Typical Advertising Comments
The Leica Vario-Elmar-S 30–90 mm f/3.5–5.6 ASPH. combines the versatility of a zoom lens with the imaging performance of equivalent primes. From the angles of view it translates to a 24 to 72 mm zoom in 35 mm format – the versatility offered by this universal range of focal lengths, from an extreme wide-angle to a little longer than a standard lens, makes it ideal for all manner of photographic needs. A particular advantage of this zoom is that photographers have no need to fear a loss of quality in comparison with corresponding primes and must only accept that the initial aperture is not quite as fast.
Its sophisticated optical design comprises 14 elements in four groups. Altogether nine elements are manufactured from glasses with anomalous partial dispersion, and three of these are fluoride lenses with the particularly low dispersion characteristics needed for the correction of chromatic aberrations.
Monochromatic aberrations are effectively minimised by the integration of three aspherical lens surfaces.
These constructional measures ensure that the Vario-Elmar-S 30–90 mm f/3.5–5.6 ASPH. can be used without any reservations throughout the entire zoom range at all focusing distances and at maximum aperture, as stopping down only minimally improves its already extraordinarily high imaging performance. At all focal lengths distortion is extremely well controlled and vignetting effects imperceptible. The Vario-Elmar-S 30–90 mm f/3.5–5.6 ASPH. delivers consistently dependable high performance and offers extreme flexibility and creative potential for a multitude of photographic challenges.
Well that is the Blurb.
What is it like in real life? That's a great question as few people have managed to put this lens through it's paces and had the opportunity to write it up.
Earlier this year we took a trip to Yorkshire and Derbyshire and took a few shots. Because we were concerned about lighting in some situations, we took a three camera rig to allow for all situations. In our view the best available combination. Leica S2P with S30-90, Canon 1DX with new 24-70F2.8 & Sony RX1. A terrific combination. In fact the Leica shoots well when wide open so we needn't have worried unless we needed high ISO shots which was where both the Canon and Sony excelled.
So how did the S2 Perform with the Vario-Elmar-S 30–90 mm f/3.5–5.6 ASPH?
Take a look.
I was shooting at Peveril castle and Yvette snapped me using the S2P with the little Sony.
As you can see we were pretty high up. The overall image I was taking is here. This is looking down into Hope Valley.
If you look right of centre you can see a church. Here is a crop of this section to show the resolved detail. Notice the brown looking shed in the hills with blurs to the left.
Now the shed it clear with it's skylights. The blurs to the left resolve as trucks. People can be seen in the streets and the church's overall size becomes evident. This is far beyond the resolution of any other kit we had with us.
Below are a series of images from the trip. Lovely colour. Minimal processing. Mostly taken wide open on overcast days. Basically what came out of the camera was pretty much spot on for detail and colour. Bear in mind that Leica produce lovely sharp lenses with pleasing contrast. This provides good balance to the images.
This one below is from the Hope Valley. Everything was overgrown.
Take a look. The one above is inside Peveril Castle. No light so I under exposed 3 stops wide open and used Photoshop to lift the gain. Shot at ISO 1250 which I never planned to use but I wanted the shot...
The files are amazing. Very sharp and bright and, with the headroom on the S2 there were few situations where the Leica wasn't the camera of choice. [I took a lot of indoor images with the Canon where I needed some video as well.] The 30-90 balances very well on the S2. I found it very easy to use. Walking through people the combination drew a bit of attention but as i was focused on getting images i only had a couple of people wanting to talk gear over the obvious images all around. Shooting wide open at F3.5 was very useable. I just had to remember the depth of field adjustments in medium format over 35mm which i did sometimes miss calculate but otherwise it was easy. These images are very sharp and clear with great contrast and realism.
This one was shot in the Shambles in York. The image was under exposed by 1 stop but came up well.
What can I say except that this is now my favorite lens. And remember I do have the 35mm F2.8 which is very sharp. But this combination of 24-72 equivalent as a 30-90 medium format is a deal breaker. It is everything Leica claim and a lot more. I don't read up on gear much now. I have what is needed to get the shot.
The weight is right. Yes it is well built so you are carrying a bit of weight around but I was always comfortable. Interestingly I was very pleased with battery life. With the large Canon bodies I have got used to several days shooting without thinking about batteries though it's always practical to carry a spare. We made sure that the spare was always ready to go. But not an issue. We were shooting for several hours each day, taking over 6000 images on this trip. It was never necessary to swap a battery out because it was empty. We just charged in the evening and made sure we had charged packs each morning.
It probably sounds unusual to be talking about using a Leica S2 camera system on what was clearly a holiday trip to the United Kingdom. But knowing that we would be visiting Yorkshire and Derbyshire and remembering the picturesque locations it was hardly likely that we would be taking anything less than some first-class camera equipment. It is also good to think about how the system performs when you're constantly moving around walking the streets looking for images. Given the size of the camera it might be anticipated that it would draw a certain amount of attention. Especially with the new 30 to 90 mm lens on the front. It is imposing. But, I am pleased to report that, even without putting any tape over the name, we were able to use the camera all the time. And what's more, the beautiful soft light that we were photographing looked absolutely awesome when we looked to the images that we had collected at the end of each day. Never once did we return home to the beautiful barn conversion that we were staying in, just north of Sheffield, disappointed because the images did not live up to our expectations. The camera captured the light beautifully allowing the photographer to focus on getting the image. Framing the image has become that much easier with a 30 to 90 mm lens. Because this was a family trip we tended to have very little time to just walk around just taking photographs. We did manage to find a couple of days. Because most of the time when we work in Australia we are used to photographing in harsh West Australian light or slightly softer Victorian light. The softness of the light around Yorkshire and Derbyshire combined with the greenness of the valleys and the contrasting appearance of the stone buildings makes the whole idea a photographers dream.
The weight of the camera was a consideration. Carrying it around all day is always a concern for any photographer. I guess it depends what you are used to. If you are used to carrying a pro body around with a good quality lens then this is not something that you would be concerned about. It is very easy to carry around. In the hand, the body is molded beautifully for the right-hand. Everything just seems to be proportioned perfectly. I would not hesitate to say that this is a camera that you can hold rock solid. He does not feel plasticky or cheap anywhere. I was switching between the Leica and the Canon 1DX camera fitted with the mark two 24 to 70 mm lens. The Canon is bigger and of a similar weight in this combination though the Leica is more front heavy with the larger lens. The Canon provides the opportunity to shoot in much darker situations and of course it gives you the opportunity to take some video film. I count myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to use both on this trip and to be able to choose which of the two I'm going to use in professional work regularly.
Image quality.
One word suffices: Awesome. There is a reality in the images that are taken with a Leica camera that it's difficult to explain. I've heard it called the Leica look. I call it realism. It's as if there is nothing between you and the image. It's that last 10% that defines real quality over and above what you expect.
I still recall with some shock the very first images that I took with the Leica. Being used to image quality from standard SLR cameras [Pro cameras with L-series lenses] I took some photographs of some winter bushes complete with bright red berries. The colors were exceptionally bright, and when I took the photographs, I knew from past experience that there was little possibility of capturing the freshness and brightness of the scene. However I had never taken photographs with a Leica before and this gave me my biggest surprise. When the photographs were on the screen I was shocked and very pleasantly surprised. All of the freshness and sharpness of the image was there before me. I magnified the image up to 100% and saw detail in a way that I had never experienced with any photographic instrument. Leica users who use the cameras regularly will probably be reading this and know exactly what I'm talking about. It's just something that goes with Leica territory. However when you combine all of this with the creative potential of a medium format system you just simply step into a different area of photography altogether. Simply marvelous. Now this is not to say that other camera systems don't capture images beautifully. But there is something hard to define about the optical brilliance of the Leica system.
Using a Leica does put a certain amount of pressure on your computer when it comes time to processing the images. The image files are huge: opening into files approximately 100 MB in size. We have a computer that has a scratch drive that provides 128 GB of supporting memory behind 16 GB of RAM. Even this behemoth of a computer can struggle if I try to open too many files. Photoshop does a very good job of handling the files as does the phase 1 camera system. However, I may be in the minority but I find the automated genius of the Silky Pix Pro system to be ideal. We have saved a series of presets within the system that we use with Canon cameras, Pentax cameras & Sony cameras as well as Leica of course. Built into the Silky Pix system are some excellent tools for sharpening and handling noise. The way that Silky Pix handles noise is well worth taking a look at. It's also very good at finding and using headroom in images and has a natural HDR function. It's an intuitive program for use with professional cameras.
Where does the Leica S2 system excel?
What you see is really what you get. But that is the reality that you have to get used to when using the Leica system. It's almost like the difference between 2-D and 3-D images. There has been a lot written over the years about the amount of time that is spent in a so-called digital darkroom working with the computer. Photographers want to be out taking photographs whereas they have to spend considerable hours sitting in a room in front of a computer examining images on a monitor. If the wedding requires 1000 images and a photographer spends just three minutes on each of those images processing them and fixing up defects that equates to 3000 minutes. This equates to 50 working hours. So if you can take photographs and you are that much closer to what you want in camera so to speak, then logically it's going to save you a lot of time. Why would anyone want to spend 50 hours sitting in front of a computer? So getting it right "in camera" has got to be a priority with a photographer. He wants to be able to process, using the analogy above, 8 to 900 of the images automatically. Sure there might be a little bit of cropping but that's it. He wants to save his creative genius for the 100 major images that he takes on the day. Thus he can reduce his working time from 50 hours to perhaps 16, in other words two days. Surely that makes sense. And that is what the Leica S2 P gives the photographer. Combined with the 30 to 90 mm lens for outstanding versatility he is that much closer to the finished product and can focus on framing and getting the image right when it's taken. And of course because he's using medium format he has a wonderful flexibility in terms of depth of field that will result in some remarkably creative images if he puts his mind to it.
But word on the sensor.
CCD sensors are different to CMOS sensors. There is no doubt that CMOS sensors are ideal for developing cameras that can handle high ISO settings and obviously very low light conditions. CCD sensors however handle color beautifully. There is a solid feel about the colors taken with this style of sensor. You will have limited versatility in terms of the ability to go up to really high ISO settings. I have found the Leica S2 P sensor to work very well up to 640 ISO. In fact, I used that setting a lot while I was in the UK and came away with some stunning photographs. I even went up 1200 iso with no difficulty. True there is usually a little intrusive noise if you don't know how to handle it but as I mentioned before the Silky Pix Pro program is ideal for this. But that's the limit. With the Canon 1DX I will happily go up to 6400 ISO and know that I can use the image. I still have to use some noise control. But noise is all a part of the digital photography world and I don't see the sense in trading off the image quality of a CCD sensor simply to avoid having to deal with a little noise in the post processing stage. The benefit in using the CCD system in a medium format system is that you get a wonderful definition of color and detail.
It has the ability to capture the wonderful detail of the Leica lenses. For me the system is about as perfect as you can get. It's not for sports photography where the speed of a Canon 1DX is perfect but for almost every other type of photography I have no problem in using a Leica medium format system.
Highly recommended.
Lens Details
Number of lenses/groups: 14 / 11
Focusing range: 0.65 m to ∞
Smallest object field at 30 mm: 514 mm × 771 mm, at 90mm: 194 mm × 291 mm
Largest reproduction ratio: 1 : 6.5
Aperture: Setting/Function Electronically controlled diaphragm, set using setting / selection dial on camera, including half values
Lowest value: 32
Bayonet: Leica S bayonet
Filter mount/Lens hood: External bayonet for lens hood (included), internal thread for E95 filter, filter mount does not rotate
Dimensions and weight: Length to bayonet mount approx. 113.5 / 144.3 mm (without / with lens hood). Largest diameter approx. 101 / 150 mm (without / with lens hood). Weight approx. 1275 / 1345 g
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