Leica 28mm F/2.8 ASPH Elmarit-M II

The Leica 28mm f/2.8 ASPH Elmarit-M II is a compact, moderately wide angle M-mount lens and update to the Leica 28mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M. Key features include:

• Great for landscape, street, and architectural photography

• High-contrast images with excellent color rendition

• Ten-blade iris for extra-smooth bokeh

• High-quality build

What’s Changed. The original 28mm Elmarit-M was known for being the smallest and lightest M-mount lens from Leica. The new version is even a little smaller and a little lighter, which makes it an even better partner for street photography with any of our Leica rangefinder cameras like the or .

Moderately Wide Angle. This full-frame lens provides a nice balance between wide angle and normal range. It straddles the line of being wide angle, yet has very little of the “wide-angle distortion” you’d see in the likes of a 24mm lens. The 28mm focal length is popular for landscape, street, documentary, and architectural shooting.

Optics. The 28mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M’s aspherical element minimizes aberrations and distortion at any focus distance. Its eight elements in six groups ensure accurate color reproduction and high-contrast images with great control over lens flare and ghosting. This lens’s ten-blade iris will help keep your bokeh extra smooth.

High-Quality Build. The 28mm Elmarit-M II features a smooth all-manual focus system, a new all-metal screw-on hood, and a 46mm front thread for all your filtration needs.

Experience: Field use.
Take: You won’t notice much, if any, difference in image quality between this model and the first ASPH Elmarit model. What have changed, though, are the ergonomics. With the …

Experience: Field use.
Take: You won’t notice much, if any, difference in image quality between this model and the first ASPH Elmarit model. What have changed, though, are the ergonomics. With the new metal hood that screws on like most of Leica’s newer offerings, you’ll find that it’s a bit larger, and that the lens body itself feels slightly larger as well. Otherwise, this lens is everything you’ve come to expect from Leica’s already fantastic 28mm Elmarit: lots of contrast, edge-to-edge sharpness, really good control of distortion, and very little vignetting. This is one of my favorite all-round Leica lenses.