28-70 Vario Elmar-R: Two versions? Hood for V2?

[wlaidlaw]

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I have recently bought a 28-70 Vario-Elmar-R to use on my R4-MOT and R9. I really missed having a zoom lens when on my recent trip to India and swapping backwards and forwards between my 24 Elmarit, 50 Summicron and 80-200 Vario Elmar, was a bit of a pain, mainly having to carry around additional lenses. If I had been going to use this lens on the fussier digital Leicas, I would have gone for the better Kyocera built 35-70 but for film, having the wider zoom, albeit on the slightly inferior Sigma built lens, outweighed the better performance. I have the 11-23TL, 18-56TL and 24-90 SL lenses to use on digital. 

I read a couple of reviews of this lens, which were reasonably complimentary about it. I noticed in their pictures of the non-ROM lens they used as illustrations, the optical cell retreated far further inside the outside barrel when zoomed to 70mm, than my ROM version does - see photos below. I believe that the optical formula was updated when the lens went to a ROM version, in 1996 (according to the Leica pocket book). I believe most of the effort was to improve sharpness at the wide end. Not very much seemed to have been done at the tele end, as the pin-cushion distortion at 70mm is still very noticeable. I am mainly a wide angle user so I can live with the tele end distortion. 

The entry on the Wiki for this lens is missing, so no information there. Does anyone know the part number for the correct hood, which screws into the outside barrel not into the e60 thread on the optical cell? The earlier version had no recommended hood but according to the Leica pocket book, the later version does. The thread appears to be a 65mm thread, which is an odd size. 

Wilson

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Edited May 3, 2019 by wlaidlaw

[DigitalHeMan]

A bit of googling suggests it would be part number 12437, assuming you have model 11364

[wlaidlaw]

2 hours ago, DigitalHeMan said:

A bit of googling suggests it would be part number 12437, assuming you have model 11364

Simon, 

After looking through a few of my Leica books, I had come to the same conclusion. Sadly they seem to be quite rare and the only one I have been able to find for sale is from a German seller who says he will only send to Germany. I have emailed him asking if he will send to France. Germany to France post is unfortunately particularly fraught. The last item I bought got lost in the post for nearly 4 weeks and over 10 days is the normal service. 

Thanks anyway.

Wilson