Archive 2016 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

Lee Saxon
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

Hey guys,

I was surprised I wasn't able to find many threads about this.

What do you say? Beyond the obvious that the Distagon is twice as long, a bit heavier, a stop faster, and way more expensive. Assume we're talking about the Zeiss ZF.2 generation which isn't as different from Leica R's in color as the Contax Zeiss generation was.

Sep 12, 2016 at 10:08 PM

johnahill
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

I haven't owned the 28/2 distagon but have owned the e55 Elmarit-R and the ZF 25/2.8

I tested both on 5D2 a couple of years back and found that for my normal shooting distance (towards infinity) they were very hard to separate.

Leica was a touch warmer, Zeiss had a bit more micro-contrast, sharpness they were comparable.

How that test would fare now on 36+mp is a good question.

I no longer have the Leica

Sep 13, 2016 at 05:12 AM

Sam_W
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

It depends whether you're talking about the Elmarit-R 2.8/28 v1 (11204 or 11247) from 1970 to 1992, or the Elmarit-R 2.8/28 v2 (11259 or 11333) from 1993 to 2009.

The prior is an okay lens, but wouldn't compare with either the ZF.2 or C/Y versions of the Distagon 2/28. Plus it's quite a cheap lens.

If you're talking about the latter, the v2, then it's both pricier than the ZF.2 version, and also on par or better, even though the design is 15-20 years older, give or take. It's one of those lenses that reaches a certain equilibrium (not perfection), by f/5.6, kind of like the old C/Y Distagon 2,8/21. Even wide open it's great. Two stops down, and it's got very solid, even performance across the field. Sharpness, microcontrast, colours, handling of shadows, etc.

Sep 13, 2016 at 10:45 AM

f.hayek
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

I've owned both; found the Zeiss to be a well-constructed and wonderful lens with vivid colors & contrast but the curvature of field could get a bit unwieldy at closer range and on a D700, wasn't as sharp as I'd expected (could just have been my sample). At the time, superior to any Nikkor 28 with the exception of the Nikkor 28/2.8 AIS.

The 28 Elmarit v.2 is smaller, colors are rendered with masterful subtlety, and as mentioned above, shadow detail is well-preserved and it resolved like no 28 I'd previously used from any maker, straight from ƒ/2.8. Compact, built-in hood. It was the first Leica lens I ever owned and was the dreaded gateway drug to Leica glass (I've since moved on from Nikon and DSLR's, with that damnable 28 to blame). Pricey, and MF; the latest CaNikon 28's are pretty impressive and with AF, they have narrowed the gap greatly.

Sep 13, 2016 at 09:56 PM

billsamuels
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

I have a 25mm Distagon T* F/2, which is close to the 28mm, but I had originally wanted to get the 28mm. The reason I didn't was because on B&H's website, the user-reviews weren't that favorable for that lens, and I think it's the only Zeiss lens that isn't rated very favorably. It gets 9 five stars and 4 four stars. Usually you see only five stars on Zeiss lenses. The complaints are fairly apparent color fringing/chromatic abberations, and vignetting when wide-open. I have the vignetting problem with my 25mm even when not wide open, but my biggest complaint is that even though it's a ZE and has exposure communication w/ the camera, I have to stop-down a lot or my photos are all over-exposed.

Sep 14, 2016 at 03:56 PM

f.hayek
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

Ah, the color fringing. And the vignetting. The former was indeed an issue whilst the latter I tended to use to my advantage in isolating a subject IIRC, f/5.6 made it go away

Sep 14, 2016 at 05:35 PM

DavidBM
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

I really like the ZE 28. I've never owned it, but have used it, and have occasionally almost pressed the button on a good used copy.

It's a bit of a one trick pony: I love it for environmental portraits using the huge field curvature to your advantage. It had a great look used this way. It's also fine stopped right down at infinity, though there are cheaper and smaller options that are just as fine for this use case.

Sep 14, 2016 at 05:46 PM

billsamuels
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

Surprisingly, there really are a lot of wide angle lenses that do a super job. The EF 16-35 F/4 or even the faster one. The Korean-made lenses are sharp as a tack. And I've never owned one, but I hear nothing but good things about Sigma, especially the Art series.

Sep 14, 2016 at 05:58 PM

Sam_W
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit-R II vs Zeiss 28/2 Distagon

billsamuels wrote:
Surprisingly, there really are a lot of wide angle lenses that do a super job. The EF 16-35 F/4 or even the faster one. The Korean-made lenses are sharp as a tack. And I've never owned one, but I hear nothing but good things about Sigma, especially the Art series.

Quite true. There's just so many quality wides near the 28mm mark.

If you're buying something like Elmarit-R 2.8/28 v2, it's because of the overall gestalt of the Leica drawing style, to use for video purposes (lots of RED users love R glass), or some more obscure reason (e.g. collecting all R f/2.8 glass for the hell of it), or somesuch. The price/performance ratio has been far overrun on most R glass these days, even when account for the Leica markup and so forth.

When people ask for a recommendation, I point them to the Sigma Art series if they want autofocus. Occasionally CaNikon glass. If it's wide to super-wide, 3rd party is usually good enough.

Sep 14, 2016 at 11:15 PM


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