Leica Elmarit-R 19mm f/2.8 (I)

a great gateway for mere mortal men into the world of Leica A wonderful way to own a Leica lens without paying a huge fortune, especially if you are willing to do a bit of work to adapt it to a Nikon Mount (which involved taking off the rear camera mount and the cams, followed by installing a third-party adapter; be careful to save the delicately placed bearing ball in order to retain clickable aperture control!), and do not mind buying a lens from the 1970s, with a aperture that by digital standards seems slow (but it is PLENTY fast for bright-light work) This lens has a slightly higher resolution compared to my Nikkor-Q 135mm f/2.8, but in a day-to-day usage, one will not notice this difference. The colors with this lens MAY be bit more rich than with my Nikkor-Q, but I am waiting for a new ball bearing to come in before I do any careful comparisons. It is heavier than my Nikkor-Q, but not too bad if yo are used to using heavy lenses. I would not recommend using this lens with the Nikon1 system, or any camera system that force the use of vibration-reduction; it is hard to localize subjects when the field of view jumps without a tripod. Its focus throw is about 240 degrees (more than the Nikkor's ~200 degree throw), which may be too long for many people, but I find very useful to get accurate focus. Its minimum focus distance (1.45m) is a bit shorter than the Nikkor-Q, but not enough to really matter. The integrated hood precludes the use of filters larger than 54mm diameter if you want to use the hood (and not pay for Leica Series 7 filters). To use commonly available filters with this lens, one needs to buy a step-up adapter ring (I only saw 54-55 available, and step-up again from 55 to what ever you need) Also, the focus ring turns counter-clockwise to go from close to infinity focus (it is backwards from what Nikon F-mount users are used to. Overall, I am very pleased with this lens, and intend to use it a lot in the future!Read full review

best value out there i love the 135mm focal length and to be able to buy a Leica version of it at the prices these go for second hand is ridiculous good value for money IMO

135mm Lens came with dents on hood like described. Affects the hood pulling out, has a little grind. Had a lot of little dust specs but what can you expect when there's no back cap or lens cap. Overall looks okay not have any caps makes it feel like it was poorly handled.