alex_ong Posted August 13, 2000 Share Posted August 13, 2000 It is a good lens based on leica specs made by sigma japan.Leica do appoint other japanese company to make lens for them based on their specs but some was designed by japanese company like Minolta, But they are all good lens that meet Leica Stadard. <p> 28-70 f3.5-4.5 togeter with 70-210 F4.0 will good for travelling and down-sizing all your prime lens,one thing no good is that they are not fast lens,may be U can try zoom lens with f2.8 (leica lens) <p> good shooting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_cheong Posted June 26, 2001 Share Posted June 26, 2001 Hi All I am a relatively new Leica R users who had recently added the Vario- Elmar 28-70 ROM to my 50/2. I have taken out-door, in-door existing light and flash photos with the 28-70 and 50/2. Whether Sigma designed or not, it does not make much difference to me, the contrast, color tone and shadow details which characterized LEICA lenses is consistent for both lenses. Both lenses apparent performed excellently at normal minimum aperture (f5.6-f16)but the prime 50/2 excels (as expected) at maximum aperture.I use the 50/2 more often because I belong to the 50mm "standard" generation when I started photography on a budget 20 years ago with the Nikon system and has since switched to Olympus OMs (for macro) and now obsessed with my secondhand Leica R3. As an "entry" into Leica on a budget the 28-70 is an "ideal" lens for any amateur who wish to own a second multi- role Leica lens. BTW I've purchase all my R equipment second hand (used) ,IMO they're worth every hard-earned dollars I've spent on them. No regrets even its made in Japan and has Sigma blood (I was warned by the seller), its the end results that counts. Some how, I believe that the difference may be in the Leica multicoating, Leica did have a couple of other Minolta zooms in their line and apparently the Minolta half-brothers (according to a friend)doesn't seems to have the same Leica color consitency and rendition. <p> Perhaps BW will show this difference greater in terms of shadow details. Any comments ? <p> <p> paid for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted June 29, 2001 Share Posted June 29, 2001 I have several zoom lenses for Contax: Carl Zeiss 35-135, and Sigma 80-200, I found that the 35mm range is not wide enough, and the Sigma lens for Contax mount does not match the color rendition of Zeiss lenses. <p> Vario-Elmar 28-70 has beome my world travel companion: I carried only this one lens travel to Spain, from Madrid to Barcelona, Valencia Serville, Granada, Toledo; to Greece from Athens through Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, to East Europe from Vienna to Budapest, Bratislava, Brno, Prague... to Canadian Rockies from Banff to Lake Louis to Jasper National Park. <p> In March, I went to Vancourver, to attend my daughter's wedding at Chatteur Whistler, I again used Vario-Elmar to record wedding photos on the side( we hired a pro at Whistler ).. my daughter likes the wedding photo very much, "dad, your wedding photos are sooo good, so good". . <p> The 20x30" poster size prints on my walls of Maglin Lake, Jasper, Lake Louis, Algonquin Autumn, Santorini, Salgrada Familia Church are all from this Vario <p> I am sure, this Vario-Elmar will acompany me to other parts of the world, in particular, Huang Mountain and Guilin. <p> I seldom use Leica standard lenses, last weekend, I went to the Toronto Musical Garden at the Harbour Front area, I used Macro- Elmrit, I found that I could not cover enough backgroud, I should use the Vario instead. <p> My VE has a very special build in lens hood, it was computer designed to match the zoom range, at 28mm it is a wide angle lens hood at 70mm, the coverage narrows to suit. This is Leica lens hood technology as its zenith. I don't see any other zoom lens has this zooming hood feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_yeo1 Posted August 8, 2001 Share Posted August 8, 2001 Hello everyone, <p> I am the guy who wrote the brief review of the Leica 35~70mm f2.8 Vario~Elamrit which was mentioned by someone in an earlier post. I am also the owner of the VE 28~70mm f3.5/4.5 (ROM version). <p> Yes, it is true that the my 28~70mm is optically sharper than the 35~70mm f2.8 lens. To-date, I have tested three samples of the 35~70mm f2.8 lens. Only one sample was better overall. The other two were soft at infinity between 40mm to 60mm. I have also spoken to a senior staff at Leica AG regarding this new zoom lens. All I can say is that Leica was having a hard time maintaining quality in this zoom lens and due to the difficulty in producing it, production of this lens was eventually stopped. <p> I have to agree with most of what Martin has written about the VE 28~70mm. The 28~70mm lens is indeed a very good lens optically and despite its slight distortion, the lens is still an outstanding performer in my book. The lens is not heavy and has silky smooth focusing and zooming rings. It may be a little slow but I can live with that with proper handholding technique and faster flims. <p> If you need a zoom lens for versatility, then you will not regret getting this zoom lens from Leica. But do make sure that you get the ROM version(latest) because optically this version is better than the older model(the one with the built-in hood). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
augusto Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 I sold my Angeniux-R 35/70 2.5 because of its lenght and short focal range and bought Leica Vario Elmar 28/70, second generation. It's not a good lens, and I'm very unsatisfied with it. Its distorsion is very very very big and you can see it at first glance (I mean in the finder, not in the photos , that's worse). I will probably sell the whole thing and go back to nikon with fixed lenses.Regards. Gus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgpinc Posted August 27, 2001 Share Posted August 27, 2001 If you are going to use this lens on a Canon EOS body Canon makes three of the best zooms around in this range; 28-105 is good, 28-135 is is great (I use this one and love it) and 28-70 2.8 which is one of the sharpest zooms ever made but a little heavy and pricy at around $1200 (not by Leica prices) and these all autofocus if you want them to. I bought one of the Leica to EOS adapters but it seems a little clugy and I prefer to use my Leica lenses on my R7 or R4S. Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chi_huang Posted August 30, 2001 Share Posted August 30, 2001 I bought a used 28-70 VE a year ago. After I bought it, I did a simple test shot on close subject and concluded the lens is not as sharp. The lens had stayed in the closet since then. Recently, after I read all the debate, I tested the lens again on far subject and found it to perform quite well comparing to my 50mm Summicron M and 35mm Summicron M, especially when stop down, but wide open isn't bad either. I am using this lens more and more now because it is truly convenient. I also own the older 35-70 VE, it is truly a mechanical marvel and still perform quite well, but the close focus of 1m and the not wide enough 35mm angle is the reason it stayed at home. <p> Anyway, I cast my vote for the 28-70. My conclusion so far is that the lens performs very well at far subject and degrade a bit at near subject. <p> /Chi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_mermagen1 Posted October 13, 2001 Share Posted October 13, 2001 I had the vario-elmar 35-70 f3.5 made in Japan. I decided to do a brief test in comparison with the 35mm Elmarit and the 35mm Summicron, all shot at F8. The results were very interesting. I analysed the film using a film scanner and was looking at color, contrast and sharpness (detail). The differences were only detectable in the enlargement... of course, not detectable in 4x6 or 5x7 sizes. The elmarit was clearly the sharpest but was lower in contrast, the Vario-Elmar had the most contrast and color saturation and slightly less sharpness, the summicron was a balance between the two, showing almost as sharp as the elmarit and almost as contrasty and saturated as the vario-elmar. The bottom line was that the differences were miniscule. The test did not take into account shooting at larger apertures. Distortion and flare are a different issue and were not examined here. I do know that the summicron is very flare resistant and in general, fixed focal length lenses will always have better distortion specs than the zooms. <p> Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_cheong Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 Hi everybody <p> I would like to recommend a photo gallery by a travel photographer, Mr Tong, I believe he uses Leica fixed focal length for M series Leica and Leica VE-R zooms for R series. His series illustrated the performance of our main topic of discussion the Sigma blood Leica VE28-70. <p> Please judge for yourselves the performance of VE-R 28-70 and if you like to own one. A few picture tells a few thousand words, IMHO. <p> http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~taiji/gallery.html <p> Best Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted January 4, 2002 Share Posted January 4, 2002 photodo test<p> Grade: 3.2 35mm/MF LeicaR Vario-Elmar-R 28-70/3,5-4,5 <p> Grade: 3 35mm/AF Nikkor AF 28-70/3,5-4,5 <p> Grade: 2.8 35mm/AF Nikkor AF 28-70/3,5-4,5D <p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted January 4, 2002 Share Posted January 4, 2002 How good is grade 3.2 ? It is as good as many prime lenses<p> Grade: 3.2 35mm/AF Canon EF 28/1,8 USM <p> Grade: 3.2 35mm/MF LeicaR Elmarit-R 24/2,8 <p> Grade: 3.2 35mm/AF Nikkor AF 28/2,8D <p> Grade: 3.2 35mm/MF Nikkor 35/2,8 <p> Grade: 3.2 35mm/MF Pentax SMC-F 28/2,8 <p> BTW, Grade: 2.8 35mm/MF Contax Vario Sonnar T* 28-70/3,5-4,5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 fotoMagazin and Colorfoto test on VE 28-70/3.5-4.5 (v2 ) <a href="http://www.walterimaging.de/html/leica_objektive.html">Leica lens test </a><p> Leica Vario-Elmar-R 3,5-4,5/28-70 mm (second version )<p> fotoMagazin rating :optic 9,0 Mechanic 9,8 overall rating " super"<p> How good is fotoMagazin optical performance = 9 rating ? The following Leica lenses all have fotoMagazin optic =9 rating<p> <ul> <li>Leica Elmar-M 2,8/50 mm <li>Leica Tri-Elmar-M 4,0/28-35-50 mm </ul> Colorfoto rated VE 28-70/3.5-4.5 (Ver 2) at 78.8 **** that is better than the follwing: <ul> <li>Leica Summilux-R 1,4/50 mm 77,7 **** <li> Leica Elmarit-R 2,8/24 mm 76,2 ****(*) <li>Leica Super-Elmar-R 3,5/15 mm 67,1 **** </ul> It is interesting to note, that fotoMagazin rated ver 1 VE 28-70/3.5-4.5 optically better than v2 (v1 9.6, v2 9.0), v2 mechanically better than v1 (9.8 vs 9.6) <p> French magazine also rated v1 higher than v2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 <p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17759282-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="453" /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17759281-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="479" /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17759285-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="480" />VE28-70 with Canon 5DM2</p> <p>The advantage of dslr vs film camera is that the unsharp factor introduced by film plane flatness deviation, film scanner film plane curl, film scanner resolution downgrade are elimimated, thus showing the sharpness of a lens in true light</p> <p>First picture is full size photo<br /> 2nd and 3rd are crops showing the fine details<br> VE28-70 is very sharp indeed, no wonder why German magazine fotoMagazine test lab rated it optically 9.6 (out of 10)</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Vario Elmar 28-70, Shaubraum Chateau Vienna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Shaubraum Chateau Vienna Leica Vario Elmar 28-70/3.5-4.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Vario Elmar 28 70 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) I put a Leica Vario Elmar 28-70 lens on my Canon 5D digital SLR camera thru a fiodo Leica-Canon adapter ring. i used this combo extensively during my travel to UK, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czek , Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, China. Edited December 18, 2020 by MTC Photography Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTC Photography Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 The advantge of mounting. VE 3.5-4.5/70 on Canon EOS vs on my. Leica R5 is that I only need to carry a charger, and a few SD cards instead of 50 rolls of 135 films ,thus save a lot of luggage space Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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