I recently purchased The Leica Elmarit-R 60 Makro after reading Erwin Puts review (he says its one of the best all round lenses). I tested it against my 50 Cron which I have to say looks sharper than the 60 Elmarit (the images were all shot at F5.6 and F4), the subject was 5 feet away, 20ft and 30ft, On all images, the Cron looked sharper. The 60 Elmarit seems to have this soft minimal glow on everything (veiling haze). I also shot a couple of portraits (head and shoulders) with the Elmarit at F2.8 and they looked really soft. After what I have read and all the images I have seen on this thread I expected the Elmarit to be much sharper. The version I have of the Elmarit 60 is the E55 which seems to have a subtle barrel movement when focusing (slight wobble), similar to what happens when a lens moves in an adapter. The lens is like new in perfect condition apart from the subtle barrel movement. I will give it another test today stopped right down (f8/11) to see how it performs.
Also I'm using it adapted for my canon 5d mk3. I'm new to the Leica thing so all feedback/ advice would be welcome
I recently purchased The Leica Elmarit-R 60 Makro after reading Erwin Puts review (he says its one of the best all round lenses). I tested it against my 50 Cron which I have to say looks sharper than the 60 Elmarit (the images were all shot at F5.6 and F4), the subject was 5 feet away, 20ft and 30ft, On all images, the Cron looked sharper. The 60 Elmarit seems to have this soft minimal glow on everything (veiling haze). I also shot a couple of portraits (head and shoulders) with the Elmarit at F2.8 and they looked really soft. After what I have read and all the images I have seen on this thread I expected the Elmarit to be much sharper. The version I have of the Elmarit 60 is the E55 which seems to have a subtle barrel movement when focusing (slight wobble), similar to what happens when a lens moves in an adapter. The lens is like new in perfect condition apart from the subtle barrel movement. I will give it another test today stopped right down (f8/11) to see how it performs.
Also I'm using it adapted for my canon 5d mk3. I'm new to the Leica thing so all feedback/ advice would be welcome
StephenR62 wrote:
I recently purchased The Leica Elmarit-R 60 Makro after reading Erwin Puts review (he says its one of the best all round lenses). I tested it against my 50 Cron which I have to say looks sharper than the 60 Elmarit (the images were all shot at F5.6 and F4), the subject was 5 feet away, 20ft and 30ft, On all images, the Cron looked sharper. The 60 Elmarit seems to have this soft minimal glow on everything (veiling haze). I also shot a couple of portraits (head and shoulders) with the Elmarit at F2.8 and they looked really soft. After what I have read and all the images I have seen on this thread I expected the Elmarit to be much sharper. The version I have of the Elmarit 60 is the E55 which seems to have a subtle barrel movement when focusing (slight wobble), similar to what happens when a lens moves in an adapter. The lens is like new in perfect condition apart from the subtle barrel movement. I will give it another test today stopped right down (f8/11) to see how it performs.
Also I'm using it adapted for my canon 5d mk3. I'm new to the Leica thing so all feedback/ advice would be welcome ...Show more →
Are you checking focus via LV? The 60 Macro can be tricky. If you're sure about focus, then I'd say you've got a dud copy. Mine was very sharp at those apertures.
Thanks for your input. I used live view so the image was definitely in focus. It's the soft haze over the image that seems to soften the image (soft glow). I noticed today that shooting in a contrasty light it seemed a lot better (sharp and punchy). Im searching this thread for good examples of images shot on the 60 makro
StephenR62 wrote:
Thanks for your input. I used live view so the image was definitely in focus. It's the soft haze over the image that seems to soften the image (soft glow). I noticed today that shooting in a contrasty light it seemed a lot better (sharp and punchy). Im searching this thread for good examples of images shot on the 60 makro
That sounds like SA (something your 50 'cron should show significantly more of) and may be due to a misalignment of the elements in the 60.
Well, we missed totality. We were in the path and expected 2.5 minutes of totality for the eclipse, but it was totally clouded over--no chance for a picture. It was still really great to experience the sudden drop in light levels as totality occurred and the crickets started singing thinking it was night time. Temperature dropped too. After totality, the clouds started breaking up a bit and I got a few pics. Here is a sampling. All taken with A7rii and Leica R 280/4 apo. First few just had a 2x extender and after I added a 1.4x. At first, the cloud cover was so heavy, I just used the naked lens. After a bit, I added the 18 stop formatt solar filter.
Luvwine wrote:
Cross posted from FE images thread...
Well, we missed totality. We were in the path and expected 2.5 minutes of totality for the eclipse, but it was totally clouded over--no chance for a picture. It was still really great to experience the sudden drop in light levels as totality occurred and the crickets started singing thinking it was night time. Temperature dropped too. After totality, the clouds started breaking up a bit and I got a few pics. Here is a sampling. All taken with A7rii and Leica R 280/4 apo. First few just had a 2x extender and after I added a 1.4x. At first, the cloud cover was so heavy, I just used the naked lens. After a bit, I added the 18 stop formatt solar filter.
Steve Spencer wrote:
If I understand correctly, those are actually sun spots. I think whenever you use the extreme sun filter you can observe sun spots.
Quite right and they are a terrific aid in focusing! I thought John knew that and was joking tho it is occasionally hard to tell with the written word....
Luvwine wrote:
Quite right and they are a terrific aid in focusing! I thought John knew that and was joking tho it is occasionally hard to tell with the written word....
Yes, I did know that and I was just joking, but maybe it was just a bad joke?
I have a question about filters for my Leica R lenses.
I have:
Elmarit-R 28 2.8 version 1 which takes Series VII filters held by the hood, but it does have threads.
Summicron-R 50 2 version 1 which takes Series VI filters.
Macro-Elmar_R 100 4 which takes Series VII filters.
I would like to be able to use modern sized filters that I could adapted across many lenses with step rings. I have researched and haven't found anywhere that sells rings that convert from the Series sizes to modern mm measured sizes. Do this exist? If so, where can I buy them?
TNCasual wrote:
I have a question about filters for my Leica R lenses.
I have:
Elmarit-R 28 2.8 version 1 which takes Series VII filters held by the hood, but it does have threads.
Summicron-R 50 2 version 1 which takes Series VI filters.
Macro-Elmar_R 100 4 which takes Series VII filters.
I would like to be able to use modern sized filters that I could adapted across many lenses with step rings. I have researched and haven't found anywhere that sells rings that convert from the Series sizes to modern mm measured sizes. Do this exist? If so, where can I buy them?
Thanks.
I know they exist because I used have some, but finding them can be hard. I believe I found mine at KEH. Here is a link that explains more about them:
