Back again,

I just purchased a Canadian 90 TE (thin). Needed a small tele for travel and the 90 TE is reputed to be the lightest of this focal length that Leica has ever made as well as being sharper than the non-asph 90 Cron. The only thing that bothers me is that Stephen Gandy states 5% of the time the rear element develops etching that without proper cleaning is irrepairable. Anyone with a thin TE come across this problem? I live near Reinhold Mueller's workshop in T.O. Do you think it might be worthwhile to bring it into Reinhold for a cleaning "just in case"? I'm happy with the purchase but in uncharted territory with this one.

Thanks,

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), October 31, 2001

Answers

The problem with a good number of those lenses was an element seperation problem in the rear group, which is not repairable by any economical means. Check the lens out really well with a flashlight for any shiny spots starting at the edge of the elements. If its fine at this point, I wouldn't worry about it.

The 90TE was the first lens I bought years ago when I was totally green to Leica equipment, and I got a bad one and ended up selling it "as is" for really cheap.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), October 31, 2001.

Let Reinhold give it an inspection first - he can tell you if you need a CLA - or worse. It is also possible to get etching on the front elements, which IS repairable. Moisture gets through pores in the coating and reacts with heavy metals in the glass to form corrosive materials, which eat away at the pores and make them large enough to be visible as silver/gold 'flecks' on the glass. The problem with the rear elements is that they are installed as one unit, all of which has to be replaced together, and very few of which are still available.

Personally I like the TE 'thin'. It is very much a companion (in terms of contrast and overall 'look') to the 28 Elmarit (v3) and the 35 'cron pre-ASPH - a very 'Leica' lens.

If mine ever gets an incurable disease I will retire it gracefully and buy another. Here's a link to some tests I did a couple of months ago comparing the TE to the current Elmarit - not too shabby for a 26- year-old design.

'CLICK'

Get a good lens hood. The TE does tend to get a lot of flare when pointed near the sun. The 12575 metal hood (also made for the various 135 f/4s) is the one.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), October 31, 2001.

Andrew,

I have heard about the element separation problem. Some explain it as a bad batch of cement for the earlier "thin" teles. What was the serial # of your bad tele elmarit? The serial # of my lens is 30003XX which places it in the early 80s production. Someone on LUG complained of bad cement on the 27xxxxx batch. Any comments?

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.

I agree with Andy's assessment above about optical quality, with a couple reservations. I had a clean TE (no haze, no separations) from the late 70's, but I became fed up with its susceptibility to flare, even though I had the 12575 large hood. Absolutely washed out many photos for me. Others seem not to have such bad flaring, so perhaps there was variation in coatings or other materials over the years. Its small size and weight seems wonderful for travel, but I personally found that it is a little too small and light for a tele. I couldn't hold it as steady as I can the Elmarit 90/2.8 I replaced it with. This may just be my own shaky hands, but I do believe the weight and size of the lens is a factor--smaller/lighter is not always better, IMHO.

-- Tim Nelson (timothy.nelson@yale.edu), November 01, 2001.

I have one and love it. It was manufactured in Germany and was one of the last few production runs after Leitz returned production to Germany. These were supposed to br trouble free. I sent the lens to Leica in NJ to be checked. Said the lens was perfect. Leica has no explanation for this problem. This is a great lens, small, light weight and as sharp as you want it. 39 mm filter too. Geat for street photography

-- C. W. Satterfield (cwsat@istate.net), November 01, 2001.

John,if you will get a problem with rear component separating it's possible to repair.This is not a cement but sooner so named Canadian Balsam. Maybe Leica uses in last lens the two component synthetic optic glue. To glue two elements, take off the old glue with any solvent, than drop a Can. Balsam, place both elements in a metal mounting of same diameter and press together with a crump-iron and then place it in 250C degree for a day. It will be as new.

-- Victor Randin (ved@enran.com.ua), November 01, 2001.

John

The four-element Tele-Elmarit 90/2.8 (version 2, thin) is a wonderful lens. Great for portraits, travel, etc. and sharper than the 90/2.0 Summicron-M of the same period. At only 225 gm, it is very easy to carry. I have not had the problems with flare that other people have had.

As far as that problem with the rear element, just examine your lens with a pen light as you would any Leica lens. If the problem is not there now, I would definitely NOT have the lens prophylactically service.

Whenever you have a high performance lens disassembled for cleaning or whatever, there is always the possibility of making things worse. That's why I would not have a lens cleaned internally unless there was a significant problem. Note that I said significant: minor problems that don't affect performance should be left alone.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), November 01, 2001.

I had a fat, chrome 90 TE and it was a lovely lens. About the same weight as the current Elmarit, but perhaps a little shorter. I recommend these lenses although they are not reputed to be as good as the thin TEs. I liked mine and had no complaints about flare or sharpness. In the 80s people used to say the original 90mm Elmarit (with the detacheable head for the Viso) was "the" 90mm to get. Fashions change -- sometimes in Leica-land you find that the "clever money" gets put on the lens that has just been discontinued - (c.f the current non-ASPH 35mm Summicron). It is a way to spite the "suckers" who buy the new stuff. It seems to be all part of the fascination (or irritation) of being involved with this obsessive camera system!

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), November 01, 2001.

I have a late model TE, made in Germany, great lens, but you have to hold it still, and use it at 1/500 or else it will shake. Tripod worth using too. Late models seem to have less separation problems. Cheers, PN

-- Paul Nelson (clrfarm@comswest.net.au), November 01, 2001.

For what it is worth, which may not be much, I recently bought a used tele elmarit in Frankfurt. I examined about 8 at 3 different stores. There were 3 German lenses and 5 Candaian lenses. All the German lenes were perfect, I Canadian lens was perfect (one of those with the special year engravings on them), the other Canadian lenses were showing problems of the type described above. Not enough evidence to state that it is better to go for the German version, but given that there seems to be NO differentiation in price, why not do so if you can?

-- marke eban (markeban@compuserve.com), November 01, 2001.

Marke, the German versions were the last production runs of that lens, and it seems like the problems were taken care of by then. I think I would look for a late, German version if I was interested in a TE, even though they go for more money. Not because the German made Leica lenses were better in general, but only in this particular case where earlier problems had been remedied late in the production run.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), November 02, 2001.

I have a thin 90TE and it flares constantly so its got to go, im not happy with it at all. Im going to try the new Voigtlander 90 as its compact too and even Erwin says its good, now thats something for him to recomend a non Leica product.

-- Joel Matherson (joel_2000@hotmail.com), December 08, 2001.

The TE is four element/four group so, separation is not an issue

-- steve wong (stephenwong3@hotmail.com), January 08, 2002.