[Leica] 90mm choice

["Erwin Puts" <imxputs@knoware.nl>]

If a 90mm will be primarily used for portraits, I do assume that you will
have to stop down to 4 or 5.6 to get decent DoF for the depth of the face.
Use an aperture of f/2 and at 1 to 1.5 meter only the pupil will be in the
sharpness plane. If that is the case, the classical 3-element Elmar 4/90
brings amazingly good performance. Yes there are older lenses that are
outstanding -:).
In the 2.8 category the current Elmarit-M 2.8/90 is by far the best.
The first Elmarit 2.8/90 was not so good at close range and had to be
stopped down a few stops to get the best results. The first Tele-Elmarit
lags a bit behind this version.
The second Tele_Elmarit version is in the same league as the Elmar-C for the
CL. and both are better (higher contrast, better definition of fine detail)
than the two predecessors. This second Tele-Elmarit (the very short one) has
one caveat: it has a sealed optical cell, so repairs are not so easy.

In my view you should look first in the f/4 category for a 3 element Elmar.
In the f/2.8 category the current Elmarit is best, at some distance followed
by the Tele-Elmarit-M 2.8/90 and the Elmar-C 4/90. If you search for the
older versions, the first Elmarit might be the best choice, especially
stopped down.
In the f/2 catagory the Apo-version is simply THE lens for portraiture.

This ranking is focussed on portraiture applications, that is stopped down
to 5.6. I did not include flare and other characteristics as I assume these
are not relevant for this type of imagery.

Erwin