Two new professional primes have joined the SL line up from today — both f/2 Summicrons, they offer two traditional focal lengths, 75mm and 90mm. While the 90mm is billed as the perfect portrait lens, the 75mm is seen as a transitional lens for all situations between standard and telephoto focal lengths for street, portrait or general photography.
Both lenses feature an autofocus system with “Dual Syncro Drive” which ensures extremely fast transition between near and far, claimed to take only a fraction of a second. Both lenses are said to offer higher-than-average contrast.
Because of the f/2 aperture, both size and weight of these lenses is less than a faster aperture. The f/1.4 Summilux 50mm, for instance, weighs 1,065g while the new 90mm is 700g and the 75mm a tad heavier at 720g. The two Summicrons are 102mm long compared with the 124mm of the 50mm Summilux.
SL owners now have the choice of four high-performance primes, the 35mm Summicron, 50mm Summilux, 75mm Summicron and 90mm Summicron. A 50mm Summicron with arrive in the second half of this year. In addition, there are currently two SL-Vario lenses, the popular 24-90m Vario-Elmarit and the tele 90-280mm Apo-Vario-Elmarit. The wide-angle 15-35mm Super-Vario-Elmar will join the party in April 2018.
The 75mm Apo-Summicron SL costs £3,750 including VAT and the 90mm version is £4,100.
Press information
New prime lenses for the Leica SL-System: superior performance and the finest art of engineering in compact design
Wetzlar, 15th January 2018. The APO-Summicron-SL 75 mm f/2 ASPH. and the APO- Summicron-SL 90 mm f/2 ASPH. are the first two of a new line of high-performance lenses for the Leica SL-System. The focal lengths of the two SL-Lenses are ideal for all genres of photography and are particularly suitable for portraiture. While the APO-Summicron-SL 75 mm f/2 ASPH. enables, for example, natural portraits, the APO-Summicron-SL 90 mm f/2 ASPH. is a classic focal length for portraiture and creates the often-desired slight compression of perspectives. Both lenses are perfectly matched to the SL-System and, similarly to all currently available and future SL-Lenses, have been designed and constructed for a long service life in professional use.
All glass elements in an optical imaging system such as lenses, refract light in certain colours to a different extent. This leads to the effect that not all rays of light from a multi- coloured subject are focused at a single imaging point – the result of this is chromatic aberration. In order to reduce chromatic aberration to a hardly-perceptible minimum, both new Summicron-SL lenses are apochromatic (in short: APO) corrected. For this, most of the eleven elements of the optical system – one of which is an aspherical – feature anomalous partial dispersion and are manufactured from sensitive and specially formulated, high-quality glass types.
Both the construction and the design of the cutting-edge Summicron-SL line represent the next step forward in the development of lenses for the Leica SL-System. New, extremely precise manufacturing methods and measuring technologies have been developed especially for the production of these lenses. The results of this are reflected not only in the more compact dimensions and considerably lower weight of the lenses, but also in their excellent imaging performance. In addition, these lenses feature a new, faster autofocus system and a
considerably shorter close focusing limit.
As both Summicron-SL primes deliver extremely high imaging performance at their largest aperture, the lenses are also ideal for photography in difficult lighting conditions. The Leica promise of ‘maximum aperture is a usable aperture’ also applies to the new SL-Lenses – stopping down is exclusively a creative imaging tool, and is not necessary for achieving better imaging performance.
In the construction of the APO-Summicron-SL lenses, particular attention has been paid to the prevention of stray light and reflections. Together with an optimisation of the optical and mechanical design, the application of high-quality coating to lens surfaces reduces unavoidable reflections to an absolute minimum.
The autofocus drive of all SL-Summicron lenses employs extremely powerful and robust stepping motors with DSD® (Dual Syncro DriveTM). Thanks to these, the entire focusing throw can be travelled completely in only around 250 milliseconds.
The APO-Summicron-SL 75 mm f/2 ASPH. will be available from 25 January 2018, and the APO-Summicron-SL 90 mm f/2 ASPH. from 8 February 2018 at £3,750 an £4,100 (including VAT) respectively.
The market launch of the Summicron-SL 35 mm f/2 ASPH. and the APO-Summicron-SL 50 mm f/2 ASPH. is scheduled for the second half of 2018.
Technical Data
 2018-01-16 19-31-13.jpg)
It’s nice to finally see more lenses being released for the SL line, though understanding their new technologies and production processes explains why it’s taken a while. I’m very interested to see the 50mm Summicron. BTW the 15-35mm is not available yet.
I’d love to see a 24 or 21mm prime someday too. I use the SL as an amazing landscape camera and therefore prefer wider over longer. I’ll take the 15-35mm too if I can get it ; )