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Lenses

Quick Hands On Review: Leica 21mm f3.4 Elmarit Lens

Chris Gampat
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11/05/2011
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Leica M9 with 21mm f3.5 (3 of 4)

After announcing the Leica 21mm f3.4 Elmarit lens in June of this year, Leica finally brought the lens to American soil where Gevon and I got some brief playtime with the lens at Photo Plus East. Despite the lens being a tiny bit slow for my tastes, it is probably the lens that has turned me onto the 21mm focal length after trying it on the Leica M9P (M9-P)

But how does it perform?

Gear Used

Tech Specs

Tech specs taken from B&H Photo’s listing of the lens.

Angle of View 35mm format (24 x 36mm): 91°, 80°, 59°
Leica M8 models (18 x 27mm): 74°, 64°, 46°
Focal length equivalent: approx. 28mm
Optical Design 8 elements in 7 groups, 2 aspherical surfaces
Working Range 2.3′ / 0.7m to infinity
Reproduction Ratio 1:29.4
Aperture f/3.4-16 with half-stop detents
Mount Leica M bayonet with 6-bit bar-coding
Filter Mount 46 mm
Miscellaneous Scales: Combined meter/feet graduation
Smallest object field: 706 x 1059mm (35mm format); 530 x 795mm (for M8)
Dimensions Length to bayonet flange: 43/55mm (1.69/2.17″)
With/without lens hood
Diameter: 53mm (2.09″)
Weight 9.84 oz (279g)

Ergonomics

When you hold the Leica 21mm f3.5, you know that you’re holding a Leica. By that, I mean that it adheres to all the common characteristics and traits of the company’s heritage. The lens features an excellent depth of field scale, smooth focusing ring/scale, excellent aperture ring that snaps in place so spiffily, and an excellent build quality.

In both my hands and Gevon’s hands (who has significantly larger hands than I do) it was a delight to hold and play with. Despite saying that, this isn’t a toy lens at all. The design and build are all metal and the lens will probably be able to take a beating if it was faced with a situation like that.

For the price tag that you’re paying, one should expect it to be able to keep up with the best of the best.

Focusing

Focusing this lens is smooth and buttery. If you’ve never held a Leica lens before, they are smoother to focus than Zeiss and Canon FD lenses, but not as smooth as say the new Noktor 12mm f1.6.

Image Quality

I shot much more with this lens, but the first time I shot with it I forgot to put an SD card in the camera :(. Seriously, that’s what a busy trade show can do to you.

Gevon shot this image above of me when he used the lens. As you can see, it’s damned sharp. In fact, this may be the sharpest lens from the company that I’ve played with.

Despite the excellent sharpness and nice bokeh/focus falloff, my problem with the lens is that on the ill lit tradeshow floor, I needed to crank the ISO levels up very high. That isn’t usually a problem because of modern editing software, but Leica’s raw files are like Chrome film in that you need to nail the exposure nearly perfectly to get a great file. And when you do nail it, you’ll sit there in awe for a long time.

I was very impressed with the lens and will request it to come in for review.

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21mm f3.5 leica M9-P M9P Photo Plus expo 2011
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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