Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2021

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Voigtländer APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8 VM · Voigtlander APO-SKOPAR 90mm F2.8 VM · APO-SKOPAR 90mm F2.8 · Apo-Skopar 90/2.8 · Voigtlander 90mm f2.8 APO Skopar Leica M · Cosina Voigtlander Apo Skopar 90/2.8 M mount · フォクトレンダー APO-SKOPAR 90mm F2.8 VM · フォクトレンダー アポスコパー 90mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Silver, VM (2021–2026) Leica M 2021–2026 — —
Black, VM (2021–2026) Leica M 2021–2026 — —
  1. Specifications, price, release date and JAN codes are from Cosina's Japanese product page. The June 2026 end of production is stated on that page alone at the time of writing; no second source has reported it, so it stands on Cosina's word.
  2. The announcement of 15 October 2021 and the count of five anomalous partial-dispersion elements are from Digital Camera Watch; the change of hood colour for the silver lens, from black to silver, was reported there on 9 November 2021 as a styling reconsideration before shipping, and is a single-source claim.
  3. The APO-SKOPAR 90mm F2.8 SL IIs released the same day is the Nikon F version with a CPU, a 52mm filter thread and 260g; it shares the seven-element layout and is not in this catalog.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved APO-SKOPAR 90mm F2.8 with the red, green and blue rings of Cosina's apochromats; VM bayonet, rangefinder coupled from infinity to 0.9m
  • 39mm filter thread, ten aperture blades shaped to stay circular at f/2.8, f/4 and f/22
  • φ53 × 60mm and 250g — 60mm from the mount, with a reversible bayonet metal hood flocked inside
  • Silver or black, hood matching the barrel

Silver, VM (2021–2026):

  • Silver barrel; JAN 4530076132559; shipped with a silver bayonet hood after Cosina changed its mind about a black one before launch

Black, VM (2021–2026):

  • Black barrel; JAN 4530076132566; black bayonet hood

Specifications

Formula
7 elements in 7 groups, five of anomalous partial-dispersion glass
Construction
7 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.9 m
Dimensions
53 × 60 mm
Weight
250 g
Filter
39 mm
Years manufactured
2021–2026
Country
Japan
Original price
¥90,000 pre-tax, silver or black, at the November 2021 launch (today ¥98,000); about $799 or £719 at retail per Matt Osborne

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
essentially none
Distortion
minimal
Optical formula — 7 elements in 7 groups, five of anomalous partial-dispersion glass

History

Cosina announced the APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8 VM on 15 October 2021 and released it on 30 November, in silver and black at ¥90,000 before tax, alongside a Nikon F version called the SL IIs. The brand’s previous rangefinder 90, the screw-mount APO-Lanthar 90mm f/3.5, had ended a decade earlier, and this one was designed as the third lens in a rangefinder bag: seven elements in seven groups, five of them anomalous partial-dispersion glass, in an apochromatic layout meant to bring the axial colour of red, green and blue as close to zero as possible. The barrel is 53mm across and 60mm from the mount at 250g, with a 39mm filter thread, rangefinder coupling from infinity to 0.9m, and a ten-blade diaphragm shaped so the opening stays circular at f/2.8, f/4 and f/22. A reversible bayonet metal hood, flocked inside, comes in the box.

The silver and black lenses are the two variants, and the hood is the small story. Cosina’s launch material paired both barrels with a black hood; on 9 November 2021, three weeks before shipping, it announced that the silver lens would get a silver hood after reconsidering the styling, so a silver lens with a black hood is either a pre-launch sample or a swap. Cosina’s product page now states that production ended in June 2026, a date no other source has yet reported. Nothing about the optics changed across the run.

The reviews are unusually unanimous. Matt Osborne, shooting it on an M4-P and a Leica CL as well as an SL and a Lumix S5, found it sharp at infinity and close, so trustworthy he was willing to spend film on it, and as good or better than the Leica Macro-Elmar 90mm f/4 at a quarter of the price; he bought both versions and calls them stellar. Jack Takahashi measured it sharp corner to corner at f/2.8 at 2m, with only a slight softening in the mid-frame and corners at infinity that clears by f/5.6, no longitudinal colour and basically no lateral colour, smooth backgrounds with a faint soap-bubble edge just behind focus, and a suspected front-focus that turned out to be his camera’s calibration; against the APO-Summicron 90 he finds no drawback beyond the stop. Erick, setting it against other 90s down to a 1930s Elmar, puts it at 95 percent of the APO-Summicron’s performance for 20 percent of the money. At retail Osborne saw about £719 or $799.

What to check is the mount and the hood. The SL IIs shares the seven-element layout but adds a CPU, a 52mm thread and 260g on a Nikon F bayonet, and listings that say only APO-Skopar 90mm F2.8 may be either; the VM lens is the one with a 39mm thread and a rangefinder cam. The hood should match the barrel and reverse over it. And the 90mm frame in a 0.72× Leica finder is small; the Bessa R3A and R3M show it in a life-size 1.0× finder, and the R2A and R2M at 0.7×.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $550 across 23 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $520–$590). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 43 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical · APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 Aspherical · APO-Lanthar 90mm f/3.5 · Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5 · Nokton Vintage Line 75mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Ultron 75mm f/1.9

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.