90 Macro Elmar for M11

[pmendelson]

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I am putting together a compact lens kit for my M11, and am thinking about a small telephoto to use on occasion for landscape or travel.  The 90mm Macro Elmar seems to fit the bill, but I am wondering about it’s optical performance on higher resolution sensors. I don’t need the ultimate sharpness wide open in the corners, but if it sharpens up nicely when stopped down and holds up at 60mp resolution that should be fine. 

Any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks!

[rcusick]

It's the sharpest 90 except for the apo. 

[BTB]

Summilux is the sharpest 90mm. But the Macro Elmar and APO Summicron are sufficiently sharp.

[LeicaS2]

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I am using the Macro Elmar 90 regularly on my M11. Shooting wide open is not an issue.

The enlargement is a crop from the full file below.

I love the small size of the Macro-Elmar.
 I used to have a “full size” 90 and would leave it behind because it was big and heavy.

With higher ISOs the f4 allows me to shoot in deep shadows with no problem. I have not compared it to the APO but at f4 I suspect they are very close in sharpness. The Red Dot Forum boys says the Macro-Elmar is the sharpest of M lenses.

Jack

[pmendelson]

Thanks! Looks great. Another option is the Voigtlander 90mm APO, which doesn’t look much bigger than the Elmar.  Hmm…

[Jean-Michel]

The Macro-Elmar is a really nice short telephoto. Using it on my M9 and M-P, so 18 and 24 mp sensors, I am able to make prints as large s 24 by 30 inches. I recently purchased an SL2, so 47 mp, and, on screen, test-type images made on the SL2 are much more that just fine; I have yet to use the camera for 'real' photography, so did not print anything yet.

[LeicaS2]

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Here's another example of the Macro-Elmar 90.  ISO 64 1/640. f5

The full size image at 240 res is 26x40

The crop in tight on the iron workers at the same resolution would be 8x10 or an area about one thirteenth of the full image, which would be as if I used about a 500mm telephoto. Please correct my math if I made a mistake. Looks adequately sharp. Zoom in on the holes in the steel for rivets and you can see maybe slight camera movement. That suggests that perhaps I should try this test at 1/2000 next time? But if I had printed this at 30x45 one would have to have their eye four inches from the paper to see that.

The corner crop is a 3x4 from the 26x40.

I was shooting this to see if I could use the 90 on an M11 to match my Panasonic 70-300 on my CL which is like an equivalent 450mm lens at the extreme. The answer for me was yes, but I would miss the image stabilization of the Panasonic.

The corner crop is 3x5 of the 26x40 full image.

The M system was never designed for super telephoto focusing using a rangefinder, but at infinity the rangefinder is not needed.

Jack

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[KFo]

I have the Macro-Elmarit-M 90 and have found it to be execellent in it's role as a small 90.  It's my only 90 in fact.  In fact outside of a really super special use 180/360 the longest lens I typically use is 50.  So a 90 has to be easy to bring along to make the cut.

I try to use it to good effect.  Works well in a role as color and I like in my more typical abstract vision.

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