[Leica] Leica SL 90-280 Lens

[Mark Rabiner]

At first thought a 90-280mm sounds like an insanely hyper extended zoom no pro would use but it’s just a 70-300 with the ends snipped with a cigar cutter. 
Serious shooters tend to like 80-200’s not 70-300s. But I’m ok with them. I use them and am getting another one later this year. 
What I am getting is the just out AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm  f/4.5-5.6E ED VR  $746.95 as I trashed my earlier G version shooting upwards in the rain last year getting some of the best shots in my life.. Just a few foggy elements they refuse to clean it. Had I been shooting with a pro grade 80-200 2.8 it would have been sealed and I’d still have a lens and silk long underwear.
The new out Nikon “E” lens weights a pound and a half to the Vario-Elmarit-SL’ s 4 pounds. It will not make as sharp an image as the $6000 Vario-Elmarit-SL but will have its moments as it’s got stuff like VR Rated 4.5 stops improvement so you can shoot a tree in the dark hand held with an less than a million iso and it’s got stuff no one has like an E Electronic diaphragm and AF-P: “Stepper autofocus motor” faster and quieter lens  both of which which others don’t have yet. For the price of the Leica lens I can get eight of these. What I need is wool socks. Thinner ones. I can get those too then can stop my lenses form clanging in my bag.

I think where they went wrong with this Leica lens for the SL is making it a f2.8-4 which is the beginning of  making of a monster. Anybody walking around with a current 80-200 2.8 AF?  You’d have  to have arms like Popeye. You can settle for an f 4 or 4.5 when you’re out all day with it Some very mouthwatering and tele zooms that no one is embarrassed about using are not f2.8’s F 4 is the new f2.8.*   But Leica’s main focus now seems to be all about non-affordability.  I you could possibly in a million years afford it what good is it? It’s for people who drive Ferraris; Leica has said goodbye to serious pros long ago. A serious pro could afford the body but not keep up at all with the glass. And it’s all about the glass. And having a second body.


* I could wait for more money and get the AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR  for twice the cost at $1400.
Probably better sealed than the AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm  f/4.5-5.6E ED VR  
I feel like I should be able to shoot in the rain. And always have.
 
 

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Mark William Rabiner
Photographer

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