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

Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5

Leica · Leica R · 1980

Also known as: Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5 · Super-Elmar-R 15mm · Super Elmar R 15mm · Super Elmar R 15mm f3.5 · Super Elmar-R 15mm f3.5 · Super-Elmar-R 1:3,5/15 · Super-Elmar-R 3.5/15 · Super Elmar R 15/3.5 · Leica R 15mm f/3.5 · Leitz Super-Elmar-R 15mm f3.5 · ライカ スーパーエルマーR 15mm F3.5 · スーパーエルマー R 15mm F3.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
3-cam (11213) Leica R, 3-cam (Leitz lists it for the R bodies and the Leicaflex SL2 only) 1980 — —
3-cam lens converted to ROM by Leica (11213) Leica R, ROM (R3 and later only once converted) — — —
  1. A factory ROM version with its own order number, 11325, is reported by Shige (shige-art.net, citing the Leica Wiki). CineLensWiki, which gives no order number, lists the lens with ROM data, a weight of 910 g and a revision 'with ROM style mount around 1997' with no optical change; the antiquecameras.net price guide also lists a 15mm Super Elmar ROM from 1997. Leica's own Handbook 2000/2001 does not list the lens in its range at all, and its ROM table gives only 11213. With no primary source or photographed example for 11325, it has no variant row here. Shige adds that he has never come across a ROM example on the used market in Japan, though they occasionally appear on eBay elsewhere.
  2. Dates: the lens is absent from the Leitz General Catalogue of 15 September 1978 and present, as 11213, in the handbook whose edition is dated 1 September 1980, which agrees with the 1980 launch given by Flashback Camera, allphotolenses and CineLensWiki. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, gives 1979. The end date is left open: the lens is missing from the range table of Leica's 2000/2001 handbook (which still lists a soft case for it), allphotolenses says the f/2.8 ASPH replaced it in 2001, and the f/2.8 was announced in October 2001 'to replace the older ƒ3.5 Zeiss-derived monster' (Nemeth, Leica FAQ).
  3. Production: about 3,000 lenses, 2,980 in Shige's table (Shige, citing the Leica Wiki).
  4. Blades: five according to Shige, six according to allphotolenses; no Leitz document gives the count. Shige's figure is used because he has owned two examples, but the conflict is unresolved.
  5. Weight: 0.815 kg in both Leitz handbooks, against about 875 g for the Zeiss Distagon T* 15mm f/3.5 in Zeiss's own data sheet (see lenses/cy-distagon-15mm-f35). CineLensWiki gives 910 g, against a ROM data line, without citing a source.
  6. Length: 92.5 mm from the bayonet flange, 83.5 mm diameter (Leitz). For the Contax Distagon Kyocera gives 83.5 × 94 mm without saying how the length is measured.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The only Leica R 15mm with an f/3.5 aperture; its successor, the Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH. (11326, 2001), is lighter, about 710 g, and always ROM
  • A bulbous front element inside a fixed, scalloped hood, with no front filter thread; the hood takes an 83.5 mm slip-on cap (14294), the one supplied embossed LEITZ
  • Built-in filter turret of four filters (UV, yellow, orange, blue), where the Zeiss Distagon for Contax has UV, Or 57, Y 50 and B 11
  • Focus to 0.16 m, with the close range from 0.8 m down taking much of the focusing throw (Shige)

3-cam (11213):

  • Order number 11213, the only number Leitz printed for this lens in its 1982 and December 1989 handbooks and the one Leica's 2000/2001 handbook still uses in its ROM-conversion table
  • At the back of the mount, two sloped cams on the bayonet ring for the Leicaflex meters plus the stepped R cam, and no row of gold contacts
  • Front of the hood ring engraved SUPER-ELMAR-R 1:3.5/15 and LEITZ WETZLAR with the serial (3217790 on Flashback Camera's example); a turret ring between the focusing ring and the aperture ring is marked with the filter in use (UVa in the photographs) above an index dot (Flashback Camera's photographs)

3-cam lens converted to ROM by Leica (11213):

  • A ROM contact strip at the back of the mount and no sloped Leicaflex cams, on a lens that still carries order number 11213
  • Serial number in the same range as an unconverted 11213: the conversion changed the mount, not the optics

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus ultra-wide, 13 elements in 12 groups, with floating elements for close-range correction (Leitz handbooks 1982 and 1989); a Zeiss design (Puts)
Designed by
Carl Zeiss (Oberkochen) — optical design and manufacture, as the Distagon 15mm f/3.5 (Puts; camera-wiki; allphotolenses)
Construction
13 elements / 12 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Diaphragm blades
5
Min. focus
0.16 m
Dimensions
83.5 × 92.5 mm
Weight
815 g
Filter
Built-in turret: UV, yellow, orange, blue (conversion); no front thread, built-on hood, 83.5 mm slip-on cap 14294
Years manufactured
1980
Country
West Germany

What reviewers say

History

The Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5 is Leitz’s first 15mm reflex lens and, by every account, not a Leitz design. Erwin Puts calls it “this Zeiss design”, camera-wiki says it was made by Zeiss, and allphotolenses says Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen designed and built it with the same optics as the Distagon T* 15mm f/3.5 for Contax, apart from coating, filters and barrel. That Contax lens has its own page on this site. The two share 13 elements in 12 groups, a floating element for close focusing and a minimum distance of 0.16 m. Puts gives the Leitz lens a true focal length of 15.4 mm, the figure Zeiss’s data sheet prints for the Distagon. The Leitz barrel is its own, though. Leitz gives 0.815 kg where Zeiss gives about 875 g, and its turret holds UV, yellow, orange and blue (conversion) filters, where the Zeiss has UV, Or 57, Y 50 and B 11.

The lens is missing from Leitz’s general catalogue of September 1978 and appears, as order number 11213, in the handbook whose edition is dated September 1980, so 1980 is the launch year given here. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, gives 1979. Leitz’s 1982 handbook described it as “high-speed” for its field of 110°. The front element bulges inside a fixed scalloped hood, so it takes no screw-in filters, and the four filters sit on a turret worked by a ring just in front of the aperture ring. It reaches a field of 70 × 106 mm, about 1:3, at 0.16 m. Shige points out that this leaves the front element only about 7 cm from the subject. Shige counts five diaphragm blades, where allphotolenses gives six, and puts production at about 3,000, citing the Leica Wiki.

Body fit is the first thing to settle. Leitz’s December 1989 handbook lists the lens “for the LEICA R models (all modes), LEICAFLEX SL 2 models” and nothing earlier. Camera-wiki says SL2 and later only, and Doug Herr, quoted by Photoethnography, puts the 15mm on his list of lenses that cannot be used on the Leicaflex and SL, because Leitz changed the mirror clearance with the SL2. The 3-cam lens still has the sloped Leicaflex cams, but it should not be put on an original Leicaflex or an SL. Leica’s 2000/2001 handbook says 11213 lenses can be converted to ROM. The conversion removes the Leicaflex cams, so a converted lens fits only the R3 and later bodies and passes its lens data to an R8 or R9. A factory ROM version numbered 11325 is reported by Shige, from the Leica Wiki, and CineLensWiki, without an order number, describes a revision with a ROM mount around 1997. Leica’s own 2000/2001 handbook does not list it, so look at the mount and the paperwork of any lens sold as “ROM”. The Schneider-derived Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH. replaced it in 2001. Puts found the f/2.8 much crisper, and he says it kept the same internal filter revolver.

Neither of the reviews listed here calls it a sharp lens by modern standards. Puts gives it markedly lower contrast and fine-detail rendition than its successor at every aperture. Shige finds it soft and dark at the edges wide open, prone to ghosting with the sun in or near the frame, and much better stopped down. Shige also finds distortion well corrected at distance but noticeable close up. When buying, look first at the front element, which cannot take a protective filter. Then turn the turret through all four filters and look at each one, since a scratched filter is part of the optical path. Check the built-on hood, for which Leitz listed no replacement part, and the focusing: Shige’s first copy had a very light, almost loose focusing ring, which he put down to deteriorated grease, and focus should run evenly down to 0.16 m. Look at the rear of the mount for cams or contacts to see which version it is. As a guide to the market, an 11213 listed on the GearFocus marketplace in August 2025 at US$1,435.14 with free shipping is marked sold; that is the seller’s price, not an auction result. Apotelyt gives a used band of US$2,500–3,500, drawn from eBay, and the antiquecameras.net dealer guide gives US$2,200–2,800 for the 3-cam lens and US$2,500–3,500 for a ROM lens.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $3,300 across 5 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $2,000–$3,600). First day tracked.

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 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH. · Distagon T* 15mm f/3.5 (C/Y) · Fisheye-Elmarit-R 16mm f/2.8 · Elmarit-R 19mm f/2.8 (I)

Sources (14)

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.