Thoughts on 90mm Elmarit f2.8

[dbane883]

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I did pick up the 90 2.6 Elmarit-M yesterday. Thanks for everyone's input. Met the seller at a local SBs and snapped a few pics and was immediately impressed. It will take a bit of practice to nail focusing. Theses were literally the first two shots. Uploaded raw to iPhone using apple SD reader and processed with Lr mobile as I was at the coffee shop with the seller:

 

 

[DigitalHeMan]

Congrats. If you are using it with a traditional rangefinder viewfinder, you might want to consider the Leica 1.4 viewfinder magnifier to help with focusing (or one of the cheaper alternatives out there)

[lct]

Depends on one's sight i guess but i've needed a magnifier (or an EVF) for none of my 90/2.8's but the latest Elmarit that needed some calibration and focuses perfectly now.

[pgk]

I did pick up the 90 2.6 Elmarit-M yesterday. Thanks for everyone's input. Met the seller at a local SBs and snapped a few pics and was immediately impressed. It will take a bit of practice to nail focusing.

 

Practice makes perfect! I've only ever used mine as is on the camera - no magnifier. As I said before its a workhorse which consistently delivers. I use mine more than I thought that I ever would and its my 'long' travel lens. I'm sure that you will find it an excellent addition to your kit and more than likely one which will grow on you. I once made the mistake of selling one after buying a Summicron - not a mistake I intend to repeat.

[George Stoichev]

On 5/11/2016 at 10:30 AM, menos I M6 said:

I have a lot of different lenses in the 90 mm range and each and everyone of them has something special about it that prevents me from selling it.

From the lot I actually find the one single most versatile 90mm is the 90/2 Summicron E55 (the latest pre ASPH Summicron).

 

It offers f2 yet is really not that much heavier and larger to carry than the latest E46 Elmarit-M.

I have had a handful of Elmarit-M E46 over the years (and strangely still keep two of them) and none of them was any sharper or contrasted then the E55 Summicron from f2.8 on.

So to me it was always that compromise of leaving one stop at home in favor of saving just a tiny bit of weight/size.

 

The E46 Elmarit-M per se is not exactly a lightweight a compact lens. It is a very, very solid and tough built lens with all modern features one would want (lens hood, E46 filter, fast focussing, old Leica build quality, available 6-bit coding, modern body design, sharp even wide open, high contrast, …).

 

I think it really is best to have two 90mm lenses at least - to me the dream pair is the 90/2 E55 for all it's wonderfulness and the 90/4 Macro Elmar for the lightest possible, smallest but also highest performing 90mm lenses there is. You get everything from everything with this lens pair and the best is that when shopping clever, one can indeed almost get these two lenses for the price of a 90/2 APO 😉

 

If one never needs f2 and only wants one 90mm lens either the 90/2.8 E46 or 90/2.8 thin (depending on priorities) are the nicest 90mm lenses to have.

 

Then of course there is the etherial 90/2.8 Tele-Elmarit "Fat" I have a black copy that I needed to completely overhaul and a silver chrome (more rare) copy is in the mail - these are very, very beautiful lenses (low contrast, yet very, very sharp slightly stopped down and with a beautiful veiling flare wide open, dream flattering portrait lenses really).

The super bargain must be the "long" Elmarit v1 with similar qualities to the later introduced "fat" tele version, yet much, much more affordable (people really don't seem to want these).

 

There is of course also the 85mm focal length, and, and …

 

But when it comes down to which is the overall one single most useful around 90mm - for me it's the latest E55 Summicron.

Hi, talking about Elmarit M 2.8/90 you say “fast focussing”, did you mean that the fuchsing ring has 7m and than infinity? i was wondering wether if I put the focusing ring after 7m will be everything after 10m in focus? The dept of field depends on the aperture, but in most scenarios?

[lct]

You would have to focus at about 95m to reach infinity at f/2.8.

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[farnz]

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14 hours ago, George Stoichev said:

Hi, talking about Elmarit M 2.8/90 you say “fast focussing”, did you mean that the fuchsing ring has 7m and than infinity? i was wondering wether if I put the focusing ring after 7m will be everything after 10m in focus? The dept of field depends on the aperture, but in most scenarios?

Unfortunately menos hasn't visited the forum since November 2020 so he's unlikely to reply.

Pete.

[skahde]

As this thread has been revived several times I dare to chime in. I bought a thin Tele-Elmarit 2.8/90 mm some time ago and my latest roll shows that it focusses fine at infinity but when the subject is closer, focus is always behind the subject. It behaves as if its focal length would be too long for the extension dialed in as by the rangefinder. Is that something a calibration can fix? The camera works fine with other lenses as much as I know. 

Edited April 28 by skahde

[lct]

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Edited April 28 by lct