Leica R Series Lenses
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p.201 #1Leica R Series Lenses
Almass wrote:
Krasivye Glaza and Great pose.
Almass, spasibo ))) This shot is randomly, but really nice )
Krasivye Glaza and Great pose.
Almass, spasibo ))) This shot is randomly, but really nice )
Aug 06, 2013 at 12:28 PM
p.201 #2Leica R Series Lenses
ok guys I finally broke down and ordered the 60 Macro-Elmarit. that brings my short macro count up to 5, and I am hoping the 60R will join my 50/2 MP and Zuiko macros in my little collection's upper echelon.
if you have owned it and one of the others, can you tell me what I'm getting into? Im expecting it to have the smoothest OoF rendering, most neutral color rendition, contrast between the other two and worse performance under f4 (or maybe even f5.6) and to suffer a bit below 1:10 or so since it lacks a close range correction / floating lens group (am I right about this?).
to be honest I bought this lens because of it's purported excellence in color handling and am tentative as to whether I will keep it or not. Also, what initially stopped me was that the Puts column on 50-60mm lenses and Leica's MTF graphs at f2.8 disagree in an amount which I consider to be not insignificant. On Leica's graphs, at f2.8 the lens in the center already hits MTF60 at 40 lp/mm although it doesn't hold this very long, but on Put's MTF it's only MTF40. At other apertures provided, the difference is basically non existent. I am curious if anyone has thoughts on that. I was looking but it doesn't appear that photodo ever measured the 60 macro elmarit.
I suppose since I already bought it I will be able to find out myself, but forewarned is forearmed, so please share any thoughts you have with me if you like.
if you have owned it and one of the others, can you tell me what I'm getting into? Im expecting it to have the smoothest OoF rendering, most neutral color rendition, contrast between the other two and worse performance under f4 (or maybe even f5.6) and to suffer a bit below 1:10 or so since it lacks a close range correction / floating lens group (am I right about this?).
to be honest I bought this lens because of it's purported excellence in color handling and am tentative as to whether I will keep it or not. Also, what initially stopped me was that the Puts column on 50-60mm lenses and Leica's MTF graphs at f2.8 disagree in an amount which I consider to be not insignificant. On Leica's graphs, at f2.8 the lens in the center already hits MTF60 at 40 lp/mm although it doesn't hold this very long, but on Put's MTF it's only MTF40. At other apertures provided, the difference is basically non existent. I am curious if anyone has thoughts on that. I was looking but it doesn't appear that photodo ever measured the 60 macro elmarit.
I suppose since I already bought it I will be able to find out myself, but forewarned is forearmed, so please share any thoughts you have with me if you like.
Aug 06, 2013 at 03:24 PM
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p.201 #3Leica R Series Lenses
Few last, from different lenses and different lighting, Fuji s5 Pro
R35/2
R50/1.4E60 WO
R35/1.4 WO
R35/2 WO
R35/2
R50/1.4E60 WO
R35/1.4 WO
R35/2 WO
Aug 06, 2013 at 05:36 PM
p.201 #4Leica R Series Lenses
Worldinlens wrote:
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6713/49690153.3a/0_a24ad_78de9798_orig.jpg
Wow... I'd call this 3D.
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6713/49690153.3a/0_a24ad_78de9798_orig.jpg
Wow... I'd call this 3D.
Aug 06, 2013 at 09:56 PM
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p.201 #5Leica R Series Lenses
I'm noticed with time that both R35 have very very nice and smooth rendering at the one-two stop down apertures. Maybe this is not news for all 
Aug 07, 2013 at 04:32 AM
p.201 #6Leica R Series Lenses
phuang3 wrote:
Wow... I'd call this 3D.
This is a very nice shot (as are the others in this wonderful series). But it leaves me stymied that anyone considers this "3D". I don't get it. It has good color, contrast, modeling. But it looks totally "2D" to me.
Not looking for a fight. Just sayin'!
Worldinlens wrote
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6713/49690153.3a/0_a24ad_78de9798_orig.jpgThis is a very nice shot (as are the others in this wonderful series). But it leaves me stymied that anyone considers this "3D". I don't get it. It has good color, contrast, modeling. But it looks totally "2D" to me.
Not looking for a fight. Just sayin'!
Aug 07, 2013 at 09:34 AM
p.201 #7Leica R Series Lenses
I prefer shooting film, partly because it discourages "testing" and encourages "photography." However, I recently acquired a NEX and Speed Booster, so now my testing addiction can recommence. I hope these remarks are appropriate here despite being more test than sample and being about a Leica/Metabones combination rather than just the Leica lens.
The Leica Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 f/3.5-4 has been criticized for having soft corners, especially at its widest angle and wide open. I tested this at a close focus distance, and found that, yes, at 15mm f/2.9 (indicated 21mm f/3.5), the corners might be charitably described as "overcooked oatmeal" in terms of fine resolution. They do become reasonably detailed at f/6.7 (indicated f/8), but I wanted to investigate more.
I tested for field curvature and found quite a bit of it. Using the corners to focus (at 14x magnification) rather than the center of the frame, I found that optimum focus on a cupboard in the corner of the image, about 7 feet away, required setting the lens to about 4 feet. Thus, this lens at an indicated 21mm has its corners focused further away than the center. This can lead the corners to appear quite soft when only the center of the image field was considered during focusing. When focusing for the corners, though, even wide open, the lens draws a fair amount of detail in those corners; the center, of course, will be softer due to being out of focus.
With a less extreme situation, I focused on a neighbor's chimney approximately 90 feet away, again wide open and set to an indicated 21mm. The corners were focused when set to about 8 feet; by way of reference, the center focused when set to the side of the infinity symbol. After some global edits--see the Flickr page for more detail--here is the result:
21-35 Comparison by jpb@pdx, on Flickr
The corner (on the left) has lower contrast, stronger chromatic aberrations, and notable sagittal blurring. Definitely inferior, but there is plenty of usable resolution; not oatmeal by any stretch.
The upshot for my photography is that, if I want sharp corners, I will stop down a bit and pull the focus slightly closer than would be optimal for the center frame. On the other hand, if I'm shooting close subjects, I can readily take any distracting corner details and blur them away by opening up the aperture and pushing the focus a bit.
In other news, at 25mm (indicated 35), when compared to the most recent Elmarit-R 35, the 21-35 has better corner performance--about three stops of improvement, even when not compensating for focus plane curvature--whereas the Elmarit is sharper in the center wide open than the 21-35 ever becomes.
Overall, I think the 21-35 is a great compromise for folks like me who want a general purpose wide lens that has great haptics. The drawbacks--limited range and speed, focal plane curvature, and lower peak performance than comparable prime lenses--are worthwhile considering how well everything else works out.
The Leica Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 f/3.5-4 has been criticized for having soft corners, especially at its widest angle and wide open. I tested this at a close focus distance, and found that, yes, at 15mm f/2.9 (indicated 21mm f/3.5), the corners might be charitably described as "overcooked oatmeal" in terms of fine resolution. They do become reasonably detailed at f/6.7 (indicated f/8), but I wanted to investigate more.
I tested for field curvature and found quite a bit of it. Using the corners to focus (at 14x magnification) rather than the center of the frame, I found that optimum focus on a cupboard in the corner of the image, about 7 feet away, required setting the lens to about 4 feet. Thus, this lens at an indicated 21mm has its corners focused further away than the center. This can lead the corners to appear quite soft when only the center of the image field was considered during focusing. When focusing for the corners, though, even wide open, the lens draws a fair amount of detail in those corners; the center, of course, will be softer due to being out of focus.
With a less extreme situation, I focused on a neighbor's chimney approximately 90 feet away, again wide open and set to an indicated 21mm. The corners were focused when set to about 8 feet; by way of reference, the center focused when set to the side of the infinity symbol. After some global edits--see the Flickr page for more detail--here is the result:
21-35 Comparison by jpb@pdx, on Flickr
The corner (on the left) has lower contrast, stronger chromatic aberrations, and notable sagittal blurring. Definitely inferior, but there is plenty of usable resolution; not oatmeal by any stretch.
The upshot for my photography is that, if I want sharp corners, I will stop down a bit and pull the focus slightly closer than would be optimal for the center frame. On the other hand, if I'm shooting close subjects, I can readily take any distracting corner details and blur them away by opening up the aperture and pushing the focus a bit.
In other news, at 25mm (indicated 35), when compared to the most recent Elmarit-R 35, the 21-35 has better corner performance--about three stops of improvement, even when not compensating for focus plane curvature--whereas the Elmarit is sharper in the center wide open than the 21-35 ever becomes.
Overall, I think the 21-35 is a great compromise for folks like me who want a general purpose wide lens that has great haptics. The drawbacks--limited range and speed, focal plane curvature, and lower peak performance than comparable prime lenses--are worthwhile considering how well everything else works out.
Aug 07, 2013 at 02:07 PM
p.201 #8Leica R Series Lenses
The speed booster has been shown to introduce some corner softness. BTW, I have been photographing more with the DMR than I ever did when I used film.
Aug 07, 2013 at 02:19 PM
p.201 #9Leica R Series Lenses
Late evening on Y Gamallt, Snowdonia National Park, Wales.
Elmarit 28mm v2 @F8
Elmarit 28mm v2 @F8
Aug 07, 2013 at 02:47 PM
p.201 #10Leica R Series Lenses
Haha, great family shots, Alex, I prefer the last series.
Aug 07, 2013 at 02:56 PM
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p.201 #11Leica R Series Lenses
Thanks buddy! It's a Fuji
Aug 07, 2013 at 04:07 PM
p.201 #13Leica R Series Lenses
sebboh wrote:
more like slightly richer man's XL rx1, i don't know where i could get that combo for less than an rx1 these days.
beautiful landscapes from kauai! i especially love the b&w ones. it looks like you didn't crop after correcting the distortion on the first of those btw.
Thanks for comments. I said poorman’s RX1 mainly refer its smaller overall size compare to other Alt FF setup. Since I have to have the FF body anyway, add a small 35 lens is a lot cheaper than RX1, in a sense for ‘poorman’ though it would be really hard to get the 35f2 performance along with that sensor.
Yeh, that is from the batch applied distortion and I forget turn on the auto crop I will fix it later.
Worldinlens wrote:
I'm noticed with time that both R35 have very very nice and smooth rendering at the one-two stop down apertures. Maybe this is not news for all
That is very true. 35lux at f2 is very smooth, smoother than 35cron. Alex, nice sets, I can see the beautiful color from Fuji you were talking about. People always say lens is important, but now-days, I have found Camera/sensor contribute a lot into final image, in some or most area, it contribute even more.
JonPB wrote:
The Leica Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 f/3.5-4 has been criticized for having soft corners
…
Overall, I think the 21-35 is a great compromise for folks like me who want a general purpose wide lens that has great haptics. The drawbacks--limited range and speed, focal plane curvature, and lower peak performance than comparable prime lenses--are worthwhile considering how well everything else works out.
Nice write up, it matches my finding. For last trip, I use 21-35 quite a bit, and always use 6D LV focus on corner if I could. And the result definitely a lot better than famous 16-9 review compare it to 14-24 Nikkor. I was thinking M240 LV implementation is acceptable at least you can focus and recompose, but how wrong I am, for lens like 21-35, there is no way you can optimize your result without scrolling focus at corner. It has huge discrepancy compare to DOF scale suggested. At 21, f8-f11, the DOF covered center loss, make whole image much more usable.
Quote in my PM reply to another FM member about this 21-35: 21-35 is very nice at 21mm, excellent at 24mm, and superb after 28. Its 35 performance outperform my 35cron (not only on corner, but whole frame) for sure. (I never serious tested 35lux, that lens is fixed f1.4/f2 for me) At 21, f8 is very decent and the optimized cross frame performance is at f11, not great for having to wait this far but doesn’t bother me for landscape use.
Here are few 50lux E48 shots.
zhangyue wrote
35cron 6D Kauai. my poorman's RX1beautiful landscapes from kauai! i especially love the b&w ones. it looks like you didn't crop after correcting the distortion on the first of those btw.
Thanks for comments. I said poorman’s RX1 mainly refer its smaller overall size compare to other Alt FF setup. Since I have to have the FF body anyway, add a small 35 lens is a lot cheaper than RX1, in a sense for ‘poorman’ though it would be really hard to get the 35f2 performance along with that sensor.
Yeh, that is from the batch applied distortion and I forget turn on the auto crop
I will fix it later.Worldinlens wrote:
I'm noticed with time that both R35 have very very nice and smooth rendering at the one-two stop down apertures. Maybe this is not news for all
That is very true. 35lux at f2 is very smooth, smoother than 35cron. Alex, nice sets, I can see the beautiful color from Fuji you were talking about. People always say lens is important, but now-days, I have found Camera/sensor contribute a lot into final image, in some or most area, it contribute even more.
JonPB wrote:
The Leica Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 f/3.5-4 has been criticized for having soft corners
…
Overall, I think the 21-35 is a great compromise for folks like me who want a general purpose wide lens that has great haptics. The drawbacks--limited range and speed, focal plane curvature, and lower peak performance than comparable prime lenses--are worthwhile considering how well everything else works out.
Nice write up, it matches my finding. For last trip, I use 21-35 quite a bit, and always use 6D LV focus on corner if I could. And the result definitely a lot better than famous 16-9 review compare it to 14-24 Nikkor. I was thinking M240 LV implementation is acceptable at least you can focus and recompose, but how wrong I am, for lens like 21-35, there is no way you can optimize your result without scrolling focus at corner. It has huge discrepancy compare to DOF scale suggested. At 21, f8-f11, the DOF covered center loss, make whole image much more usable.
Quote in my PM reply to another FM member about this 21-35: 21-35 is very nice at 21mm, excellent at 24mm, and superb after 28. Its 35 performance outperform my 35cron (not only on corner, but whole frame) for sure. (I never serious tested 35lux, that lens is fixed f1.4/f2 for me) At 21, f8 is very decent and the optimized cross frame performance is at f11, not great for having to wait this far but doesn’t bother me for landscape use.
Here are few 50lux E48 shots.
Aug 08, 2013 at 11:19 AM
p.201 #14Leica R Series Lenses
zhangyue wrote:
That is very true. 35lux at f2 is very smooth, smoother than 35cron. Alex, nice sets, I can see the beautiful color from Fuji you were talking about. People always say lens is important, but now-days, I have found Camera/sensor contribute a lot into final image, in some or most area, it contribute even more.
On that note, I was wondering how modern lenses like Canon's 35mm f1.4 L or the newer 35mm f2 IS stack up to R lenses in terms of sharpness, contrast and bokeh. Ignoring build quality, AF and IS, the price range is similar, but I would expect the newer lenses to be sharper. Anyone have any experience with these and a Leica 35 cron or lux?
Worldinlens wrote
I'm noticed with time that both R35 have very very nice and smooth rendering at the one-two stop down apertures. Maybe this is not news for allOn that note, I was wondering how modern lenses like Canon's 35mm f1.4 L or the newer 35mm f2 IS stack up to R lenses in terms of sharpness, contrast and bokeh. Ignoring build quality, AF and IS, the price range is similar, but I would expect the newer lenses to be sharper. Anyone have any experience with these and a Leica 35 cron or lux?
Aug 08, 2013 at 11:31 AM
p.201 #15Leica R Series Lenses
Edited on Jul 17, 2025 at 11:08 PM · View previous versions
Aug 08, 2013 at 01:09 PM
p.201 #16Leica R Series Lenses
One of the first images from the Leitax'ed 180/3.4 APO and D800 combo. Shutter speed a bit too low, so the sharpness isn't quite what it could be, but it's plenty sharp even with a slight amount of motion blur.
Obviously the F-mount has been installed - waiting on the aperture ring ball detent spring to arrive to get rid of the the "click-less" aperture (great for video, not so great for stills).
I'll get it out for some landscapes in the next couple of days.
- John
Engrossed In Harry Potter
Obviously the F-mount has been installed - waiting on the aperture ring ball detent spring to arrive to get rid of the the "click-less" aperture (great for video, not so great for stills).
I'll get it out for some landscapes in the next couple of days.
- John
Engrossed In Harry Potter
Aug 08, 2013 at 01:56 PM
p.201 #17Leica R Series Lenses
bayouboy63 wrote:
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/1985/82mq.jpgMay I ask what f stop and any other info on this image? Thank you.
R apo 100 + Elpro 1:1
ring flash + diffuser
2 sec timer + Monopod
live view on nex 6 + peak focusing
F16
crop
xenon99 wrote
r apo 100http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/1985/82mq.jpg
R apo 100 + Elpro 1:1
ring flash + diffuser
2 sec timer + Monopod
live view on nex 6 + peak focusing
F16
crop
Aug 08, 2013 at 05:50 PM
p.201 #18Leica R Series Lenses
A couple of quick hand-held shots from down at the beach this afternoon.
Leitz 180/3.4 APO on a D800. Probably f/5.6.
Heading To Tacoma
Space Needle & Puget Sound
Leitz 180/3.4 APO on a D800. Probably f/5.6.
Heading To Tacoma
Space Needle & Puget Sound
Aug 08, 2013 at 09:14 PM
p.201 #20Leica R Series Lenses
80/1.4 worth 2.5 kilopresidents for a s**tographer like me?
or 90/2 ASPH for 3.1 kilopresidents for that matter....
or 90/2 ASPH for 3.1 kilopresidents for that matter....
Aug 08, 2013 at 11:09 PM