90/4 Elmar

Wow! Those are great shots! I've read that the Elmar 90 is a good people lens, but I didn't realize how pleasing it is. Just super.
 
Yes, this is the lense that never seems to fail for me too. If I could handle having such a long lense on the camera at all times it would be the one. It is the only one I am sure that I will not get rid of.
 
those are very nice photos Daniel.
even the portrait of your daughter turned out very well, even with the haze in the lens.
did you find that the haze added any softness to the photo?
or did it just lower the contrast of the neg.?
 
Bill58 said:
Why is this lens such a dog? A rare Leica mfg. / design defect or just unkind old age?
Click to expand...

I do not think the 90/4 Elmar is or was a dog.
Leitz sold many of these and are really common,
the 50/3.5 Elmar was in the same position a few years ago,
but people recognized the wonderful compactness and high the quality of this lens and now it is very popular.
most of the lenses longer than 50mm are not as desired in the rf world as they are in the SLR kingdom for obvious reasons.
 
The 90/4 Elmar is a wonderful lens. I've got a nice old prewar uncoated one that is wonderful for color portraits. Just yummy. I have no doubt that you'll be getting many good shots with yours - the ones you've shown us already are wonderful.

Thanks & Good Light,

William
 
I really appreciate this little lens. It is cheap, small and light and what is more, its optical character gives an image which is reasonably sharp (certainly sharp enough for selected applications) but very low contrast. When I use it with black and white it gives an image that really has that 1930s look (even though mine is from the 1950s and is coated) and when used with colour film the bright vivid colour of modern emulsions suddenly takes on a wonderful pastel look. Lots of fun to use and experiment with. I have a lovely shot of sailing boats on a lake but it is humungous in size as I scanned it at high res. I will see if I can resize and post it as an example of this lens' work.
 
Shot taken with 90mm Elmar

Shot taken with 90mm Elmar

Scan20005web.jpg
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Bill58 said:
Why is this lens such a dog? A rare Leica mfg. / design defect or just unkind old age?
Click to expand...

The 90/4 Elmar once it has been cleaned and lubed performs as well any Tessar.

I like the 90/4 Elmar because it fits nicely into my satchel

TopHat2w.jpg
 
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Not as elegant, but this was the best I could do hand-held while visiting a local garage. The reason this lens may be so inexpensive today is when you run out of light, it's time to use a tripod.

BigHealy1w.jpg
 
I bought a 90mm Elmar, but I didn't want it. I wanted the IMERECT (sp) finder that came with it. Now I use the finder as expected and use the 90mm Elmar much, much more than expected. I don't understand why people think this lens is garbage. For a portrait, I think it is very 'one of a kind.'
 
CJC, the finder's the IMARECT, for all practical purposes the same as the VIOOH that I have. I'm not surprised you find yourself hooked on the Elmar: he's that sort of chap.

Nothing the matter with the picture, Daniel, except that the timing is a bit off. There's always danger when the subject is likely at any time to speak. For a while I tried to circumvent this by jabbering away myself while taking pictures, but I ended up with portraits of irritated people.
 
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