REVIEWS - Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO Telephoto Lens

OVERVIEW

I will confess to feeling a little thrill when using the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-M APO just because of what it is. Using a large telephoto lens is a very visceral experience. Everything about the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-M APO is deliberate - the extra effort to carry it, the extra effort to set it up on the tripod, handling 105mm filters, the insanely critical attention needed for accurate focus, and so on.

The goal of this review is not to convince you of the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO's financial worth. Frankly, it is over-priced and has become a collector's item. But if you are considering one, or just curious about the lens, there is little information on the internet about the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO. And the bits of information that are out there, are scattered far and wide. The agenda here is information.

BUILD QUALITY

Do I really need to write this? Lots of metal, lots of glass - in fact, 850g of glass according to Mr. Erwin Puts. As with most Leica products, fit and finish are superb. The aperture ring clicks cleanly from detent to detent. There are 90º detents when rotating the lens in its tripod collar. The drop-in filter slides in and out easily. Everything is engraved. The lens hood slides smoothly. The ens hood is described as rubber-armored, a fancy way of saying rubber is bonded to the hood. The rubberized finish seems to wear well, but is susceptible to rub marks.

Focus is very smooth with a light action and a ~270º focus throw. Focus at F2 can be extremely challenging, so being able to make fine focus adjustments is critical. The wide focus ring has a rubber grip. Careful cleaning with Mothers Back-to-Black Trim Plastic Restorer works wonders for removing white / gray powdery oxidation and other finger-grit that accumulates with normal use.

Leica's black anodized finish wears fairly well. Some of these lenses are almost 30 years old, so light edge wear on the crisp edges - like the aperture ring - is to be expected. Over the years I have owned three of these lenses, and they all seemed to have aged well. The rubber parts tend to show the most age, and the plating on the lens mount tends to pit and chip away over time.

ROM VS CAM

If adapting the 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO via the Leica R-Adapter L to a Leica SL-2 or similar, the Leica made adapter receives some lens data (transmitted by the ROM chip). In turn this data is embedded into the resulting DNG and JPG files. The lens data includes the lens name, focal length and a guesstimate of the aperture.

Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO #11354 ROM Contacts

For all other cameras, a ROM lens offers no additional value vs the CAM version. I have owned both ROM and CAM versions of the 180mm Summicron and could not discern any physical or performance differences. ROM versions generally sell at a slight premium vs the CAM version.

FILTERS

For most users, the Series 6 drop-in filter tray will be sufficient. Leica made a drop-in polarizer, and today some Series 6 filters are still made by Heliopan. When shooting the Leica M10 Monochrom, I often use a polarizer + dark red filter + neutral density filter. Having the drop-in filter tray plus the 100mm front filter thread is mission critical.

Series 6 Drop-In Filters and 105mm Filters via Front Threads

Finding E100 filters today is all but impossible, so I use a Heliopan 100-105mm step-up ring with 105mm filters. The built-in lens hood works fine with 105mm filters. Finding a new Leica Series 6 Neutral Density (ND) 1x Glass Filter is also seemingly impossible. This filter does have some coatings and I have been trying to find spare... not easy...

If taking a long exposure, it would probably be a good measure to place lens cloth over the filter tray. I would not be surprised if a light leak showed in long exposures. I have not tested for or experienced a light leak, but it seems likely and is something I routinely have to manage with the Leica M lens mount. I will eventually test for it.

OPTICAL FORMULA

Lothar Kölsch served as Leica's Chief Optical Designer from 1986-2002, between Walter Mandler and Peter Karbe. During that time, most of the Leica R APO telephoto lenses were developed, including the 180mm APO f/2, 180mm APO f/2.8, 280mm APO f/4, 400mm f/2.8 APO, Leica R Modular 280-800mm system and 105-280mm zoom. The diagram below is the Leica 180mm Summicron's formula -

Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO Optical Formula from "Leica R-Lenses" by Erwin Puts

Not much can be found about which elements are aspherical, just Puts' comment about "special glass" which likely refers to things like low dispersion elements. Erwin Puts' document is probably the best technical write-up available. He goes into great details about the optical design and the challenges with chromatic aberrations, spherical aberrations, lens size, etc. You can read it here.

Mr. Puts also talks about the Leica 180mm Summicron's resolving power, citing up to 270 line pairs per millimeter. While the Leica 180mm Summicron is nearly 30 years old, it is still very competitive (maybe even better in some regards) with the current Nikon and Canon offerings. As part Roger Cicala's 2015 The Great 200mm Shoot Out, he measured the Canon and Nikon 200mm F2's on their optical bench, OLAF.

MTF Chart Comparison at F2.8 - Click for a Larger View

The above graphic is a mash-up for Roger's findings along with the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO's MTF chart published by Leica. The results suggest the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-APO out resolves the the Canon and Nikon 200mm's. Paired with Mr. Puts' commentary - which basically says, "Leica's best 180mm ever" - and the Leica is an impressive optical accomplishment.

HANDLING

The Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO weighs ~5 pounds 10 ounces. Add a lens adapter and quick release lens plate, and the total weight is nearly six pounds. The lens is not very long, so it feels very dense. The lens could be shot handheld, but I always use it with a Gitzo 5-Series tripod.

Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO Tripod Foot and Arcatech 2.5" Lens Plate

The Leica 180mm Summicron's tripod foot has a single 1/4" 20 thread socket and one unthreaded hole, which I assume is for an anti-twist pin. About 10 years ago Kirk made the LP-42 lens plate which had such an anti-twist pin. Unfortunately, the Kirk plate was discontinued some years ago and is seemingly impossible to find in the secondhand market. The Acratech 2.5" Plate fits the tripod collar foot very nicely.

Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO Set Up on a Gitzo 5-Series Tripod

The Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-M APO is more compact than its modern brethren, such as the Nikon 200mm f/2G ED VR II. The Leica can even look comparatively small on a large tripod set-up. But one challenge with being compact is that there is not a great place to grab a hold of the Leica 180mm Summicron when pulling it out of lens bag or mounting the lens on a camera.

ADAPTING TO LEICA M BODIES

Adapting the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO to a Leica M only makes sense with EVF capable M's - zone focusing with Leica M9 or film body would be futile. The Leica R-Adapter M has amazing build quality, but it can vignette with some lenses and the adapter itself is a bit chunky.

Novoflex LEM / LER Adapter for Mounting Leica R Lenses to the Leica M Bodies

Whereas the Novoflex LEM/LER has had none of those vignetting issues and is a bit more svelte in its build. The Novoflex adapter is 6-bit coded. For the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO, the Novoflex adapter is my preferred choice.

PERFORMANCE

My 180mm Summicron use has been pretty casual. There has not been a concerted effort on my part to pressure test the lens, so the following comments are anecdotal observations from regular weekend use -

• Sharpness:  The Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO is slightly soft at near distances when shot F2 - like portrait distances. The results are good, but just not as sharp as when stopped down or focused at further distances. Whereas at mid and far distances at F2 are stunningly sharp.

  Erwin Puts wrote that there is sharpness drop off at the edges and corners (at F2), but I am not paying much attention to corners at F2. Frankly, the corners and edges seem sharp enough to me (at F2), and this is supported by to 10 and 20 line pairs on the Leica MTF charts.

  I mostly shoot the lens at F2, but when I do shoot the infrequent stopped-down landscape, I am gobsmacked at the sharpness and resolution. Stopped down to F4 or F5.6, the lens is insanely sharp for landscapes with plenty of micro details on a 40 MP sensor.

• Bokeh:  The 180mm APO has pleasing bokeh, but it can be a bit busy with foliage that is near the plane of focus at F2. This is one area where a more modern lens like the Canon EF 200mm F2 L IS may render a smoother, more abstracted bokeh.

  The Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO does deliver very pretty bokeh. The usual considerations apply - how close the subject is, how distant the background is relative to the subject, background lighting, background patterns, etc. The Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO will smooth away most things, but the lens is not a miracle worker.

  If considering a Leica 180mm Summicron strictly because of its bokeh potential, or any 200mm F2 type of lens for that matter, a 135mm F2 lens will be for more flexible and is something that can easily be shot handheld. The Leica 180mm Summicron will have a more magnified bokeh effect (135mm vs 180mm), but is 6 pounds to muscle vs a typical 2 pound 135mm F2 lens.

• Chromatic Aberrations:  I suspect that color fringing is lurking somewhere, but it has been a non-issue thus far. The majority of my pictures have been with the Leica M10 Monochrom, and black & white masks color fringing. I have seen some secondary chromatic aberrations in the bokeh (using a color camera).

  There is a common misconception that an APO optical design removes all chromatic aberrations. An APO lens is designed to remove the chromatic aberration in the plane of focus (where the red, green & blue light converge). For more information about APO optical designs, there is a short section in the Mamiya 645M 200mm F2.8 APO Review.

• Flare:  I almost always shoot with the sun to my back or thereabouts, so flare is seldom an issue. However, when shooting at night and street lights or other point sources of light are just outside the frame, those lights sources can cause havoc. Thus far, I have not used the Leica 180mm Summicron at night, so I will circle back to flare at a later date.
• Focus Shift:  Thus far, focus shift has not appeared to be a problem, but again, it is not something I have specifically tested for as of yet.

During 2022 I hope to expand on the performance commentary, but overall, Mr. Erwin Puts' description is very thorough and goes into much greater technical detail than I ever could (click here).

LEICA 180MM F2 SUMMICRON-R APO VS LEICA 280MM F4 TELYT-R APO

One of the benefits of 200mm F2 lens whether Canon, Nikon, Leica, etc. has been getting three focal lengths for the price of one by using teleconverters - 200mm F2, 300mm F2.8 or 400mm F4. And even 500mm if willing to stack multiple teleconverters. The following sides by sides compare with the 180mm Summicron with 280mm F4 Telyt-R APO -

Bokeh Rendering - Click to Enlarge

If looking closely, the Leica 280mm F4 Telyt-R APO's bokeh is slightly smoother, slightly more abstract. But overall they are very similar. The 280mm generally has a slightly more 3D feel its images (vs the 180mm with a stacked 1.4x). The more obvious different is how warm the 180mm Summicron renders. It generally renders a very warm image. This is not a case of big swings in the Leica M10-R's auto white balance.

100% Crop Comparison - Click to Enlarge

The Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO performs very well, but it cannot match 280mm F4 Telyt-R APO's sharpness. That said, a bit more sharpening in post, it would be very difficult to see a difference. Or, stop down the Leica 180mm down to F4.

While the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO comes very close to matching the 280mm F4 Telyt-R APO, if shooting 280mm or longer, I always use the 280mm. Stopping down the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO diminishes its wide open character. And of course, the 280mm is simply outstanding, so why not use it? The 280mm is also easier to handle in the field (weighs 2 pounds less and use smaller filters).

On flip side, for somebody who does not have 300mm lens, stacking the Leica 1.4x APO teleconverter is a quick and cost effective way to get some added reach (and utility) out of the Leica 180mm Summicron. The Leica 180mm Summicron also works well with the Leica 2X APO teleconverter, but the lens really needs to be stopped down F4 or F5.6 for acceptable performance (in my opinion).

CONCLUSION

With most Leica lenses, I like how sharp they are, or maybe it is their size to performance ratio. Whereas with the Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO, I simply like the way it "draws" the scene. Trying to describe how a lens "draws" with words is difficult.

Writing this review, it became painfully apparent that I have not put the lens to good use. Landscapes are not a good subject matter for illustrating the Leica 180mm Summicron's draw. So for 2022, one of my goals is to generate some worthy pictures for this review.

And the other striking thought was - will we ever see another Leica 180mm F2 Summicron APO? Each year we read about the shrinking camera market. In March 2021 Canon discontinued the Canon EF 200mm F2 L IS. Leica's answers when asked about making super telephoto lenses for the Leica S and SL systems were "no".

On a more upbeat note, a decent number of Leica 180mm F2 Summicron-R APO's are listed on Ebay. The prices are steep, but at least there are some still circulating in the secondhand market as opposed to being locked away in lens collections.