Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 01:12 PM 6/2/01 -0700, you wrote: >I need a bit of advice on 90 mm lenses Early on there was the 90mm f2.8 Elmarit; it was a long-focus lens, not a telephoto design, and the lens head unscrews and can be used on the Visoflex etc. To the best of my recollection, one I had about 25 years ago had a 39mm filter size. Next (and concurrently for a while) was the "fat" Tele-Elmarit. This is a true telephoto design, is shorter than the Elmarit, larger in diameter and is _heavy_. Then came the "thin" Tele-Elmarit, which is quite a bit lighter. Both take 39mm filters. I compared the Elmarit and "thin" Tele-Elmarit and found that the Elmarit was perhaps somewhat better at wide apertures at close range but it wasn't a tremendous difference. My comparison was done back then by shooting "real" photos on Tri-X to be developed in Rodinal 1:75, so probably only gross differences would show up. The upshot was that since I wanted to use the lens on a CL the Elmarit obscured too much finder view so I sold it and kept the Tele. I also had a 90 Summicron for use on the M4s; that lens was a real honey. I'm not sure it was any better than the Elmarit or the Tele, but it had a really nice look, today we'd call it good bokeh. Lately I've seen mentioned a few problems apparently fairly common to one or both versions of the Tele-Elmarit; those are coating flaking and something happening to the rear element. I believe I've seen stated that it's _corrosion_ of all things. Today I have the current 90 Elmarit; it's mighty good. At any rate, if I wanted to buy one of the old lenses and didn't care about the speed I'd look for the plain old 90mm Elmarit. John Hicks jbh@magicnet.net