I am wanting to purchase a 90mm lense second hand in Australia, Singapore, Japan or Hong Kong. My question is: Which lense would be the best? AND Where would be the best place to look?

-- James Wright (james_wright@hilton.com), July 23, 2001

Answers

If you scroll down the list of postings you will find many discussions of the various 90mm Leica/Leitz lenses.

Cheers

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), July 23, 2001.

What is a "lense"? I looked it up in my dictionary and could not find a definition. So please help me...

-- Mike Foster (mike567@acgecorp.com), July 24, 2001.

Mike,

I could not find acgecorp in my dictionery either. No one is perfekt.

-- wayne murphy (wayne.murphy@publicworks.qld.gov.au), July 24, 2001.

If you want a good 90 for a good price get the present day 2.8/90, if you want to impress Leica that you have their top model get the Apo 2/90 Asph, if you don't want to see all the pimples and scratches on my face get an older 2.8/90   ;-)

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), July 24, 2001.

How does the Summicron 1:2/90 (Canada), #2624106, stack up against all the 90mm lenses that have been mentioned?

-- Max Wall (mtwall@earthlink.net), July 24, 2001.

For me the best 90mm are the heavier 90/2 and the tele elmarit 90/2.8, Canada each one, good bokeh and not higher contrast. The new Apo-Asph with hiper contrast, the shadow became darkness, and the softly gentle nuances of color rendition (of the older lenses) lost forever. The new lenses with Japan glass (Hoya made) have globalised the performance near japan taste. I don't like new era of Leica product. Un saluto a tutti Voi. Ciao.

-- Giuseppe Ciccarella (joseph_galilee@infinito.it), July 24, 2001.

What? APO Summicron 90 F2 Asph made in Japan? Please clarify! I own one. It's perfect. Hardly believe that it's made by Hoya.

-- W. Andrew (andrew_photo@sinaman.com), July 24, 2001.

Giuseppe has an interesting point. I sympathize to some extent. Earlier Leica lenses were less contrasty, but this is often a virtue, not a defect, although raw resolution suffers. I loved the look from a friend's DR Summicron and 90mm Elmar - wonderful and so different from the average high contrast/emphasize the shadows look of today.

Anyway I suggest for the M you buy the 90mm Elmarit-M; A great lens at a great price. The Apo Summicron 90mm for a great heavy lens at a high price. If you are talking R then letus know.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), July 24, 2001.

James it will depend on what do you want that lens for and how much do you want to spend.

New Summicron is very contrasty and high resolution (acording to coments here) and $1600 bucks or so.

Latest Elmarit is almost as good, but up to 2.8 and up to $900 used.

90/2 preasph is almost as good as those before from f/4, and softer at 2.8 and 2.0, great if you are going to make portraits with it, for less than $900 used.

Older are cheaper and great for portraits.

May be not such a hard choice, if you know what you want it for.

This place is full of information about those lenses, so I recomend John´s advice, get a dive into this forum.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), July 24, 2001.

I have the current 90mm elmarit m and was pleasantly suprised with its performance, very sharp and not to contrasty wide open. I think it's a real step above the previous elmarit and it's not nearly as large as the Summicron ASPH or previous summicron. Roberto is right however you would be better served to decide what is most important to you, price, weight, sharpness and speed.

TG

-- Tom Gallagher (tgallagher10@yahoo.com), July 24, 2001.

Let's quickly lay this one to rest. None of the M lenses are made in Japan, either wholly or inpart. As we all know some of the R glass has and is made in Japan (currently by Kyrocera, not Hoya - Kyrocera as in the makers of the Contax G lenses - no slouches). Notice that I have perfect spelling :-)

Cheers, Bob Tod

-- Bob Todrick (bobtodrick@yahoo.com), July 24, 2001.

I don't know if this is appropriate, but I have a mint-- elmarit-M 90 (latest, in box with papers and all) looking for a new owner. By mint- - I mean that it's been used a few times but has absolutely no marks of any kind. Perfect condition.

Contact me at the address below if anyone is interested.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), July 24, 2001.

Thanks for the input. Yes I know Lieca lences are not made in Japan, but it is a great place to purchase second hand stuff.

-- james Wright (James_wright@hilton.com), July 24, 2001.

I have the original 90mm Elmarit. This lens is already so sharp, it may be illegal for civilians to own a sharper one. Nevertheless, judging from the many posts, in this and earlier threads, the current 90's are sharper. I've no idea what to do with a sharper one, since I needed Kodachrome 25 to see all that mine could do. And they've discontinued Kodachrome 25!

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), July 24, 2001.

Leica, Hoya and Schott jointly developed the precision moulding technique to produce aspherical surfaces in glass elements. Many of the wide angle lenses for the M Asp lenses are formed by this method.

The 90APO Asph. is manufactured with computer controlled polishing and grending equipment or Computer based Numerical Control machinery utilising holograms.

-- Simon Wong (drsimonwong@hotmail.com), July 26, 2001.

This is interesting as I was always led to believe that Leica ground its aspheric lens elements, while Cosina/Voigtlander use moulded aspheric lens elements and this accounted for their vast price difference and the large jump in Leicas own prices with the replacement of a regular lens with an ASPH. Cosina aparently make these moulded aspheric elements for a few different camera manufacturers. Buts is this wrong and Leica uses moulded ASPH lenses as well?

-- James Cooke (james.c@mis.net.au), July 29, 2001.

Yes, Leica uses molded ASPH elements (molded glass, not plastic!) See the .pdf file for the 35/2 ASPH at leica.com. There is no doubt in my mind that Leica has gone to molded elements for three reasons (at least) better optical performance, lower manufacturing cost, and increased per unit profit.

I'm still waiting for the 50/1.4 ASPH, which I will bethe first in line to buy (with a corresponding ebay post to sell my 50mm 'cron.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), July 29, 2001.

I own 2 Leica 90's: the 90 Summicron APO ASPH and an older (1961) Elmarit. If $ are a major consideration, you could do worse than the older version of the Elmarit. Prior to the release of the latest Elmarit, the older Elmarit was considered by many as the "best" 90. I frequently carry this lens on my travels and am never disappointed with the lens quality. The SAA takes advantage of the latest technological advances and is a tremendous performer, but I still enjoy using the Elmarit. This lens can be found at good prices, with many "upgrading" to the newer technology. Good luck and happy shooting!

-- David Page (pagedt@attglobal.net), July 30, 2001.

This may be abit late, but there are a few shops in Singapore dealing with secondhand leicas. I just bought a current 90/2.8 M for S$850. That should be about US$450. The shops are all located in the peninsular area. Just ask around, shouldn't be a problem getting there. Got mine from a shop called Camera Workshop.

cheers joel

-- joel (joel_low@pacific.net.sg), August 03, 2001.

Joel,

Exactly where is that shop? Hope this is not off-topic...

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), August 04, 2001.

I think its at peninsular shopping centre. Beside Funan Centre.

-- joel (joel_low@pacific.net.sg), August 05, 2001.