Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Simon Ogilvie wrote: > Stephen, > I was interested in your comments about the 90/4 Rokkor lens. > I've just bought an old 90/4 Elmar screw-mount lens with a > screw-to-M adaptor. I assume that the Rokkor is considered > optically superior to this Elmar? > The 90/4 Elmar screw mount design dates from the 30's, although it did gain coating after the war. There are TWO 90/4 Rokkors. The first was for the CL and is the same optically as the 90/4 Elmar for the CL. The later CLE 90/4 Rokkor has a slightly different optical design and has standard Leica parallel RF coupling, and UNLIKE the earlier version, is multicoated. I find it to be a great lens, although I have not compared it to the current 90/2.8 which many people rate very highly. Because so many people confuse the CLE 90/4 with the earlier version for the CL, it sells cheaply, usually for the same price as the CL lens($300-400). Thus its usually an underpriced bargain. I believe the CLE 90/4 Rokkor is a better performer than the 90/4 for the CL, the older 90/4 Elmar screw mount, the 90/2.8 Tele-Elmarit, the older version of the 90/2.8 Elmarit, and even slightly better than the 90/2 Summicron. Exactly how it compares to the current 90/2.8 Elmarit I am not sure, but I would expect that the performance of the two lenses to be very close. Regards, Stephen