Re: [Leica] 28mm f2.8 Elmarit-R: new vs old.

["Simon Coates" <michael@scoates.freeserve.co.uk>]

>
>
>Dear LUGGERS,
>
>Is there any difference in the optics between the new
>and old (with reverse lens hood) 28mm/f2.8 Elmarit-R ?
>
>Regards,
>
>PC

Hi Pitak,

I haven't used the old 28mm, but I recently purchased the new version with
built-in lens hood along with 100mm f/2.8 APO and 50/2 with a R6.2, to
upgrade my Minolta 9000-based outfit.

I compared the 28mm with the Minolta AF 28mm f/2.8, which has an identical
spec (both with apertures f/2.8 to f/22).  I took a series of photographs of
a two-page spread of a newspaper to check the resolution.  At f/2.8 the
Elmarit shows excellent sharpness, across the frame - better than the 50mm
Summicron at f/2.  Compared to the Minolta, it is streets ahead - the
Minolta at any aperture cannot match the sharpness of the Elamrit at f/2.8
right in the corners of the frame!!  Stopping down hardly improves the
performance of this magnificent lens.  At f/11 to f/22 diffraction comes in
slighly, but is hardly noticeable.

I did the same test with the 50 and 100 lenses, which were also far superior
to their Minolta equivalents, but I would stick my neck out and say the 28
was even better than the famous 100 APO macro!

In the real world, the photos I have got with the 28 are superb - I recently
took some pictures with very strong sunlight almost directly in front of the
lens, and there was no flare.

By the way, the lens hood is removable as I used a jewellers screwdriver to
take it off, as I use Cokin filters and the hood gets in the way.

I hope this helps - unfortunately I didn't have the old 28mm to compare, but
I would imagine the newer lens shows better performance at larger apertures,
which showed such a good result in my tests.

Simon Coates