Legacy Lenses 5 - Leica Elmarit R 28mm F2.8

My story about this lens started when I bought a Canon 5D camera and then had some issues with the Canon EF 28mm F2.8 USM at large apertures. My objective at that time was to have a decent wide-angle lens for handheld, low-light situations and frankly, neither the Canon lens or the 5D were stellar for that.

After some search, I found an Elmarit-R 28mm F2.8 in Vienna, in pristine condition and for a good price. I ordered a Leica-R to Canon EF adapter and a custom made manual focus screen from the now-defunct Haoda Screens. The end of the story was that I started to use practically just Leica-R lenses on my EOS 5D.

Leica Elmarit-R 28mm F2.8
(do not copy without written permission)

This lens is one of the best 28mm I've ever used. It's sharp wide-open and extremely sharp stopped down between F4 and F11. Like all Leica-R lenses, its build quality is superb, smooth and solid. A perfect example of German engineering.

The beautiful coating provides excellent flare protection, hard to see in a 28mm lens even today.

I also used this lens with my old Sigma SD15 Foveon X3 camera. The combination of Leica glass and the Foveon sensor is able to produce stunning images. To use it on the SD15 I converted the camera's SA lens mount to the Leica-R standard by installing a custom-made SigmaCumLaude mount.

This lens works as a standard lens on a camera with an APS-C size sensor, which's very convenient.

After this, this lens was also used on both or my Pentax cameras (K5-II and K3-II), but this time, changing the lens mount for a Pentax-K Leitax mount.