Viro-Elmar28-70

Can any of my learned Leica users inform me about,

The viro-elmar-r 3.5-4.5/28-70 serial no 3526143,I am thinking of buying this lens but have read that some of the leica lens are made

by well known lens manifactures and are not up to the standard.

I would be interested in any information on the above ,and what results one could expect.

In his book, "THE LEICA LENS BOOK" Brian Bower talks about the 28-70

f/3.5-4.5 lens. He says it is a lens designed by SIGMA and

manufactured to Leica's specifications. The performance is similar

to what you might expect from any consumer level variable aperture

zoom. He says it offers "good" image quality wide open, and by

f/8, "very good". There is some barrel distortion at 28mm and

pincushion distortion at 70mm. There is some vignetting, that can be

reduced by stopping down.

<p>

If you read magazines such as POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY, these comments can

be seen for just about every similar lens from any manufacturer.

Only you can say if this is good enough for you, but most Leica

lenses start "very good" wide open and are "excellent" by f/8.

There are 2 versions of this lens. The first version (like the one

you are considering, based on the serial#)was a Sigma lens, made in

Japan by Sigma in a mount that resembles the cosmetics of other Leica

R lenses. The front part of the lens turns with focusing and the

samples I have handled all were much looser-turning than the rather

stiff "hydraulic" feel of the German-made Leica lenses. Performance-

wise I've heard it described in glowing terms as having "that Leica

look" and also as "a dog". The truth is probably somewhere in-

between those extremes. From my purely subjective opinion, it is a

very decent lens, as good as the best slow, variable-aperture

Japanese 28-70 lenses. Which is, after all, exactly what it is.

<p>

The current version of that lens is ROM, and shares a mount with the

35-70/4 (and the pesky screw-on hood; the earlier version has a Leica-

style pull-out hood). I have yet to get a straight answer from any

Leica official as to whether the new version has changed optically,

but is is definitely no longer made my Sigma, although still produced

in Japan.

There was already a thread about Vario-Elmar 27-70<p>

<a href="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?

msg_id=003N2D">Vario Elmar 28-70</a>