Leica makes some great lenses. They always have. Even their defunct Leica R series lenses are still working hard all around the world. It would almost seem that Leica is incapable of making low quality products. I just finished our Cine-Mod on a Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/100, or as I like to call it, a Leica 100mm Macro. This lens performs like a dream for motion picture applications. It’s close focus is 2.5′ from the film plane which puts objects about 1.8′ from the front of the lens. Keep in mind, this is 100mm. It’s not THAT close considering the Zeiss ZF.2 100mm f/2.0 cranks all the way down to 18″ from the film plane which is about 8″ in front of the lens. The only draw back, which both the Leica and the Zeiss exhibit, is the massive amount of telescoping from infinity to close focus. Both lenses go from a modest 5″ length to a maximum of about 7″ at close focus. Still, Leica made some amazing glass that still does it’s job quite well.
Hi Mathew,
Thanks for hosting this blog. very informative. Appreciate you help to the community.
Got few questions.
How well does this stand against Zeiss Otus 85mm (I could have asked to compare it with Otus 100mm)? From focus fall off… Contrast wise! for portrait work.
From macro side, any notes that you can share… i tried Zeiss 100mm, Tokina 100 mm, Canon 100mm… everyone of them is prone to CA.
Also for Cinema use, does this lens has enough resolution to resolve 4K-8K? is it on warmer side similar to other leica R?
Now the big question… Focus rotation is beyond 360 for this lens, so how to handle this?
Does Duclos converts the focus mechanism at an affordable cost?