LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 1:4/90 mm
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The LEICA Macro-Elmar-M 90mm f/4 is a high-performance telephoto lens. Its mid-length focal length is best suited for
portraits, in which the key to the picture is to clearly distinguish the people from the background. For travel photography, it is an indispensable companion for detailed views, e.g. for landscape shots. In reportage photography, it allows
discreet shots to be taken from longer distances. On cameras with live view function such as the Leica M (type 240),
photos from up to 41cm are possible when using the Leica Macro Adapter M (order no. 14 652), for scales up to 1:2. The
image quality is excellent over the entire image field and is largely retained, even in the close up range. It is comparable
with that of the legendary Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 100mm f/2.8. Even with an aperture of 4, the Leica Macro- Elmar-M
90mm f/4 delivers almost optimum performance, i.e. the maximum aperture can be used as the “standard” aperture
with no restrictions; stopping down essentially only increases the depth of field. The slight pulvinate distortion at the
corners of the image is almost negligible at 1.3%. With a maximum of 1.2 aperture stops at full aperture, vignetting, i.e.
dimming of the corners of the image, hardly ever occurs even in critical situations. Stopping down by 2 stops almost
entirely eliminates it. The multi-layer reflection-minimizing coating of the individual lens surfaces guarantees the neutral reproduction that is typical of Leica. With a retractable design, its length of just 41mm when retracted make it an
extremely compact alternative to the two other 90mm lenses in the M range.
Optical design
LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 1:4/90 mm
Engineering drawing
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LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 1:4/90 mm
MTF-graphs
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f/4.0 Aperture Stop 5.6
Y‘ [mm]
f/8.0
The MTF is indicated at full aperture, at f/2,8 and f/5,6
at long taking distances (innity). Shown is the contrast
in percentage for 5, 10, 20 and 40 lp/mm accross the
height of the 35 mm lm format, for tangential (dotted
line) and sagittal (solid line) structures, in white light.
The 5 and 10 lp/mm will give an indication regarding
the contrast ratio for large object structures. The 20
and 40 lp/mm records the resolution of ner and nest
object structures.
f/5.6
Y‘ [mm]
Y‘ [mm]
tangential structures
sagittal structures
LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 1:4/90 mm
Distortion
Relative Distortion Eective Distortion
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Vignetting
Y‘ [mm]
f/5.6
f/2.8
f/2.0
Y‘ [mm]Y‘ [mm]
Distortion is the deviation of the real image height (in
the picture) from the ideal image height. The relative
distortion is the percentage deviation. The ideal image
height results from the object height and the magnication. The image height of 21.6 mm is the radial distance
between the edge and the middle of the image eld for
the 24 mm x 36 mm format. The graph of the eective
distortion illustrates the appearance of straight horizontal and vertical lines in the picture.
Vignetting is a continous decrease of the illumination to-
wards the edges of the image eld. The graph shows the
percentage lost of illumination over the image height.
100% means no vignetting.
Distance Setting
Aperture 4.0
Depth of field
Aperture 5.6
Distance Setting
Depth of field
Magnification
Aperture 16.0
Depth of field
Aperture 22.0
Magnification
Depth of field
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