I heard that Angenieux made some very good zoom lenses and they made some 28-70mm and 80-210mm zooms in Leica R mount but has discontinued. Can anyone tell me how good they are? How do they compare to the Leica zooms? I heard the 80-210mm was better than the Leica 70-200 zoom, is that true?

-- David Ho (dchho@hotmail.com), December 08, 2001

Answers

It is actually the Angenieux 70-210mm zoom for the Leica R.

-- David Ho (dchho@hotmail.com), December 09, 2001.

Maybe they were optically good, although I am not sure. However they were a complete failure mechanically, and visually. The materials used are not worthy of the Leica (reinforced plastics). They are no comparison to the initial 45-90 2.8 zoom for the Leicaflex (also made in 3-cam version for the SL and SL2). I have one of those, and although it is heavy, I like it on an SL2 (a well balanced pair).

-- Sebastien Simon (sebastien.simon@alumni.ethz.ch), December 09, 2001.

I have a fixation with the Leicaflex (see my above mistake). Of course the 3-cam Angenieux 45-90 mm 2.8 fits all R cameras.

-- Sebastien Simon (sebastien.simon@alumni.ethz.ch), December 09, 2001.

David, During my transition from Nikon to Leica I originally bought an Angenieux 80-210 zoom to cover the telephoto range; a relatively inexpensive way to cover the telephotos. It was noticably superior to the fixed lens Nikon glass that It replaced (85/1.4, 100/2.8, 180/2.8, maybe comparable to the 180). I wasn't a big zoom fan and had originally planned on trading it in for standard Leica tele lenses but I was impressed with the look the glass brought to slides and the convenience of zoom. After a couple of months (when the financial sucking sound made by the purchase of a Leica system had abated somewhat), I rented the Leica 80-200 for a series of executive portraits and shot both to answer this very question. After the job, I turned the Angenieux back in and kept the Leica. The Angenieux is great. The Leica is phenomenal. I've always felt that it gets short shrift because of the APO.

On the other hand, the Angenieux was a great lens and I think I picked it up for $700.

Best of luck

-- Rick Dahms (shout@nwlink.com), December 09, 2001.

David

I never used them, but they did have a very good reputation for optical quality and in fact Angenieux have had this reputation for many years as makers of outstanding (and expensive) lenses largely for the film industry. The latest Angenieux lenses were indeed, though, aesthetically completely different to any of the other R lenses, and this fact together with the fact that they did not say Leica on them meant they were not a great success. As we all know Leica took a long time to start designing their own zoom lenses and until they started they used Minolta and Angenieux lenses or designs. So my prejuduce (completely unfounded in fact) is that the Angenieux zooms will be pretty good and of high mechanical quality, the current Leica designed zooms will be better I suspect.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 10, 2001.

If you are interested, there is a report on the LHSA site on Ingenieux Zooms for Leica. Click on the 'Viewfinder' link and look in the drop-down list entitled 'Volume 33 No. 4, 2000'.

-- Xavier (xcolmant@powerir.com), December 10, 2001.

Excellent LHSA article

Angenieux Zoom Lenses

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), January 05, 2002.

Pierre Angenieux won the 1964 Oscar award for science and technology catagory for exellence in cinematography zoom lenses

Angenieux went out of optical lenses business a few years ago

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), January 05, 2002.

Angenieu recently teamed up with Carl Zeiss in providing cine lenses for High Definition digital 35mm cine camera

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), January 05, 2002.

Angenieu and Carl Zeiss recently team up in providing cine lenses for High Definition digital 35mm cine camera

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), January 05, 2002.