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

APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2 ASPH (v4)

Leica · Leica M · 1998 · Apochromatic telephoto, aspherical

Also known as: APO-Summicron-M 90 ASPH · 90mm f/2 APO ASPH · アポズミクロン 90mm F2 · Summicron 90 v4 · APO Summicron 90 v4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black (11884) Leica M 1998 3866167–3867166
3875167–3876166
3880947–3881946 		Part of 14,820+ lenses
Silver chrome (11885) Leica M 1998 3950034–3950633
3961211–3961510 		No separate figure published
Titanium (11632) Leica M 1998 3923121–3923670
3926821–3926890 		No figure published
Black paint (11636) Leica M 1998 4002095–4076028 No figure published
  1. Leitz Photographica Auction gives production of the titanium 11632 as 500 units in its lot descriptions. Lot 194 of auction 45 — a 2002 example, serial 3923398, A- condition with caps, keeper, papers and maker's box — realised €3,120 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €4,000–5,000.
  2. The TOTAL row, 14,820, is exactly the sum of the nineteen dated blocks above it. Those blocks run from 1997 to 2003, not to 2005 as the row is labelled, and everything the table records after 2003 sits outside the count — which is what the plus sign is doing.
  3. The two titanium blocks come to 620 lenses, 550 and 70. Leitz Photographica gives 500 for the 11632 in its lot descriptions. Both figures are recorded here and neither cites a Leica record.
  4. What the year list will not do. Leica reserves a block of numbers before a batch is built and does not always use it, so an engraved number can run ahead of its lens by a year or more. Ken Rockwell's copy of the list states plainly that it is not exact and that numbers after 2000 are less accurate, and summilux.net — whose database took over the job after Leica withdrew its own serial lookup page in July 2006 — reports an Apo-Telyt-R 180mm carrying a number Leica assigns to a 50mm Summilux. Cameras and lenses also run in separate sequences, so the same number exists on one of each.
  5. Buyers number the 90mm f/2 Summicrons v1 to v4: v1 of 1957 (the heavy Wetzlar and Canada lens), v2 of 1963, v3 of 1980 (the compact Canadian five-in-four), v4 the APO ASPH of 1998. This entry uses that numbering; the other pages carry the rest.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Five elements in FIVE groups: nothing is cemented
  • A built-in hood
  • Entrance pupil 58.6mm behind the front surface
  • Apochromatic — the three primary colours brought to the same focus, which matters most at 90mm
  • A single aspherical surface — the ASPH in the name, on a lens of only five elements

Black (11884):

  • Black anodised

Black paint (11636):

  • Lacquer rather than anodising

Serial-range notes

the seven-digit number on the front ring
The rule for every Leitz and Leica lens: the numbers run in one running sequence shared across models, so a serial normally gives an approximate date — but the sequence does NOT begin at 100,000 in 1931, and a serial usually identifies the model too. The register behind the published year list records reserved BLOCKS, each entered with a date, a range and a lens name, which is why per-model batch tables exist and why they are the better evidence where the two disagree. The date is when the block was reserved, not when the lens was finished. Date a copy by the year band it falls into. The bands covering this lens's allocated blocks are 3,770,930–3,818,624 for 1997, 3,818,625–3,857,849 for 1998, 3,857,850–3,882,996 for 1999, 3,882,997–3,912,247 for 2000, 3,912,248–3,941,497 for 2001, 3,941,498–3,970,748 for 2002 and 3,970,748–3,999,999 for 2003. Every dated block on the wiki's own table falls in the band the general list would give it — the two agree throughout, which is not true of every lens in this catalog.
3815625–3817624
Two thousand lenses dated 1997, the largest single block in the table and a year before the 1998 introduction printed at the head of the same page.
3856300–3856799
A 1998 block of 500 the table tags (ELC). The tag is not glossed anywhere on the page and this entry does not resolve it.
3923121–3923670, 3926821–3926890
The two blocks marked Titan, 550 and 70 lenses, both dated 2001 — the whole titanium run as the table records it.
3923398
The titanium lens sold as lot 194 of Leitz Photographica auction 45, catalogued as a 2002 example, falls inside the 2001 titanium block. The auction record and the serial table agree on which lens it is and disagree by a year on when it was made.
3950034–3950633, 3961211–3961510
The two blocks marked silb. — silver — come to 900 lenses across 2002 and 2003. It is the only figure published for the chrome 11885.
4002095–4076028, 4110110–4110259, 4208138–4219435
The last three rows are brackets around observed examples, not allocated blocks, and the totals printed against them (73,934+, unknown, 11,298+) are the widths of the spans. The first is tagged 11636, the black paint version, and the other two 11884.
3583830, 3610680, 3970748
The general year list carries faults of its own at three boundaries: 1992 opens 2,001 numbers above where 1991 closes, leaving 2,000 unassigned; 1993 opens 300 numbers below where 1992 closes, so the two years overlap; and 2003 opens on the same number 2002 closes on, as 1953 does on 1952's. None of them touch this lens, but they set the accuracy of the instrument.

Specifications

Formula
Apochromatic telephoto, aspherical
Construction
5 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
11
Min. focus
1 m
Filter
55 mm
Years manufactured
1998
Country
Germany

What reviewers say

History

The apochromatic 90 is the lens where Leica’s modern optical vocabulary all arrives at once: APO, ASPH, five elements in five groups with nothing cemented, a built-in hood, an eleven-blade diaphragm. It has been in the catalogue since 1998 and more than 14,820 have been made.

What apochromatic correction buys is specific and, at this focal length, the thing that matters. A fast telephoto brings red, green and blue to slightly different focal planes, and the result at f/2 is coloured fringing on high-contrast edges — bright hair against a dark background, a branch against sky. Correcting three colours instead of two removes it. On a 35mm lens the effect is marginal; on a 90 at f/2 it is the difference between a usable full aperture and one you stop down out of.

Five elements in five groups also means every surface is air-spaced, as on the ELCAN, though here for optical rather than military reasons: cementing constrains what glasses can sit next to each other, and an apochromat needs unusual combinations.

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

Sample photo taken with the APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2 ASPH (v4)
APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2 ASPH on a Leica M10 Monochrom (Burkhard Mücke) — Burkhard Mücke, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2 ASPH (v4)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $3,100 across 42 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $2,400–$4,800). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: down 6% from $3,300.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$3,100$2,400–$4,80042
2026-09-06$3,300$2,400–$5,70043

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

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: APO-Summicron-M 75mm f/2 ASPH · Summicron 90mm f/2 (v1, 1957) · Summicron 90mm f/2 (v2, 1963) · Summicron-M 90mm f/2 (v3, 1980)

Sources (6)

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.