Leitz Elmar 4.0 / 90

How good is old camera equipment?  Well, that depends on the original quality.  Leitz was (and is) one of the best camera and lens makers in the world.  Hence, Leitz lenses were always pretty much top-of-the-line for their time.  And yet, much progress has been made in lens technology.  The lens featured here is an old telephoto lens for a rangefinder camera (e.g., Leica III).

Leica Elmar F=4.0 / 90mm is an uncoated lens.  F stops range from 4.0 to 36!   Being uncoated, it lacks a lot compared to today's good lenses.  Images will appear softer, and will be much more susceptible to flare.   Nevertheless, an old Elmar lens is still capable of creating sharp, and attractive looking images. 

Below, there are a few samples, taken at Dana Point, CA.   The images were scanned from prints, taken with Kodak Gold 100.                                                                                              >> Go to next page
elmar01.jpg (337706 bytes)