Leica Wide Angle 24mm f/3.8 Elmar M Aspherical Manual Focus Lens - Black

The LEICA ELMAR-M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH. is an extremely compact lens, especially for such a wide angle, which also offers outstanding imaging performance. Even with at full stop, it delivers uniformly excellent reproduction quality over the entire image field, only deteriorating slightly towards the...

Its a new Leica Lens, so we are talking the top 1% to start. Perfect. It came in a really nice black leather case. The metal lens hood is solid and makes the lens seem even better. I didn't get to hold this lens before I purchased it. I was surprised how small and light it is.

I took the 24mm/3.8 Elmar to Glacier Bay, Alaska, as my main lens on M9. I took various other focal lengths as back up, however, the 24 Elmar stayed on the entire trip. On the ship, helicopter, or dog sledding performed flawlessly.

At first I was a snob about getting a f3.8 lens for a Leica M, but using autoISO I remembered that a shorter lens gets more light. This means at the same light situation where a 50 mm would need f2.0 to get the right exposure at iso100 the 24mm at 3.8 will be about the same. P.S.

In my experience, this lens produces beautifully rich contrast and tack sharp images. Stopped down to 5.6 it's nearly perfect to the naked eye. No evidence of significant aberration or distortion at 5.6 or higher, even in high contrast sunlit environments.

Great size, nice even weight to it, wonderful build quality, edge to edge perfection, micro contrast top notch. Unless you need speed for your photography at 24mm (not really as strong a pre-requisite at this focal length) this is an investment you won't regret.

Id rather have a small slow sharp lens than a big fast sharp one. This one is excellent, even wide open at 3.8. I use it mostly on the M Monochrom, also on the M9, and like it better than the 18mm Super Elmar because of its size. I also have the 21 Elmarit, 28 Elmarit and 35 Summilux.

insanely sharp and beautiful contrast. small enough to take everywhere.

I'd deduct 1/2 star for the cost of this lens with the Leica 24mm viewfinder. That said, I'm very happy I have it. Virtually perfect rendition; sharp, proper contrast, holds detail to the edges at 5.6 and higher.

The inconvenience of using an external finder is more than offset by absolutely stellar optical performance, edge to edge. This lens has a smooth, solid, compact build and an excellently designed metal lens hood. HIghly recommended.