Leica APO-Vario-Elmar-T F3.5-4.5/55-135mm ASPH.
The APO-Vario-Emar T is a long-awaited telephoto zoom lens for the compact mirrorless Leica T body with an APS-C sensor. Although Leica is famous for fixed focal lenses, this telephoto zoom lens has greater flexibility in composing. The angle of view covered is between 80mm and 200mm in 35mm full frame. This magnification seems small, but it's very Leica to pursue image quality over magnification. The minimum focus distance is 1 meter, which is shot for this focal length and the max aperture is bright F3.5-4.5. And, the image quality combined with the body's quiet color tone is attractive. This time I headed to Noto Peninsula.
( Photography / Text : T.Takahashi )
On the backlight, the splashes were flying high like a heat haze. I shot it at the tele-end and there's no tone jump in the highlight and the branches are resolved perfectly. And, even though I focused on infinity, the image has a good 3D quality.
At the 55mm wide-end. It defined the calm waves in the inlet minutely and the houses are popping. The contrast is wonderful despite the backlight. And, the quiet color tone of the Leica T matched with this monotonous scene.
Even though the cloud looked flat in my eyes, this output contains subtle tonal difference. Each branch looks very sharp, but they also have a great 3D quality as if they were popping out from the cloud.
Wide open. The constant 1m minimum focus distance enables moderate macro photography. The location was so cold, but I was amazed by the beauty of ice and took many shots. The thin frost covering the dry grass looks very realistic.
You may wonder if the AF speed of a telephoto zoom could be slow when focusing on moving objects. I zoomed in to the tele-end and used the rear LCD to shoot this moving dog, which was a difficult condition. But, it focused on where I wanted and the focusing was unexpectedly quick. I shot it wide open, but even the sand grains are sharp and the hairs look beautiful, too.
I shot another difficult scene to give a hard time to the AF, but it still focused without a problem. The bokeh isn't large, but the focal plane is very sharp and has a great 3D feeling.
What a great transparency of the glasses. The resolution is wonderful as well.
Who uses the Leica T? Probably, the users of rangefinders like the Leica M do. And, it's hard for rangefinders to shoot with a 200mm telephoto. So, the combination of the Leica T and the APO-Vario-Elmar T will cover the shortfall caused by rangefinders. The sharpness isn't extremely high, but the resolution is solid. In other words, the rendition is very natural. Plus, the quiet color tone is another great appeal. The short-telephoto to telephoto coverage and the macro capability will be handy in many situations including portraits and landscape. Enjoy the sober tone, resolution, and Leica's worldview.
( 2015.06.09 )