Some time ago I had the chance to put several older Leica lenses to the test, here are the results.

I have never actually used any of these lenses, I just had them for a couple of minutes to shoot a test series.

I only had one copy per lens so my results might not be representative for other lenses,

Leitz Super-Angulon-R 1:4/21

Typical performance for UWA lens of it’s era.

The center is very good from f/4, midframe is okayish and the corners are soft.

Stopped down to f/11 even the corners are sharp but not very much so. CA is controllled quite well.

My Canon nFD 2.8/20 is a better performer for a whole  lot less money, but there are many other legacy lenses in the 20/21mm range which have worse corners.

Test

Leitz Wetzlar Elmarit-R  1:2.8/28

A pretty unremarkable performance, my 20 bucks Minolta MD 2.8/28 is slightly better.
At f/2.8 the center is a lillte soft, the midframe is noticeably worse and the corners are pretty bad.
It takes f/11 for the corners to sharpen up to very good levels.

Test

Leitz Summicron-R 1:2/50

This lens showed an interesting performance pattern.

At f/2 the center is only ok,  my other lenses like the Minolta MC 1.4/50 or Canon nFD 1.4/50 are noticeably sharper in the center at f/2. What is remarkable is that the corners are the best I have seen in any legacy 50mm lens at f/2.

At f/2.8 the center sharpens up a lot to excellent levels.

By f/4 the lens shows very good sharpness from corner to corner which is a stop earlier than I would expect from my Canons or Minoltas.

At F/5.6 it is excellent from corner to corner.

I think this is an excellent landscape lens  but for general purposes I would prefer other lenses because of the under performing center at f/2. My analysis is based on the analysis of these infinity shot so my conclusion might be a different one if I would use it for actual shooting.

Test

Leitz Tele-Elmarit-M 1:2.8/90

This is a very small lens with very good performance in the center and midframe from f/2.8 with a hint of purple fringing. The corners at f/2.8 are soft.

At f/4 the center improves to excellent levels, the other regions don#t see much improvement.

By f/11 the corners have reached a good level.

I think this lens will work quite well as a very compact portrait lens but for serious landscape work I would leave it at home.

Test

Leitz APO-Telyt-R 1:3.4/180

Writing about a lens is always easier when there are no defects to describe.

The lens shows excellent sharpness from f/3.4 corner to corner with only the smallest hint of CA in the corners.

Test

Conclusion

Based on these results I don’t get all the fuss about Leica lenses.

Sure, all lenses had a very nice finish, nicer than that of other manufacturers .

But if I look at the performance it is pretty similar to that of other lenses of the same era. The only lens which stood out was the 3.4/180 APO but I would suspect that a Nikon 2.8/180 ED AI-S isn’t any worse.

Of course there are other very important aspects about lenses which I couldn’t experience like bokeh, color and contrast or handling etc. but I would be surprised if these lenses performed that much better in these aspects than other lenses.

From what I have read and seen the more modern lenses from the 90’s and later are in fact often better than the designs of other manufacturers, but that’s not the case here.

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In this series we interview amateur photographers just like us, who inspire us and who share our passion for photographing with manual lenses.

Hi Dan,
can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to use manual lenses?

D: I’m studying mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen. Besides my studies and my work as mechanical designer at a young high tech kickoff of the Fraunhofer ILT Aachen I take photos and make music.

I started with photography about 7 years ago. At this time I owned a Lumix FZ18 – a bridge cam. I was really annoyed by it after some time, it felt like the cam made the photos and not me. There was nothing left for me to do except framing, the auto focus just had its own will and the super zoom made it too easy. To take control of the image I used a lot of Photoshop.

At some point this did not satisfy me anymore. I wanted to create an image, to make the camera do what I wanted it to do. So about 5 years ago I bought a NEX 5N with the 18-55 kit lens. While this combination was no real change to my FZ18, I could also use some old FDs from my dad.

Using the Nex-5n with the old FDs was what I had wanted all along. No more pumping auto focus and no more miss focused images.
I started testing and collecting FDs and I do so til today. Legacy lenses were and are the best compromise between price and performance. Besides some of them do have real unique characteristics.

My 5N accompanied me about 2 or 3 years but I was complaining about bad image quality at low light situations a lot. So I decided that the best thing to do would be to buy an a7 and that’s what I did. It was indeed a boost in lowlight for several reasons.

First the sensor is bigger and therefore it is better at those situations by its own. Second my old FDs were made for fullframe and now I could use their full potential. I owned some f/1.2 and this light boost seemed pretty much insane to me. Til today I’m happy with my A7. I never anticipated to buy an AF lens and I think I never will. I shot a wedding, various model shootings, a band shooting and take everyday footage of my family… of young and wild kids.

I don’t miss any little helper besides the things my A7 already does and the only thing that a A7II could do for me would be the IBIS. Photography has becomea big part of my life and I hope to lift my hobby up to the next level in the future.

Can you give us a look into your camera bag and tell us a little about your gear?

Continue reading The manual photographers series part 1: Dan Noland →

The Minolta AF 2.8/200 has the reputation to be one of the best if not the best lens Minolta ever made. In this review I check if it still can keep up with the Sony a7II 30 years after it’s introduction.

Sample Images

Just click on any image to get to the full resolution version.

Continue reading Review: Minolta AF APO Tele 200mm 1:2.8 →