - it provides for more fine tuning of the focus.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Michael Hiles