On the inside, it’s the same as the silver and black versions. It has eight elements in five groups, and focuses as close as a little bit under a meter away from the subject. Of course, it’s also a Leica M mount lens–which means that it will mount to Leica M cameras, some Voigtlander Bessas, and some Zeiss Ikon rangefinders. It’s also compatible with pretty much any and every mirrorless camera system out there via adapters.
The lens opens up to f2 and stops all the way down via half stops to f16. For many Leica shooters, this lens is considered to be one of the best on the market due to its sharpness. Along with the company’s 90mm f2 Summicron and their 35mm f1.4 Summilux, these three are amongst the most highly sought after for those with the pockets deep enough to add them to their collection. Of course, if you manage to snag a lens like this then you’re most likely not going to go out using it for serious work. It’s going to draw a lot of attention to you, your camera, and the lens in the same way that red lipstick, red apples, red roses, etc tend to stick out. But if you want to grab it and use it to document the human condition going on around the Trump Tower here in NYC, then be our guest!
This is a very interesting move for Leica overall though because many of their recent M series cameras haven’t incorporated the red dot at all to go along with the low profile look of the device. A red lens is a complete slap in the face to that ideal to the point where I honestly didn’t think that I’d be sitting here after a trip writing a story like this.
But like all things Leica, they’re best experienced in person. It may actually look nowhere as fugly IRL.
