The Leica Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f2.8-4.5 ASPH is a great lens. Arguably one of the best medium zooms ever made. It is fairly light considering its range, and yields beautiful images. We mounted it on a Leica M9, M240, and a Leica SL for this test. The lens went into production in 2004. Considering its vintage, its an exception design that rivals, and even surpasses, many modern zooms. When introduced, it set a new level for standard zoom performance, rivalling many prime lenses of the time. Lets see how it does today!

We are adding sample images from this lens. The review will follow.

This is a superb lens! You can expect extraordinary sharpness right from wide open. Smooth Bokeh and no, and I say again, no chromatic aberrations. The lens distinguishes itself by having excellent separation of the subject from the background, it’s very 3D. Colour contrast is high and images need very little processing when coming from dng files. The lens has a very special look, especially at mid-distances. Close up performance is also very good, due to the floating element. Close up images still retain interesting bokeh as well. Check out the parrot shot below. Vignetting also serves to enhance image quality ( I know that some will disagree), but I really like this lens and its output.

This is the last version prior to the Summilux Asph. Designed by Peter Karbe, it sort of transitions between ealier Mandler designs and the current Asph, which is also designed by Mr. Karbe.

It is a 7 element, 5 grouping design with a 12 blade aperture mechanism. This mechanism yields almost perfectly circular bokeh throughout the aperture range. You can expect half click stops between the aperture settings.

Sample images for the Contax Planar 50mm F/1.4 EOS conversion are being added I am working on a Photographer based review. This lens has all the benefits of the classical planar design, and full autofocus and auto aperture! More to come.