Let’s now take a closer look closer look at the various Leica R lenses, which are divided into different names depending on their speed.
There are of course certain gems in both series that stand out. These are just my own observations and you can’t really go wrong with either choice. The build quality is great on both, but I would say the Leicas have the upper hand. On other hand, I think that Leicas are a little bit more blue/green tinted, flatter and with a nicer bokeh. I have since also owned the Zeiss Contax Vario-Sonnar 28-85mm f/3.3-4 (a great zoom by the way), and compared to the Leica R look I found the Zeiss Contax to be warmer, more contrasty and more saturated. Some talk about a special ”Leica glow”, but it’s all very subjective and sensitive to talk about. Zeiss Contax would probably have saved me a few bucks, but there was something that just made the pictures and videos shot with Leicas stand out.
I knew, I wanted fully manual lenses that would cover full frame and I narrowed my search down to Zeiss Contax & Leica R, two of the most popular choices for cine-use among the stills glass. Nothing wrong with the Zeiss Jena’s, I still think they are lovely and use them all the time (especially the 35mm Flektogon for taking stills), but I was on the look for something new. I also have a Zeiss Jena lens set in M42 mount, but in mid 2014 I started looking around for something with a bit more modern look and sharper results in frame edges and wide open, I also wanted something a little bit more solid build. I also want to add that these are not by any means the *best* or most expensive lenses of the series, they are more of a budget set, but in my opinion a great place to start!
Right from the start I want to add that this lens collection constantly changes, it’s not yet finalized and probably going to grow sooner than later (vintage lenses are quite easy to get addicted to). I make commercials and music videos professionally ( as well as like short films for myself, all mostly shot with RED and Blackmagic cameras.Īs of now I’ve got seven Leica R lenses, five primes and two zooms, which I mostly use for video. I can’t try them all, but thankfully a fellow vintage lens user, Johan Cederholm ( has a nice little set and know a thing or two about Leica-R lenses, so he very kindly agreed to share his knowledge with us! Over to Johan! From left to right: Elmarit 19mm f/2.8, Elmarit 28mm f/2.8, Elmarit 35mm f/2.8, Summicron 50mm f/2, Summicron 90mm f/2, Vario-Elmar 35-70 f/3.5, Vario-Elmar 70-210 f/4įirst of let me tell a bit about my background and why I decided to buy into Leica-land. This website has been in existence (at the time of writing) for well over 3 year, but until now there hasn’t been a single proper mention of any Leica lenses, which is clearly not right because Leica-R Lenses in particular are incredibly popular for video use.