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Archive 2015 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90

  
 
nampramos
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Hi guys!

I have been using the Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90 for quite some time and I love the lens. It is small, light and super sharp.

Yesterday I found a Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 and pulled the trigger. I should have it in my hands by the end of the week.

I intend to shoot them in real life (no charts) side by side and see how they behave. I will also take some shots of both lenses for size comparison and weight them both.

Did anyone do any side by side comparisons between these two lenses before?

I plan on only keeping one of them. Anyone care to guess which one it will be before I even compare them?

Regarding the Leica, I got a very early copy, from 1973. Does this take regular filters on it or the special threaded ones sometimes Leica uses?

Cheers!



Sep 21, 2015 at 02:20 AM
uhoh7
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


I have these two as well. TE takes 39mm but not sure of the pitch. Might be normal.

The Lanthar should be sharper and better with color. The TE is faster

I loved the TE on the Nex-5n but with A7 and M9 it did not seem so crisp, so I ended up with 90/2.5 and 90/3.5

TE is swell lens though. Copy variation might effect preference too.

Here is Lanthar on A7.mod:


The Tops by unoh7, f/4.5

on M9:

L1021184 by unoh7, on Flickr

Here is TE 90 on M9:


L1002734 by unoh7, f/8

another at f/4ish:

L1002741 by unoh7, on Flickr

Gorgeous shot below VVVVV

Edited on Sep 21, 2015 at 02:54 AM · View previous versions



Sep 21, 2015 at 02:37 AM
twoeye
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


I have not tried the Apo-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90, but assuming the SL-version is similar, it is pretty good across the frame from wide open.

The Tele-Elmarit´s weakness is corner performance and some purple fringing wide open. Closing down to f5,6-8 improves both corner sharpness and fringing:







I have replaced both with the Contax G90 for my lightweight landscape kit.



Sep 21, 2015 at 02:42 AM
mortyb
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


^ Nice!


Sep 21, 2015 at 05:05 AM
nampramos
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Great shots! Thank you for that.

I really need to get myself to Norway. Now that I am living in Stockholm I have no excuses.
This Winter I will start by going north in Sweden, to the region around Kiruna. Hope to get lots of Northern Lights.
Next year need to go to the mountains in Norway and the Fjords.



Sep 21, 2015 at 06:24 AM
twoeye
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


nampramos wrote:
Great shots! Thank you for that.

I really need to get myself to Norway. Now that I am living in Stockholm I have no excuses.
This Winter I will start by going north in Sweden, to the region around Kiruna. Hope to get lots of Northern Lights.
Next year need to go to the mountains in Norway and the Fjords.


I am afraid these mountains outperform the Norwegian ones, the first photo is Matterhorn as seen from Italy, the second is the Italian side of the Alps and the lifts above Cervino.

One wide open example with rather soft corners:




Sep 21, 2015 at 06:48 AM
nampramos
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Still Norway is beautiful!

It would never cross my mind to shoot landscape wide open so that is of no importance to me. For portraits I think it is a good quality in a lens (the soft corners).

Looking forward to getting my hands on mine.



Sep 21, 2015 at 07:58 AM
f.hayek
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Erwin Puts evaluated the CV 90 and in an entry no longer posted on his site, declared that at equivalent f-stops, it equaled or outperformed the last 90 Elmarit. Probably not truly APO but nearly so. The SL-versions are optically identical; that's the one I've had for several years and it's a great lens. Colors are true and really sharp WO if you can subsist without the speed.


Sep 21, 2015 at 06:17 PM
nampramos
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Thanks! I don't expect to see any performance improvement to be honest but if I get the same and almost 1 extra stop, then I will be happy with that.

Need to get a snap-on front cap and a UV filter for it. The seller already mailed it and it's on the way.



Sep 22, 2015 at 05:14 AM
jhinkey
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Love my 90/3.5 SL-II on my D800, but I am looking for a more native 90mm lens of smaller size/weight for my A7RII. There are several Leica 90mm non-fast options and have not been able to test too many of them. So far corner performance is lacking compared to the Voigt. My quest will continue and I'm curious how this thread will compare the two.


Sep 23, 2015 at 03:19 PM
nampramos
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Hi John!

I just got my Tele-Elmarit-M 90/2.8 delivered an hour ago or so. It is a slow day in terms of work so went straight to taking some photos of it

Here are my findings regarding size and weight.

Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 90/2.8
209g (naked)
243g (with hood)
61 mm long

Voigtländer APO Lanthar 90/3.5 LTM
257g (naked, with LTM-M adapter on)
274g (with hood)
63 mm long

So the Leica is actually lighter and slightly shorter than the Voigtländer. I did not measure the exact diameter of both but the Leica is considerable thiner as well. Good news, since it is 2/3 of a stop faster than the Voigtländer. The hood for the Leica is huge compared to the one from the Voigtländer. Nothing that bothers me since I do not plan on using it (there is not better hood than my hand/arm )

Will performance be compromised though? I will test out during the following days and let you guys know.

























Sep 24, 2015 at 08:59 AM
arduluth
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


nampramos wrote:
Hope to get lots of Northern Lights.


...

nampramos wrote:
It would never cross my mind to shoot landscape wide open so that is of no importance to me.





Sep 24, 2015 at 10:49 AM
nampramos
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Haha

Good one!

I wouldn't put it the same way for astrophotography/auroras.

But good one. That's what the media does all the time. Turn the words "around"



Sep 24, 2015 at 12:12 PM
f.hayek
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


jhinkey wrote:
Love my 90/3.5 SL-II on my D800, but I am looking for a more native 90mm lens of smaller size/weight for my A7RII. There are several Leica 90mm non-fast options and have not been able to test too many of them. So far corner performance is lacking compared to the Voigt. My quest will continue and I'm curious how this thread will compare the two.


The Leica 90 Elmarit (last version, 11 807) weighed in at only 395 gms and is was a wonderful optic. The price has unfortunately risen; was something in the order of $800 in '09 (I think) but these days, closer to $1200-1300.



Sep 24, 2015 at 01:56 PM
nampramos
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Went for a quick walk in the late afternoon with the 90/2.8 without the hood.

Here's some quick shots with some PP in LR.
First 4 are WO @ f/2.8 and the last 2 are at f/8.
Shot 2 & 3 are practically the same, only difference is that on number 3 I used my hand to block the sun from going straight into the lens.
Number 4 is straight into the sun, no way of doing anything with the hand like in number 3.
I don't think it is as sharp as the Voigtlander at infinity (if you are pixel peeping) but good enough.
Side by side comparisons I will do them during the weekend.

















Sep 24, 2015 at 02:47 PM
arduluth
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


nampramos wrote:
Haha

Good one!

I wouldn't put it the same way for astrophotography/auroras.

But good one. That's what the media does all the time. Turn the words "around"


Heh, I hope it didn't come off as too snarky! I know a lot of folks wouldn't use a 90mm for aurora/astro, but so many of mine are between 35mm and 70mm that I personally wouldn't want to rule out wide open performance as a factor.



Sep 24, 2015 at 03:00 PM
uhoh7
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


f.hayek wrote:
The Leica 90 Elmarit (last version, 11 807) weighed in at only 395 gms and is was a wonderful optic. The price has unfortunately risen; was something in the order of $800 in '09 (I think) but these days, closer to $1200-1300.


I also tried the 90 Elmarit-M, which of course is a totally different lens than the TE. Weight is 410 grams, and it's long and front heavy. This was the main reason I sent mine back to Keh. I agree this is one of the very best Leica 90s, and way ahead of the TE.

Here wide open on M9:

L1003665 by unoh7, on Flickr

Another great one, though I cannot tell how sharp it really is, is the M-Hexanon 90/2.8, much shorter and much lighter than the Elmarit-M, but the copy I got was way out in calibration, so that too had to go back.

I settled on the 90/2.5 Summarit, which I thought was every bit the equal of the Elmarit-M but shorter and lighter, so it feels alot lighter. The new 2.4 version I think will focus closer. This is the favorite walk about 90 of Erwin Puts.

Here on A7 stock camera, WO

DSC08456 by unoh7, not a good shot to see how sharp it gets, but the render is pretty clear.

But a good M-hex is about 500, and really might be great if cost is a concern. Here was one shot I think I hit:

L1003067 by unoh7, M-Hex 90 This is reputed to have the best bokeh of all the really good M 90s. In fact I look at this shot, and I want to go find another. Great handling, better than Summarit.

Both the Elmarit M and the Summarit have fallen dramatically in value in the last year. 1k should get you a great copy of either.

All that said, the TE is very small light and pretty fast. And about 600USD these days. The sharpest tiny 90 would be the macro-elmar which is down to about 1850 these days.



Sep 24, 2015 at 06:55 PM
nampramos
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


Thanks for the photos!

I used the Tele-Elmarit-M a lot this weekend and will upload some photos soon.

The Elmarit-M is a little bit longer (in focal length) than the Lanthar. The few shots I took with both show very little difference, if any, on the 12MP A7s sensor. They were infinity shots.

I will try to take some shots of the bokeh at mfd today if I have the time.

All in all, I really enjoy the smaller size of the Elmarit-M and will definitely keep it and sell the Lanthar. Not saying that the Lanthar is not a great lens, because it is!



Sep 29, 2015 at 02:19 AM
nampramos
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 vs. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar LTM 3.5/90


I will do better side by side this week but here is one from two weekends ago.

First shot is from the Leica and second from the Voigtländer. The Leica is slightly longer as you can see.
Performance wise, on this shot I cannot really see any difference. Both at f/8, focused at infinity and on a tripod taken seconds apart. Both resized to 1MP with LR. No editing done. Straight from RAW.





This second set is 100% views of the above shots for those that really need it (you peeping fans ), original size.






And here are the original RAW files:

Leica: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4127465/DSC08266.ARW
Voigtländer: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4127465/DSC08267.ARW








Oct 05, 2015 at 04:00 AM





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