Information about 135 Elmarit Canadian?

[jdos2]

Anyone used this monster?
First the gentle bragging (oh, not really!) but today I collected a BUNCH of gear together, namely my digital 10D and lenses, and gave them to a local fellow that trades in Leica and other gear. I got a DR Summicron and a 135 Elmarit, both "clean."
Yeah. Clean. HA!
First of all, does anyone have any links, opinions, or write- ups on the lens? I'm curious. I've found so very little on the web. Even Cameraquest has but a touch, and it's not much more than "big, heavy, eyes, made in Canada, couple different kinds of hoods..." instead of the "razor DoF is hard to focus, but this decent lens..." Why did I get it? Honestly, I thought it would be fun because I DO have FSU 135's for my Kievs, and they take nice pictures, and then too, the Summicron wasn't expensive enough to make up the difference for all the gear, so I was expected to get another lens. Besides, it has eyes.
Clean. Uh-huh.
Okay. So I get the lenses home, and these "clean" lenses, while the 135mm seemed to look fine, a bit of smudge on the front element, I sat down to get rid of that smudge.
My guess is that this lens was owned by a smoker. A full hour later, the bottle of alcohol and ROR noticably emptier, and NOW the lens is clean. Amazing. Every time I'd tackle another spot it made the REST of the lens look like hell, so it was GENERAL cleanup time.
Time to quit smoking. Ug.


I'm about to play with the DR Summicron, to get IT cleaned up. Looks pretty good. Only a couple light smudges... 🙄

 

[VictorM.]

You cleaned off the smoke?!! That's where the Leica glow comes from!

 

[back alley]

ah yes, those lovely tobacco sunsets...

 

[jdos2]

You cleaned off the smoke?!! That's where the Leica glow comes from!

Though I have a Leica, I have NO illusions; that glow is called FLARE.

🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

The Elmarit is a fabulous lens, jdos. It just happens that it doesn't attract a lot of people because it's so big. If you place a search in Photo.net you'll find very little on it, but what's there isn't negative. It simply happens that, together with the 90mm 'cron and Elmarit, Leica's long lenses can be difficult to focus (not only the framelines, but the actual lens).

I was really going for one... but hesitated about it (and actually chose NOT to buy it) for two reasons: the first reason is that the difference of coverage between the 90 (which I own) and the 135 is something like 15 feet in closeness. In other words, I can always try to get closer instead of shooting from a distance. Not quite worth it.

The second thing: the goggles can make it difficult to reach the shutterspeed dial if you shoot a Leica M6TTL.

Hence, I didn't buy it. But now that you have one, you'll probably find it useful. In my case, I decided that the 'cron does a decent job. Although, for open air concerts I'll miss having one, but heck, can't have it all...

The charm of this lens: the speed... Try it wide open and let us know! 🙂

 

[Tom Diaz]

I have a 135mm Elmarit and am very impressed at its sharpness and contrast, especially wide open. It does not test out as well as the brand-new design, the 135mm f/3.4, but the eyes, although of course adding weight and clunkiness, help focus it accurately even with my M6 TTL .72 finder.

My sample needed to be re-collimated, whereupon I learned that Leica USA sends these particular lenses back to Germany rather than fixing them here. The repair cost $450.

I would not have thought I'd want such a long lens for a Leica, and I still have not used it much. However, traveling in mountain country a couple of years ago, I found that I made heavy use of a 200mm SLR lens I was carrying, to pick out small parts of the huge landscape. That's how I persuaded myself to buy it. Plus, as you say, it had those eyes....

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Tom, is it easy to turn the shutterspeed dial when you're using that lens?

Don't say yes... I'll hate myself if you do.

But then, if that's the case, there's always hope, right? 😉

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Wait, I meant hope to find one, not that you do anything.

Just to keep things clear... 🙂

 

[jdos2]

I got some negatives taken with the lens. Sadly, they aren't really much as I had a misadventure loading my reels but of what I can see in them, it is indeed sharp. I've got the later version with the "fixed" eyes. Very nice. Not terribly expensive as Leica glass goes, and it's going with me on vacation. Nice that it uses the 90mm frame lines, too.

Thanks, folks!

 

[Tom Diaz]

Tom, is it easy to turn the shutterspeed dial when you're using that lens?

Don't say yes... I'll hate myself if you do.

But then, if that's the case, there's always hope, right? 😉

Sorry, Francisco, but I use an M6 TTL as do you, and I would say it's fairly easy to turn the shutter dial. Not as easy as without the lens mounted, because the eyes' housing does prevent you from turning the dial with your fingertip from the front of the camera. You sort of come at it more from the top; you aren't any worse off than someone using an earlier model. I'd rather have the brand new incredible Apo-Telyt, but at $2300 it'd be harder to focus on my .72 model, I bet, plus that's too much money for the fairly limited number of times I want such a long lens on the Leica.

Heh, heh, I see that there's an Elmarit for sale right now on eBay. $500 for a Leica lens....