Which is the most underrated Leica lens?

[dennersten]

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I am curious about what you think is the most underrated lens—defined here as cheap versus the quality it delivers. 

In my limited experience, it's the Tele Elmar 135/4 I bought it three months ago for 300 Euros. It delivers stunning pictures. 

Please attach samples. 

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[grahamc]

Vote here for 50:2 v3.  Sorry don’t have examples with me but posted many in the dedicated thread for the lens 

Edited July 23, 2023 by grahamc

[tedd]

Modern Summarit series, across the board. Barely more expensive (used obviously as EOL) than Zeiss/CV with much better build and handling. Not as sharp as Zeiss, but prettier rendering (IMO) and more depth/pop than CV. Also they're tiny! 

I stayed away from these for ages due to some ridiculous comments made by a ridiculous blogger. Every bit a regular modern Leica lens and I would take them over even highly regarded vintage Leitz/Leica glass for everyday use that I've also owned costing many times as much. 

I have the Tele-Elmar too but I don't think that is under-rated, I bought it due to numerous comments online with people raving about it. Currently up on eBay as I don't find the focal length very useful. Likewise the 40mm Summicron comes up every time this question is asked so not really under-rated anymore. 

[Stuart Richardson]

3 hours ago, dennersten said:

I am curious about what you think is the most underrated lens—defined here as cheap versus the quality it delivers. 

In my limited experience, it's the Tele Elmar 135/4 I bought it three months ago for 300 Euros. It delivers stunning pictures.

I agree with you. I bought a somewhat rough condition but modern E46 version of the Tele-Elmar for 250 dollars around 2003. It was a good deal even then. What's most shocking is that I can still use it on the SL2 with multishot, so around 180mp. It is sharp edge to edge on 47mp from about 5.6. I can think of other Leica lenses that are excellent but don't get talked about much, but I wouldn't really call them underrated. The 135mm Tele-Elmar's characteristics are known by people who have them, but I think people don't quite realize that it is sharper than some of the modern multi-thousand dollar summiluxes, only at a more moderate aperture. The long focal length and small frame on M cameras means they are a bit trickier to use, but these days with an EVF or SL camera, they are easy.

I don't have so many pics to share because I used it mostly on film and my record keeping is not great for finding the images. Here is a more recent one taken at night near my home. This was with the SL2.

 

 

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[Guest]

4 hours ago, grahamc said:

Vote here for 50:2 v3.  Sorry don’t have examples with me but posted many in the dedicated thread for the lens 

Totally agree with @grahamc - the 2,0:50 v3 is amazing! My fave 50mm Summicron on digital - love it on M10Mono.

The 2,0:35 v3 is just as amazing - slightly more expensive but still underrated and relatively cheap for Leica 35mm lenses. Gives the perfect classic B/W look on M10Mono, IMO.

- Mads

Edited July 23, 2023 by MadsP

[oldwino]

I’ll put in a vote for the first version Elmarit 90/2.8. Great build, really lovely rendering, not too heavy. Would match well with that v3 Summicron 50. 

[shirubadanieru]

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Elmar 50mm f3.5, great performer and cheap. Plus it’s also the smallest / lightest 50mm Leica lens. 

[jaeger]

Any 24mm!  It's just because M system doesn't have the frame line for it, it becomes unwelcoming.  It's the widest range without significant distortion.  24mm is amazing in 16:9 & 2.35:1 format if you shoot videos too.  For still, I can crop the images to 28 or 35 frame lines if I wanted to, and it still have plenty resolutions.  All these because of a missing a frame line... 🙄

[fil-m]

The Summilux-M 24mm 

Compared to the already excellent Sx-28, slightly wider (without becoming as "complicated" as a 21mm) and shows less CA

Quite "cinematic" rendering to my eyes

[yanidel]

50mm Summicron. Plenty of them for around €1000. Great IQ, small and light.

[f8low]

Summaron 35 2.8

Classy build, tiny, sharp in the center, glows lovely, still affordable 

[dsj]

vor 9 Stunden schrieb MadsP:

Totally agree with @grahamc - the 2,0:50 v3 is amazing! My fave 50mm Summicron on digital - love it on M10Mono.

The 2,0:35 v3 is just as amazing - slightly more expensive but still underrated and relatively cheap for Leica 35mm lenses. Gives the perfect classic B/W look on M10Mono, IMO.

- Mads

Completely agree and not much to add!

[TomB_tx]

Agree that the 50 v3 Summicron is a great performer and good cost (for a Summicron), but having  used mine since 1969 I don't consider it under-rated, but I just haven't read criticism of it. 

However, the lens that got me into Leica was the 50 2.8 Elmar on an M2 that I borrowed. Lovely images (even though my 50 f2 Super Takumar was sharper).  The 2.8 Elmar was $78 in 1968-9 when I bought my M4. This month I'm using a 1962 50 2.8 Elmar again on my M10 - images are still lovely, and sharpness is more than adequate for normal viewing. 

[graphlex]

135mm Elmarit-M

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[Guest]

A closely related thread can be found here. I still vote for the 24mm Elmarit-M. A photo I took with this lens is here. Just one of more than 2k pictures I took with this lens during a recent trip to Japan.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Studienkamera

[rramesh]

The newer Summarits are underrated. They are very good lenses and due to a marketing failure by Leica, are still very affordable. With the low light performances of newer Leica M cameras, one should consider using a Summarit.

[Guest]

I bought a new silver 2.4/75mm Summarit-M recently. I had to return it because the aperture would not close. The optical performance at full aperture was impressive. However, I found the helicoid way too short (or steep), I did not like the screw-in hood and the lens overall just did not feel as good (or dense) as my silver chrome 50mm and 90mm lenses (to name the two focal lengths surrounding the 75mm one). While I am sure that many users will be happy with their Summarit lenses, they are not for me. The other thing I learned from this short encounter is that I found the 75mm frame lines painful to use, but I guess that's just me.

[AndreasG]

For me, the most underrated lens is the Elmarit 2.8/28 ASPH, both versions V1 and V2. Top image quality, small size, low weight and "reasonably" cheap. It has become my favourite lens over the years when travelling, all others - 18, 21, 25, 35, 50, 90 - I leave at home usually.

[otto.f]

21 hours ago, dennersten said:

defined here as cheap versus the quality

Totally agree on that for the Tele-Elmar 135, which is also very good for close-up when you screw the front part on bellows.

Next one in the row would be the Elmar-M 50mm which can be had for 800€ and is remarkable sharp already at 2.8 and in practice seldom significantly less good than the APO50.

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[Ernstk]

Another vote from me for the Summaron 35/2.8.

It's a wonderful little lens with the best build quality of any Leica lens that I've seen.

Ernst