After twice failing to bond with a 90mm APO-Summicron-M, I added a 90mm Summicron-SL to the arsenal. Image quality and sharpness were to my liking, but the weight was not. So it got trundled off. More recently I tried another copy of the M lens. The short, stiff focus throw made it hard for me to exploit the wide-open crispness of the lens, and stopped down it was brittle-sharp.

Until last month, when I saw a copy in the Leica timeline showcase at Leitz Park, I had never even laid eyes on a 90mm APO-Summicron-R lens. Sources indicate 2000 copies were made, same as the 280mm APO-Telyt-R. But unlike the 280, plentiful in the used marketplace, the 90mm didn’t turn up that often. And when it did, it was prohibitively expensive, the one R “equivalent” lens that went for more than its M counterpart.

While browsing regional websites in the hope of finding a good copy of the Tair 11a, I happened to see an R ‘cron available. The price looked almost too good to be true, but realistic enough to warrant further investigation. So the morning after I arrived in Warsaw, I set off in search of the vendor, whose showroom turned out to be in a fourth-floor walkup in a less busy part of the city.

After a thorough check of the mechanics and glass, I made it mine. After reading for years that it was the same optical formula as the M counterpart with the same rendering, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the focus throw is much longer at the near end and much smoother overall. Already known was that MFD is 0.7m compared to 1.0m for the M.

Color is neutral, like the M version. But in spite of producing the most detail I’ve ever seen in a 90mm lens, it doesn’t appear brittle at all, neither near wide open nor stopped down. Not only have I quickly bonded with the lens; it’s become a favorite—perhaps the prod I needed to stick with the SL2 instead of capitulating to an M camera.

So far it’s not been easy to find subject matter to exploit the capabilities of the lens, but it’s sure been fun searching!

SL2/90mm APO-Summicron-R ASPH . . .