Beautiful colors and sharpness, good and useful zoomrange, perfect quality and finish

Front part of lens can move when pointed downward, the aperture-ring is quite narrow

This is another travellers dream and a great companion for the Vario-Elmar 4/35-70. The optical and mechanical quality is perfect. The two rings move smooth as silk ! Sometimes, it might be a little bit too heavy, but that's the material - brass and aluminum. Sturdy and rock solid ! The camera body has to be well balanced, so if you use a R4-R7, be shure to use the winder or motor for a better counterweight. The R8 is fine, although the use of the winder is advantageous if you have big hands. I'm also using the famous APO-Telyt 180 for handheld and tripod shots. It is much more handy (about 700g), but doesn't sport that useful zoom range from portrait to tele. If you want to use a UV-filter for lens protection (you definetely should use one, it randomly saves up a lens if dropped !), be shure to get a cheaper and used original Leica UVa 60mm instead of a new 60mm. It retains the neutral and natural color balance of the lens. And the centering of the filter is much better than others. B+W Filters of Germany is another alternative for 60mm filters. The original Leica cirular polarizer costs 300 $. Used aprox. 150$. Thats hefty ! If you drop your Leica polarizer - you'll never get over it !

Customer Service

Perfect

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 80-200/2.8 L, EF 28-70/2.8 L USM, Leica APO-Telyt 3.4/180

Perfect build quality. Excellent mechanics. Sharp to the edges, no vignetting. Excellent color and detail repro.

E60 filter size. The B+W circ-pol. MRC cost about $105, and B+W is constructing a 81C(KR3) thin MRC for $105 too. I shot for a month w/o the c-pol, so don't count on finding that size quickly!

After much debate, I finally completed my R kit. This lens gives me the flexibility I need when I travel. I would prefer to shoot everything with Leica primes, but the added sharpness and contrast is always beat by a single zoom lens's range and convenience. Completely worth every pfenning (penny!), but the lens attracts too much attention. I've had to apply 'black tape'(?) over the red Leica point and this allows me to shoot and carry the kit with a bit more security.

Customer Service

Excellent by German standards, but my British friends cannot find a technical english speaker!

Similar Products Used:

Leica 28-70, Nikon F100 w/ Sigma 2,8:0 28-70, 17-35mm Sigma

Easy to use, very good performance

Two long, The filter size is not popular.

It's a good zoom lens for a amerture.

Similar Products Used:

Leica M

Replaces the weight and bulk of several fixed focal length lenses with no quality penality.

Would prefer a common filter to the 60mm size required.

The Pentax lens was much lighter. At about 2 lbs., you begin to feel the weight of the Leitz lens early. Optically, the Leica lens is superior. It doesn't have a "macro" function, but does focus to 1.1m. That's plenty close for most work. If you need to get closer, you should be using a true macro lens anyway. I'm ready to sell some of my fixed focal length lens now.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

70~210mm f/4 Pentax A