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90mm f2 or 100mm f28

B

barney

Member
90mm f/2 APO-SUMMICRON-R ASPH or 100mm f/2.8 APO-MACRO-ELMARIT-R? According to http://www.wildlightphoto.com/leica/main.html both are really great. However with all of the reading I've been doing, it seems that most if not all of the newest and/or updated versions surpast the quality of the older. I also get the impression that the 90mm f/2 ASPH is a much newer design than the 100mm APO. With that sort of thinking, I would lean towards the 90mm f/2 ASPH. However, I have read that the 100mm APO (of older design?) still performs better as far as "image detail and color saturation" where the 90mm f/2 is "comparable to the 100mm f/2.8 APO "except...small amount of distortion". So now I'm thinking of going with the 100mm f/2.8 of possable older design.

Is there anything I may be missing such as one outperforming the other at it's widest f-stop? Or one having better contrast over the other?

All of the qualities of the 100mm f 2.8 sounds right for me, however the 90mm f/2.0 ASPH is listed as having really nice "imaging properties at full aperture" and may be better in all other areas due to it's newer design?

This lens will be the first lens I buy for my R9 (about a week before July 4th) when my Leica dealer has their sale. I will probably not bother with a 50mm lens and instead get a shorter one such as the 35mm and/or the new 15mm ASPH at a later date to go with either the 90mm or 100mm. I will probably never get anything longer than the 90mm or 100mm, so maybe I should just go for the 100mm?

The 100mm would probably be easier to get in close to small animals such as a kitten and face/sholder face shots of my friends when compaired to the 90mm?

I shoot with slide film and view on a 70 inch screen with my Leica projector so overall quality is important to me.

Thank you
 
Hello Barney,

To me both lenses are outstanding. It is more a question of use than of quality that should dictate your choice. The 100 mm is perfect at all apertures, from very close to infinity. Also, with the special additional accessory, you can get as close as 1:1 without any loss of quality. This is a truly outstanding lens and its older design is not so old anyway. The only limitation of this lens is its aperture (2.8), that is fine for macro work as you anyway need some depth of field and therefore need to use middle apertures. And its size. It is also a slower lens to manipulate than the 90 mm.

To me the summicron 90mm AA offers the same quality as the apo macro-elmarit in a much more compact and handy lens and also starting from f2.

To me both lenses have their strong qualities that should help you choosing between them. The most versatile lens is the 100 mm, as it can do macro, portrait etc... The more handy and the more luminous one is the summicron.

For people fotography, I prefer the 90mm, which I bought (for the M6 actually) and the results at F2 are really estonishing.

For "technical" photography, the 100 mm is better.
 
I don't know the 100mm APO, nether the 90mm.
But speaking about portraiture, why we never think to use the 80mm/1.4 for the LeicaR, or the 75mm/1.4 for the LeicaM.?
Hearing some discussion, it seems that they are not good. I use both of them, and I'm very happy to take picture with full open diaphragm stop, the result is very interesting.
Let me know what are your point of View.
Best regards
Laurent
 
Please let me know if the 75 mm is as sharp and constrasty as the 90mm AA at f2?

I use the 80 mm 1.4 on my R8. It is fine but seems to be less sharp at f2 than the summicron 90 AA, but is as good from f2.8.

Many thanks.
 
"The most versatile lens is the 100 mm, as it can do macro, portrait etc... The more handy and the more luminous one is the summicron."

When you mention "luminous" do you mean that it's a faster lens or that the resulting pictures from the 90mm seem to have more of a "glow" of their own?

"For people fotography, I prefer the 90mm,...and the results at F2 are really estonishing."

I would think that it's easier to carry around when compaired to the 100mm. At the same time, I have only seen pictures of the 100mm with it's hood extended out making it look a "lot" bigger than the 90mm. Does the 90mm also have a hood "sun shade" that pops out?
 
Hello,

By luminous I mean F1.4 compared to F2. Anyway the 90mm AA is a Apochromatic lens, so it produces very nice colors, even in the shadow.
This combined to sharpness is really nice.

Note the 90mm has also a pull out hood.

Best regards.
 
Thanks again,

After reading more about the two lens and even from what I've been reading from Leica's own website, I've decided on the 100mm f/2.8 APO-MACRO-ELMARIT-R. The reason was because I liked the fact that the performance of the lens was about the same at all f stops at all focus points. The 90mm f/2 APO-SUMMICRON-R ASPH acually has better contrast and sharpness at smaller f stops, however from about 1.5 meters and closer to the subject certain types of distortions can be seen (at the widest f stops). Because I'm projecting my slides onto a 70 inch screen, it's important to me keep all distortions as small as possable and I would like to use a lens where I could use it the way I want without having to worry about if the quality can be better by doing something else.
 
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