In praise of the Leica Summarit-M 90mm f2.5

[Ted Lemon]

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A while back one of our many high street photographic shops went bust (Jessop) and via this forum was guided to the bankrupt receiver stock sale. I made a bid on a 90mm Summarit-M and got it for about 60% of its true value. Then hardly used it.

 

Last weekend I visited Newcastle to see some friends and mounted it on the Monochrom. Ergonomically great to use with excellent weight distribution and easy to focus it takes decent shots as the attached image hopefully shows. I don’t do optical statistics but just on pictures alone comparing them with other frames I have taken this is one hell of a little lens.

 

I normally use my 75 Summicron for portraits but after the weekend I used the 90mm on a corporate image shot with beautiful results.

 

So if you are looking for a relatively (for Leica) cheap 90mm lens I can recommend purchasing a Summarite.

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[01af]

In fact, the Summarit-M 90 mm 1:2.5 is even sharper than the highly regarded Elmarit-M 90 mm 1:2.8 and second (by a very small margin) only to the mighty Apo-Summicron-M 90 mm 1:2 Asph. All things considered, I think the Summarit is the most desirable 90 mm M lens today due to performance, size, weight, speed, easy handling, effective hood, and E46 filter size.

[Jeff S]

I would certainly add the 90 Macro-Elmar M into the option mix, especially regarding performance, size and weight. Speed, of course, may be the limiting factor for some purposes. That aside, Puts calls it "simply the best general purpose 90mm lens in the current M range" and "among the best performing lenses ever made for the 135 format."

 

Whether the superlatives are warranted or not, clearly it's a fine lens. Unfortunately it can no longer be bought new without the macro kit, which roughly doubles the cost of the lens alone.

 

Jeff

[virgilius]

The Summarit rocks optically. The build quality ssems to be good sofar, no problems noted on mine yet.