Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm Performance at 24mm

[geopatriot]

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As I'm currently not in a country where I can go down the street and pick up an SL, I'm still doing quite a bit of armchair research...so, please bare with me and thanks in advance for your input.  How does the SL 24-90mm fare at its widest, 24mm, view?  Would really appreciate any photos or commentary on the SL 24-90mm's wide angle performance in terms of distortion and ability to keep straight lines straight throughout the image. 

 

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Sorry, I posted this in the CL forum by mistake.  Hopefully the moderators can shift it over the right forum.

Edited February 26, 2018 by geopatriot

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[thighslapper]

Excellent. The DNG is corrected for any distortion.

 

Performance is pretty uniform throughout the zoom range

[helged]

Actually, the SL 24-90, even wide open (f2.8), is among the optically best wide angle lens I have. Wrt coma/highlight deformation in star photography, it beats lenses like the Zeiss Otus 28mm and Nikon 12-24mm, both at f2.8. For a 3.8x zoom, this is nothing but outstanding.

[Photon42]

Maybe you'd like to read this, while sitting in your armchair 

[Irakly Shanidze]

The only thing that is somewhat disconcerting is flare, which gets stronger towards the wide end. Other than that. this is one of the best 24mm lenses I've seen.

[darylgo]

Same results for me, I'm currently testing it against M primes and it doesn't give up much if anything.  

[johnbuckley]

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Some time ago, I sold my M Tri-Elmar MATE because the M primes in the same range were so good.  They were so good, and came in Summilux and Summicrons, and were so compact, that I ultimately decided just to take along on a trip those focal lengths, as I would be dissatisfied with the performance of the MATE -- even though objectively it is an excellent lens.

 

When I bought an SL in the winter of 2016, I also purchased the Vario-Elmarit 24-90 -- an expensive "kit" lens.  I had read good things but still had fairly low expectations. With the exception of desiring a faster prime for some work, there has literally never been a moment when I thought that lens, as a zoom, was less great than the equivalent M primes.  I don't doubt that, say, the 35 Summilux FLE is, at an equivalent aperture,"better" than the 24-90 is at the 35mm focal length. But I bet it would be so small a difference that only pixel peeping would reveal it.  

 

Interestingly, because I use the Vario-Elmarit more for landscape than any other purpose, I shoot at 24 probably more than any other focal length.  It is, to my eye, fantastic at 24, quite sharp in the corners, and because it is effectively an Elmarit at the focal length, it doesn't really want too much for speed.

 

The only reason not to use this lens on the SL is because -- flashing forward to April -- you've bought the SL Vario 16-35, which given how great the 24-90 has proved to be, has become an object of gizmo lust for me.

Edited March 5, 2018 by johnbuckley