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

Elmarit-M 24mm f/2.8 ASPH

Leica · Leica M · 1998 · Seven elements in five groups with an aspherical surface

Also known as: Elmarit-M 24mm f/2.8 ASPH · 24 Elmarit ASPH

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black (11878) Leica M 1998–2010 3737201–3737700, 3755026–3755525, 3769930–3770929 (1996) — the three blocks marked black alone
3782330–3783329 (1997) — black alone
3808860–3809859 (1997) — black and chrome together
3871667–3872666 (1999) — black and chrome together
3957161–3958160 (2002) — black alone
4036206–4041627 (2006 onward) and 4068998–4074758 (2009 onward) — observed serials, marked black 		No figure published
Chrome (11898) Leica M 1998–2010 3808860–3809859 (1997) — black and chrome together, the first block naming chrome
3871667–3872666 (1999) — black and chrome together; the dated auction lens 3872257 falls here 		No figure published
  1. Leica's own technical data sheet gives the design focal length as 24.4 mm, not 24, and puts the filter thread at E55 with a separate clip-on hood. The barrel is 45 mm long and 58 mm at its widest.
  2. The two finishes are not the same lens to carry. The data sheet gives approximately 290 g for the black anodised barrel against 388 g for silver chrome — very nearly a hundred grams between them, on a lens already large for the mount.
  3. At the 0.7 m close limit the data sheet gives a smallest object field of 630 × 950 mm, a reproduction ratio of 1:26.
  4. Auction result: a chrome 11898 of 1999, serial 3872257, complete with its matching chrome finder, hood, case and box, sold for €2,880 including buyer's premium at Leitz Photographica Auction 27, lot 151, against an estimate of €2,400–2,600. The catalogue calls chrome "a less common version" — the closest thing to a rarity ranking for a lens whose two finishes have no published production figures.
  5. Three dates for one lens, all from the Leica Wiki page. The head gives the production era as 1998–2010. The total line of its serial table gives 1997–2005. The blocks themselves run 1996 to 2002. Nothing reconciles them, and the blocks are the only part of the three backed by numbers.
  6. The ten blocks credited to this lens total exactly 7,501, a figure the page prints on its total line but not at its head — so this lens has a published production number, arrived at by adding up its serial table, even though neither finish has one of its own.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 84 degrees diagonal — between the 21mm's 92 and the 28mm's 75
  • Entrance pupil 20.7mm behind the front surface
  • No 24mm frameline exists in any M finder: an accessory finder is required

Serial-range notes

3737201–3958160
THE RULE. Leitz and Leica never numbered a model from one, and never put a date inside the number. Serials were assigned in blocks drawn from a single running sequence shared by every lens the company made, so a number dates a copy only against the block list for its own model. Find the number in the SN Start / SN End table on this lens's Leica Wiki page and read the year off its row. A number that falls between this lens's blocks belongs to some other Leica lens, not to an undated example of this one. Ten assigned blocks cover the Elmarit-M 24 ASPH between 3737201 and 3958160, and they add up to exactly the 7,501 the page prints as its total.
3737201–3737700, 3755026–3755525, 3769930–3770929
1996 — three blocks, 2,000 numbers, all marked black, and all dated two years before the 1998 first year given at the head of the same page and everywhere else in this entry. The wiki qualifies them with an asterisk of its own: "ASPH lenses not labeled ASPH in Puts list", meaning the source these rows come from does not distinguish the aspherical lens from anything earlier. Both dates are recorded rather than one chosen.
3782330–3783329, 3808860–3809859
1997, 2,000 numbers. The second block is the first to name chrome alongside black.
3844000–3844999
1998, 1,000 numbers, no finish marked — the first year the head of the page recognises.
3871667–3872666
1999, 1,000 numbers, black and chrome together. The chrome 11898 sold as lot 151 at Leitz Photographica Auction 27, serial 3872257 and catalogued as a 1999 lens, falls inside this block — an auction result and a factory block agreeing on a year.
3913126
2001, a block of one. The wiki lists a single number with SN Start and SN End identical and a total of 1. It is also the first row on the page to spell the product ASPH.
3949534–3950033, 3957161–3958160
2002, 1,500 numbers in two blocks — the last assigned numbers published for this lens, eight years before the 2010 end of the production era.
3848500–3849499
A block printed on this lens's page that is not this lens. The wiki gives the product as "^21mm f/2.8 ASPH Elmarit-M (black)", brackets the total as [1000] and leaves it out of the 7,501 — but footnotes the same row "Lens no. 3848529 is 24mm f/2.8 ASPH Elmarit-M". The wiki's own 21mm page prints the identical block as the 21mm's, and footnotes 3848529 as a 28mm f/2.8 ASPH Elmarit-M instead. Three readings of one serial across two pages; all are recorded here, and none can be preferred on the evidence published.
4036206–4041627, 4068998–4074758
Not blocks. The wiki prints these two rows with leading and trailing dashes to mark them open at both ends: they are the lowest and highest serials actually seen on known lenses, from 2006 and from 2009. The 5,422 and 5,761 in their Total columns are the arithmetic distances between those numbers — years of all Leica production, not counts of this lens. A copy numbered above 3958160 can be placed in a period this way but cannot be dated to a year.
3872553
A chrome lens the Leica Wiki marks with a tilde — "stolen lens, please report if found on sale" — inside the 1999 block.

Specifications

Formula
Seven elements in five groups with an aspherical surface
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/16
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.7 m
Weight
290 g
Filter
55 mm
Years manufactured
1998–2010
Country
Germany

What reviewers say

History

The 24mm Elmarit is a lens for a focal length the M has never framed. There is no 24mm brightline in any Leica rangefinder — the M4-P set the finder at 28, 35, 50, 75, 90 and 135 and no camera since has added to it — so this lens has always been sold with the assumption that its owner will screw a finder into the shoe and compose there.

That is not a compromise Leica invented for it. The 21mm lenses work the same way, and so did the 28s before 1980, and the 135s that came with spectacles. The M has always had more lenses than frames.

Seven elements in five groups with an aspherical surface, 84 degrees, focusing to 0.7 m, in black and chrome for twelve years.

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 wanted — shot with a Elmarit-M 24mm f/2.8 ASPH? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,300 across 24 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $2,000–$2,600). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $2,300.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$2,300$2,000–$2,60024
2026-09-06$2,300$2,000–$2,60024

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

Show 59 more listings

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

Related: Elmar-M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH · Summilux-M 24mm f/1.4 ASPH

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.