My latest purchase: Apo-Telyt 180/3.4

[poynterama]

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I was fortunate enough to 'get lucky' and buy an Apo-Telyt R 180/3.4 at a very good price recently I took a deep breath and submitted an absentee bid at an auction (real, not online!) and was very surprised to find that it sold for AU$100 less than my (extremely) lowball bid!

A friend had seen the lens but not knowing the first thing about it, said it 'looked OK', which turned out to be an understatement as now it has turned up on the doorstep, I would have almost believed it was brand new!

 

I was also surprised to find that it was the later model with E60 filter mount (serial number beginning with 3), which I wasn't expecting. To be honest, it wasn't until today that I realised that this later model existed! I was expecting a two-cam version with the 7.5 series filter! Had I paid a little more attention to what I read beforehand this should have been obvious

 

From my searches, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there in the way of comparisons between the two models. One would assume that the later model was an improvement, but how so? From the comments on the 'which Leica product do you wish you owned sooner' thread, the 180/3.4 gets a high commendation but I was under the impression that these comments refer to the early lens.

 

I'd appreciate any comments or further information (plus images, naturally!) about the Apo-Telyt 180. Unfortunately I haven't had time to put it to use yet but I'll be sure to show some results when I do

 

Many thanks

Sam

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[JBA]

This lens is one of the main reasons I bought into the Leica R system. I have not been disappointed. Its retina-searing sharpness and color redition are simply amazing.

 

The different versions of this lens have been discussed here before, and I believe there is no optical difference between them, only the filter size.

 

Congratulations, you are going to love this lens!

[doubice]

Congratulations on your new toy! The 3.4/180mm Apo-Telyt and 2.8/100mm Apo-Macro Elmarit are two lenses that I should have kept when I sold my R6.... The 180 is a superb optic - originally designed for the US military, only produced by Leitz Canada (Elcan) and optimized for infinity focus. Many have found that it was a stunner even at closer distances...

 

I can confirm that the only difference between the Series 7.5 and E-60 versions was the filter mount.

 

Enjoy!

 

Jan

[SteveYork]

I just purchased one too for my new SLR outfit -- for substantially more then $100 AU. It sounds like you got an good deal for an good lens. The MTF graphs of this lens are extremely impressive. There's some question about it's close focusing ability, so it's not a portrait lens, but I got it for nature photography. I've also read that it's a good performer with the 2x converter.

[lct]

Significant vignetting at full aperture, easy to adjust in PP. Otherwise great lens in every respect but the minimum focus distance of 2.5 meter is too long compared to modern designs. IQ wise, excellent results with the Canon 5D.

Here 2 pics with the later at f/3.4 (ship) and f/4 (flowers), 200 iso, vignetting adjusted for the ship.

[poynterama]

Many thanks for the replies and the clarification over the two series

 

Lovely shots lct, I look forward to posting some of my own soon!

[nikau]

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LCT summed it up well. I owned two of them at various times, an early one and the later 60mm filter version. Not knowing it wasn't supposed to be good at closer distances, I routinely used it for portraits and even macro via extension tubes and thought the results were stunning at any aperture, any distance. In its day, and probably even now, transparencies taken with the 180 3.4 just jumped out at you from the lightbox, such was the sharpness, contrast and colour rendition. One of Leica's all-time great lenses.