Leica Lens

5.0 2 customer reviews

First off, this isn't the sharpest lens in the world. It's not going to be the first thing that comes to mind for using on macro tubes or for landscapes. However it works very nicely as a portrait lens and since it's designed for use on rangefinders the adapter is quite thin, so it looks like it belongs on smaller mirrorless cameras. It gives a pleasing look and treats skin tones very nicely and has great colour rendition, while the 9-blade aperture keeps the out of focus areas looking nice and smooth. It's a Sonnar design, so it's rendering is slightly different to the common Planar. The only snag is the 1-metre minimum focus distance due to it's rangefinder heritage. The version I bought was made in the '80s, and by this time the manufacturers had modified the design so that the front element rotates which might prove to be a problem if you want to use graduated filters or a polariser. But for me it's great as it is. It creates images that have a look that I don't need to mess with and a clickless aperture control that is great for video use. Perfect for modern mirrorless cameras, I recommend this lens.

I have tried this on my projector and it's very good for large venues but mainly I will be using it on a camera for portraits. It produces lovely sharp in focus images with melting background: just what I wanted.