The Elmar 50mm f2.8 Collapsible
- STEPHEN CHEONG
- Jun 6, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 7, 2021
The Leica 50mm f2.8 has been with me for a week and it was a fun and a great lens to work with. This is a brief personal impressions and experience with this lens which intentions was solely on my personal use and not intended to be a detailed and comprehensive reviews that entails tedious tests and technical specifications analysis.
I wrote this post to share some of my personal opinions on my using the Leica Elmar 50mm f2.8 collapsible or rather to be exact is labeled Leitz Wetzlar Elmar 50mm. The lens was first introduced to the market in the 1950s.
How dinky can it gets..?
The lens comes in a filter size of 39mm and it is a tiny lens. I am using the chrome version with red scales and it comes in at 245g. My version was made in Germany and I was not aware if there was one that was a Canadian version. The Elmar is compact and it sits very pretty on any Leica Ms.
Performance
In a nutshell the 50mm f2.8 Elmar collapsible is an optically excellent lens; it is a performer. The optical performance produces images with good depth and tonality. As I shot in on the Leica M10-P, I must say they dance well with one another; with neutral color reproduction.
There’s visible vignetting wide opened at aperture f2.8 (but barely) and this is resolved at smaller apertures f5.6 and beyond; and there the lens is distortion free.
I have used the Leica Summicron 50mm f2.0 and these modern Leica lens at wide opened apertures of f2.0 performed better (subjective) than the Elmar 50mm f2.8. However when stop down to f5.6 and beyond, the images are awesome.
My Take
The Elmar 50mm f2.8 will surprised you when used with Leica's digital M bodies. The lens is definitely a gem to appreciate and shooting with this lens was a great pleasure.
The Elmar 50mm f2.8 has a 15-blades design that creates a circular diaphragm making background blurriness very pleasant to look at.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who have no need of a fast 50mm lens and when the price threshold of the Summicron and Summilux is the deciding factor to choosing a 50mm lens.
As a shooter, I have always prefer the portability and handling of my Leica lens as a choosing factor. As mentioned, it is small and it is also by no means Leica “budget” lens offering. The Elmar 50mm f2.8 produces a “film like” rendering with impressive sharpness and pleasing bokeh.
On a final note, the Elmar 50mm collapsible is an excellent piece of glass that comes in a small package and it suffice many photographic applications needed in the real field work of photography.
It is definitely a performer and it’s ability to capture gorgeous pictures makes it a keeper.
The following images were shot with the 50mm Elmar Collapsable on the M10-P.
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