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Quick review of the 90-280 and S to SL adapter


Joshua Lowe

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I had a chance to test out the 90-280 and the S to SL adapter (with the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS) yesterday.  

 

My first impression of the 90-280 is that it's a superior lens compared to pretty much anything.  The focus speed is blazing quick and accurate.  It's obviously larger than the 24-90 and by spec it weighs 1.5 pounds more.  Yet it really didn't feel appreciably heavier.  Perhaps because the weight is distributed across a longer barrel.   The zoom ring felt so good.  It had a perfect amount of drag.  

 

Image quality of the 90-280 @ 90mm was clearly better than the 24-90 @ 90mm.  Not a surprise but still very impressive to see for myself.  

 

The big question I have about the 90-280 is if I can justify the purchase in terms of having practical uses for it.

 

While I was at the store I also asked to try out the S to SL adapter, mostly to satisfy my curiosity.  I was hoping to try the Summicron-S 100 but there wasn't one available.  So I tried the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS.  The S lenses look very similar to the SL lenses on the outside but I could really feel a difference in build quality when handling them that favors the SL glass, particularly the quietness and speed of the AF motors.  Optically, the 180 is superb.  I loved the DOF @ f3.5!  And it's very sharp.  The AF speed is slower than the 90-280.  This is something I expected but it's still worth noting.  Where the 90-280 would lock focus almost instantly the 180 would typically take a couple of seconds.  It would often hunt to infinity and then lock focus when coming back.  But all of that aside I really do find something about the S glass to be compelling. 

 

I'll post a few sample pics later.  Nothing of any real interest. I'd love to be able to take them out into the wild for a day or two.  At some point I'll probably rent the 90-280 for an extended test drive.   It's a shame that none of the big rental outfits carry S gear because I would like to sample the whole range over a series of weekends.  Without that it's hard for me to even consider them because I'll never really know if they're a fit for me or not. 

 
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I had a chance to test out the 90-280 and the S to SL adapter (with the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS) yesterday.  

 

My first impression of the 90-280 is that it's a superior lens compared to pretty much anything.  The focus speed is blazing quick and accurate.  It's obviously larger than the 24-90 and by spec it weighs 1.5 pounds more.  Yet it really didn't feel appreciably heavier.  Perhaps because the weight is distributed across a longer barrel.   The zoom ring felt so good.  It had a perfect amount of drag.  

 

Image quality of the 90-280 @ 90mm was clearly better than the 24-90 @ 90mm.  Not a surprise but still very impressive to see for myself.  

 

The big question I have about the 90-280 is if I can justify the purchase in terms of having practical uses for it.

 

While I was at the store I also asked to try out the S to SL adapter, mostly to satisfy my curiosity.  I was hoping to try the Summicron-S 100 but there wasn't one available.  So I tried the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS.  The S lenses look very similar to the SL lenses on the outside but I could really feel a difference in build quality when handling them that favors the SL glass, particularly the quietness and speed of the AF motors.  Optically, the 180 is superb.  I loved the DOF @ f3.5!  And it's very sharp.  The AF speed is slower than the 90-280.  This is something I expected but it's still worth noting.  Where the 90-280 would lock focus almost instantly the 180 would typically take a couple of seconds.  It would often hunt to infinity and then lock focus when coming back.  But all of that aside I really do find something about the S glass to be compelling. 

 

I'll post a few sample pics later.  Nothing of any real interest. I'd love to be able to take them out into the wild for a day or two.  At some point I'll probably rent the 90-280 for an extended test drive.   It's a shame that none of the big rental outfits carry S gear because I would like to sample the whole range over a series of weekends.  Without that it's hard for me to even consider them because I'll never really know if they're a fit for me or not. 

 

 

so what is your conclusion between these 2 lenses?

U said both are great lenses so aim wondering if the versatility of 90-280mm is a better choice as it covers wider to more tele end compare to the 180mm?

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My 90-280 'test drive' was a month more or less.  Really a great lens, I didn't find any weak spots.  I wasn't a fan of the optical stabilization though.  The OS was very effective at keeping the image steady, perhaps too effective because the field of view lagged too much when I was following short, erratic movements of small animals.

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so what is your conclusion between these 2 lenses?

U said both are great lenses so aim wondering if the versatility of 90-280mm is a better choice as it covers wider to more tele end compare to the 180mm?

 

It's hard for me to draw a conclusion between those two particular lenses because a 180mm prime isn't a lens I would personally have much use for.  It just happened to be what was available at the time.  That said, I would lean toward the 90-280 because I couldn't really perceive a difference in image quality.  They both resolved a lot of detail, etc.  But the 90-280 is, as you said, much more versatile.  And the focus speed of the 90-280 is so much faster.

 

If you owned both the S and SL systems and had a use for 180mm prime then I could see there being more of a case for buying one over the 90-280. 

Still hoping to get some time with the S 100 and 120 macro lenses.  I'm very interested in the latter since the SL doesn't yet have a native macro lens on the roadmap.

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For the price you can buy both the Apo Macro Elmarit-R 100 and the Zeiss Milvus 100 macro lens. And have some change left.

These are the best macro lenses in existence AFAIK. Or if you need AF you can add a canon macro lens (or sigma 150 or 180).

As good as the 120 is, it is way too expensive to buy it only for the SL. (Different if you already have a S camera).

Edited by steppenw0lf
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I don't know that I really need a native macro lens for the SL. I have two macro setups that work brilliantly (Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm and the combination Focusing Bellows-R + Macro-Elmar-R 100/4, the Summicron-R 50 also works beautifully on that bellows) and can't really imagine what I'd need a native lens to do that these don't, at least for macro work.

 

Ach, just musing on that. I'll go for an SL90-280 soon, will trade off some of gear to fund it. After that a Summicron-M 50 for the M-D and I think I'll be done for a while. The 90-280 will expand on what I can do with the SL nicely, and be hand-holdable more easily than my current brace of R long lenses.

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I don't know that I really need a native macro lens for the SL. I have two macro setups that work brilliantly (Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm and the combination Focusing Bellows-R + Macro-Elmar-R 100/4, the Summicron-R 50 also works beautifully on that bellows) and can't really imagine what I'd need a native lens to do that these don't, at least for macro work.

 

Ach, just musing on that. I'll go for an SL90-280 soon, will trade off some of gear to fund it. After that a Summicron-M 50 for the M-D and I think I'll be done for a while. The 90-280 will expand on what I can do with the SL nicely, and be hand-holdable more easily than my current brace of R long lenses.

 

I moved from the R80-200 to the 90-280 and find AF and IS in such a lens a BIG advantage, even the lens is much bigger than the 80-200 I havent used the 80-200 ever since, I guess I should sell the 80-200.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

I have that adapter............I plan to test drive it when I get home with my 30, 70 and 120 S Sumerlux lenses.........pictures to follow :)

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I had a chance to test out the 90-280 and the S to SL adapter (with the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS) yesterday.  

 

My first impression of the 90-280 is that it's a superior lens compared to pretty much anything.  The focus speed is blazing quick and accurate.  It's obviously larger than the 24-90 and by spec it weighs 1.5 pounds more.  Yet it really didn't feel appreciably heavier.  Perhaps because the weight is distributed across a longer barrel.   The zoom ring felt so good.  It had a perfect amount of drag.  

 

Image quality of the 90-280 @ 90mm was clearly better than the 24-90 @ 90mm.  Not a surprise but still very impressive to see for myself.  

 

The big question I have about the 90-280 is if I can justify the purchase in terms of having practical uses for it.

 

While I was at the store I also asked to try out the S to SL adapter, mostly to satisfy my curiosity.  I was hoping to try the Summicron-S 100 but there wasn't one available.  So I tried the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS.  The S lenses look very similar to the SL lenses on the outside but I could really feel a difference in build quality when handling them that favors the SL glass, particularly the quietness and speed of the AF motors.  Optically, the 180 is superb.  I loved the DOF @ f3.5!  And it's very sharp.  The AF speed is slower than the 90-280.  This is something I expected but it's still worth noting.  Where the 90-280 would lock focus almost instantly the 180 would typically take a couple of seconds.  It would often hunt to infinity and then lock focus when coming back.  But all of that aside I really do find something about the S glass to be compelling. 

 

I'll post a few sample pics later.  Nothing of any real interest. I'd love to be able to take them out into the wild for a day or two.  At some point I'll probably rent the 90-280 for an extended test drive.   It's a shame that none of the big rental outfits carry S gear because I would like to sample the whole range over a series of weekends.  Without that it's hard for me to even consider them because I'll never really know if they're a fit for me or not. 

 

"Image quality of the 90-280 @ 90mm was clearly better than the 24-90 @ 90mm.  Not a surprise but still very impressive to see for myself."

Although I'm perfectly content with the IQ of the 24/90 @90mm (at all distances and apertures), it would be very nice to see some meaningful images which may illustrate the asserted superior IQ of the 90/280 @90mm...I'm curious about it. - Thanks a lot!

 

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"Image quality of the 90-280 @ 90mm was clearly better than the 24-90 @ 90mm.  Not a surprise but still very impressive to see for myself."

Although I'm perfectly content with the IQ of the 24/90 @90mm (at all distances and apertures), it would be very nice to see some meaningful images which may illustrate the asserted superior IQ of the 90/280 @90mm...I'm curious about it. - Thanks a lot!

 

 

I did get my SL90-280 and did my first test walk with it. It is, in fact, a stunning performer throughout the range—I'm delighted with it. I haven't used it enough to see any downside to it, other than the already-known notion that it is a large and heavy lens. ...So were the Elmarit-R 180mm f/2.8 and Telyt-R 250mm f/4 lenses I sold to help fund it, neither of which performed as well. 

 

How much better is its performance compared to the SL24-90? Well, I don't shoot test charts or do side by side comparison pictures. And the SL24-90 performance @90mm does seem to have improved slightly with the most recent SL firmware update (fw 2.2 now, IIRC). The SL90-280 produces image files that seem slightly crisper wide open, to my eye. The difference is more like comparing two known-excellent 90mm lenses with slightly different rendering and performance characteristics at different aperture settings rather than comparing a Coke bottle bottom with a Summicron-R 90.

 

If I'm shooting exclusively at 90mm for a particular session, I'll usually fit the Summicron-R 90mm because it's smaller and lighter than either; I'd pick one or the other of the zooms based on which one's rendering handles my subject and shooting circumstances best. Remember that choosing which of these three lenses to use also nets f/2 vs f/4 vs f/2.8 as maximum aperture options, which is sometimes significant.

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I think this is a good assessment of the 90-280 SL and matches up with my own conclusions. I haven't done direct head-to-head comparisons of the 24-90 vs the 90-280 @ 90mm, as these are very different lenses, but I haven't found the 24-90 @ 90 lacking in any way. 

 

If you are curious about quality and sample images from the 90-280, I published a full review around the time the lens was released last April. 

 

Leica APO-Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280mm f/2.8-4 Lens Review: Telephoto Titan for the SL (Typ 601)

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Thanks to ramarren and David Farkas, I appreciate your comments very much.

Just let me clarify, my above statement (#10) is about a reaction respective the thesis of the initial post : IQ of 90/280 @90 is "clearly better" (sic!) than 24/90 @90. This, in my eyes, is a bit of a stretch...

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Thanks to ramarren and David Farkas, I appreciate your comments very much.

Just let me clarify, my above statement (#10) is about a reaction respective the thesis of the initial post : IQ of 90/280 @90 is "clearly better" (sic!) than 24/90 @90. This, in my eyes, is a bit of a stretch...

 

 

I just consider statements like that as a bit of enthusiastic hyperbole on the part of the reviewer. It doesn't really mean anything: "IQ" is not well-defined and thus does not have a metric. :)

 

It just means the reviewer sees a difference that is pleasing ... I'd agree with that. 

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While I was at the store I also asked to try out the S to SL adapter, mostly to satisfy my curiosity.  I was hoping to try the Summicron-S 100 but there wasn't one available.  So I tried the APO-Tele-Elmar-S 180 CS.  The S lenses look very similar to the SL lenses on the outside but I could really feel a difference in build quality when handling them that favors the SL glass, particularly the quietness and speed of the AF motors.  Optically, the 180 is superb.  I loved the DOF @ f3.5!  And it's very sharp.  The AF speed is slower than the 90-280.  This is something I expected but it's still worth noting.  Where the 90-280 would lock focus almost instantly the 180 would typically take a couple of seconds.  It would often hunt to infinity and then lock focus when coming back.  But all of that aside I really do find something about the S glass to be compelling. 

 

I received the S-adapter yesterday.

 

I only have the 35m and 70mm lenses which I use on a S2P next to legacy medium format glass.

 

My 70mm does not have the required firmware (which I unfortunately cannot upgrade on my own), my 35mm does (probably upgraded last year at Leica when it was in for AF failure).

 

The adapter is very solid and my first impression is that it seems to work really well, only downside so far is that I find the focusing quite noisy... 

 

Perhaps I got too spoiled with the smooth and silent focusing of the SL 24-90mm...

Edited by JorisV
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Leica provided the adaptor for that - for existing S users. But since I saw it "life" I found the AF speed not too convincing (and the noise). Maybe the optical quality is worth it - I don't know. After using the SL 90-280 their AF is almost unbearably slow.

Even more so since I have seen some Sigma lenses that offer noiseless and fast to very fast AF adapted (Novoflex AF adptr). And their optical quality looks also "quite acceptable"  ;) .

Of course this is not in accordance with the intentions of Leica....   (Sigma will probably be deeply worried.)

Edited by caissa
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