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90mm Summarit-M or 55-135mm APO-Vario-Elmar-T


julian m

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I'm going on a little vacation in two weeks. Might see a little bit of wildlife. Not that I want to be doing professional wildlife photography with the kinds of zoom lenses that entails, but I'd like something with much narrower field of view than my 23mm Summicron-T.

 

Should I rent the Summarit-M 90mm or the APO-Vario-Elmar-T 55-135mm as a secondary lens? Anyone have experience using both?

 

I tried the 55-135mm a few months ago and autofocus was so slow it was almost unusable (so might as well get the more compact manual focus M lens). But I haven't tried it with firmware 1.4.

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I think you will find with 1.4 firmware that the 55-135 is fast enough. The speed of autofocus has been improved somewhat. I have no problems with this lens at all. Don't have experience of the M lenses, so not qualified to go further than this.

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I have experience with the 90mm, but not the zoom. 

 

If it's wildlife you're after, the zoom may be a better choice to rent.  It has farther reach and the autofocus may be handier for you (although you may be focusing at infinity anyway).  

 

If you're traveling with just the 23mm lens, the zoom would also give you broader focal range coverage (from 75mm equiv) which might make it more versatile for other purposes besides wildlife (outdoor portraits for example).

 

The zoom results I've seen here are quite impressive.  If you're not in low light, the difference in aperture shouldn't matter too much.

 

I have found that a 135mm equivalent lens often doesn't reach far enough for me when shooting wildlife. 

 

It's a very smart idea to rent the lens.

 

Have a great - and safe - trip!  Cheers

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I have had the 55–130 for a week so I'm still getting used to the lens and getting to like it.

 

I don't know the Summarit 90 but I'm sure it's lighter than the 55–130.

 

I wouldn't want to carry the 55–130 for hours day after day, esp. if I'm toting other lenses, but then I'm sensitive to weight.

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Thanks for the comments so far everybody. Sounds like a tough call. I am a little concerned about carrying all the weight of the 55-135 all day, indeed. But yes being able to zoom and get more reach than the 90 sounds appealing.

 

I'm glad to hear that the autofocus speed is acceptable now.

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Thanks for the comments so far everybody. Sounds like a tough call. I am a little concerned about carrying all the weight of the 55-135 all day, indeed. But yes being able to zoom and get more reach than the 90 sounds appealing.

 

I'm glad to hear that the autofocus speed is acceptable now.

you're right, there is a lot of weight, you have to carry with you. i have one question: do you really need more reach than 90mm (135mm ff). I need my summarit not too often, most of the time i use the 18-55 or my m9 with summicron 35mm.
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