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Review Date
January 8, 2006
Overall Rating
 5 of 5
Value Rating
 4 of 5
Used product for
3 Months to 1 year
Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes
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Reviewed by
SPG
, Expert
Price Paid
$0.00
Photography Experience
21+ years
, Outdoor
Summary
This lens is one of Leica's most remarkable optical "greats" and was well lauded by Erwin Puts as being one of the most outstanding 24mm lenses ever built and certainly one of the finest performers in the Leica-M stable.
As a user I have to agree with every positive comment made about the Elmarit-M 24mm lens.
It is superbly built with super smoot controls of focus and aperture. The latter has nice positive click stops and the former makes pin sharp accurate focusing a breeze. It comes with a neat but not optically corrected 24mm accessory viewfinder. One can take a bit of use to get accustomed to having to use the finder (unles your M body has a 0.58x viewfinder in which the outermost frame is a fairly accurate estimate of the AOV. Of course only the accessory viewfinder gives a user a "real" perspective of the "stretch" factor a 24mm lens provides.
Physically the lens is a dream to use and comnes with a neat clip on rectangular hood that allows one filter to be fitted before the filter depth prevents the hood from fitting onto the lens barrel.
F2.8 is e very reasonalble if not "fast" widest aperture for such a lens. Any wider would upset the brilliant aberration corrections and the nice size and balance of the lens.
The lens is so well corrected for distortion the field of view is nearly perfectly flat - remarkably so.
It resiste flare brilliantly, shoed no sign of astigmatism nor any coma etc etc. It is one of the best corrected lenses avalable. Clour tone is typically superb tonality from Leica.
Wide angle enthusiats will just love this lens. While I'm not such a wide angle enthusiast I really enjoyed using this lens.
I have not been able to fault its performance in anyway. Of course superb optics come at a price and this lens comes with a hefty price tag, but a very well deserved one at that.
Strengths
Optical correction of all aberrations. Superbly flat field of view - super low distortion. Very flare resistant which is not common among very wide angle lenses.
Excellent superfine detail resolution even wide open that changes very little out to the edges. At F4 it's performance is probably optimal - a great design achievement.
Build quality - quality of design, build and fininsh.
Beautifully balanced in the hand.
Most lens design involves trade-offs; it's hard to see where there was any trade-off with this lens' design!
Weaknesses
No performance weaknesses.
It's just a bit sad that souch great quality must come with a relatively high price tag. But, if you buy only one lens wider than 35mm in a Leica M mount, this IMHO is the optimal choice.
Similar Products Used
Voigtlander M/screw mount 25mm; Canon 20 and 24mm; Olympus Zuiko OM 21 and 24 mm.
Customer Service
None required. But with another Leica product I found the factory in Germany very responsive.
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Review Date
March 4, 2004
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
 5 of 5
Used product for
3 Months to 1 year
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Reviewed by
agp
, Expert
Price Paid
$0.00
at Wey Cameras, Surrey
Photography Experience
21+ years
, Outdoor
Summary
Not as useful as my 35mm, this is still a staggeringly good lens. There seems to be less distortion with this than with any otehr 24mm lens I have used.
Strengths
Quality
Weaknesses
The lens hood. I have a fairly roomy camera bag, and the clips on the oens hood are knocked and the lens hood falls off. This is the only Leica item, I think, with really poor design.
The viewfinder is fine, but I don't have confidence in its longevity.
Customer Service
No need
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Review Date
November 1, 2002
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
5 of 5
Used product for
More than 1 year
Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 1 votes
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Reviewed by
David Kernaghan
, Professional
, from Toronto
Price Paid
$0.00
Photography Experience
21+ years
, Fine Art
Summary
Truly a lens without peer. The 24 ASPH is in a class of it's own, I expected this lens to be good, but frankly I was shocked at just how good the images are. The 24 ASPH can easily be compared to best lenses in the Leica line up, not just other wide angles.
Strengths
State of the art resolution, contrast, and colour saturation.
It has excellent flatness of field, and essentially no distortion.
I have never used a wide angle lens from any manufacturer, with the performance of the 24 ASPH.
A truly oustanding lens by any standard.
Weaknesses
The plastic viewfinder is not that well constructed.
The price is high, but with this lens you get what you paid for.
Similar Products Used
Nikon SLR
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Review Date
October 10, 2002
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
5 of 5
Used product for
Less than 1 month
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Reviewed by
harbormor
, Expert
, from Los Angeles
Price Paid
$1520.00
at Don Chatterton Leica
Photography Experience
21+ years
, Fine Art
Summary
Aside from what everybody has already said about its image quality capabilities, I must comment on how solidly built this lens is. It's heavy for its size. The focusing & aperture ring is heavily dampened which is great for the hyperfocal setting. I set it on hyperfocal all day, and when I got home, it was unmoved! And from close inspection
it appears that no expense was spared in producing this lens. It's truly a jewel.
Strengths
Solid construction, fine finish, high resolution, outstanding contrast, vibrant color rendition across the spectrum.
Weaknesses
Cannot use a conventional filter with its own lens hood.
Similar Products Used
No other
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Review Date
July 13, 2002
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
5 of 5
Used product for
More than 1 year
Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 1 votes
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Reviewed by
Alan Uke
, Expert
, from San Diego, Ca. USA
Price Paid
$2000.00
at Jim Kuehl Camera
Photography Experience
21+ years
, People
Summary
Wonderful lens. Sharp and great color rendition. I have the Aspheric version
Strengths
Image Quality
Weaknesses
expensive
Similar Products Used
Many Leica and Nikon lenses
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