advice on choosing r lens

[masjah]

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Does anyone have any advice, experience or opinions about the 28 - 90 f2.8 - 4.5 Vario-Elmarit aspherical please?

 

Pete.

 

Another strong recommendation for the 28-90; I think it is excellent. Mine lives on my R8 all the time, with 400 Superia Extra, as my travelling outfit.

[dkCambridgeshire]

The 28-90 R is one of the finest zoom lenses ever made and will out-perform R prime lenses within its aperture and focal length ranges. The only other lens you might need is a 50mm Summicron for low light ... and even the Mk 1 version is a superb performer. Jonathan Eastland recently used a 1970's Mk 1 50/2 Summicron R on a GR1 digital camera and the results were amazing.

 

Cheers

 

dunk

[SteveYork]

I just put together an R system and went through the same mental gymnastics. Zooms aren't really for me, because every time I reached for the zoom I would hit the focus, and visa versa. Two points, that are obvious, zooms tend to be bigger and heavier and slower. Having said all that, the most recent Leica zooms are optically superb, even the f/4. A nice little system could be made up of the 35-70/4 and the 80-200/4. You could then add a wider and longer prime for those occasional uses. Part of me wishes I had gone this way, but I went for an older camera system that didn't take ROM lenses. The most recent f/4 zooms are the best 'bang for the buck,' because they can be had relatively inexpensively. Their MTF graphs are relatively impressive, and I've only heard good things about them. I had the telephoto zoom in the house for awhile and it was easy to handle. The faster zooms are much more expensive (and a lot heavier) -- but some of that heaviness will be offset by your lighter wallet, and you won;t need your gym membership anymore; so maybe it's a wash. I wouldn't worry about the f/4 speed, because curren t high speed film is good (e.g., porta 800).