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

Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH.

Leica · Leica R · 2001

Also known as: Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH · Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f2.8 ASPH · Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 · Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f2.8 · Super-Elmarit-R 15mm · Super Elmarit R 15mm f2.8 · Super Elmarit R 15mm · Super Elmarit-R 15mm · Super-Elmarit-R 2.8/15 · Super-Elmarit-R 1:2.8/15 · Super-Elmarit-R f/2.8/15 mm ASPH · Super Elmarit R 15/2.8 · Super Elmarit R 15 2.8 ASPH · Leica 15mm f/2.8 Super-Elmarit R · Leica 15mm f/2.8 Super-Elmarit-R ASPH · Leica Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f2.8 ASPH · Leica Super Elmarit R 15mm · Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 · Elmarit-R 15mm f2.8 · Super Elmar-R ASPH 15mm 2.8 · Super Elmar-R ASPH ROM 11326 · Leica R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH · Leica R 15mm f2.8 · Leica 11326 · ライカ スーパーエルマリートR 15mm F2.8 · スーパーエルマリートR 15mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
ROM (11326) Leica R, ROM (Leica: R3 to R9; no Leicaflex cams) 2001–2009 — A batch of about 420 made in 2001–2002 (Shige, citing the Leica Wiki); the number made afterwards is unknown
  1. Specification from Leica's data sheet: angles of view 111°, 100° and 77°; 13 elements in 10 groups; focal length 15 mm; 0.18 m to infinity; smallest field 127 × 191 mm, 1:5.3; preset diaphragm with half-stop clicks, fully automatic, f/22 smallest; 85.3 mm long, 83.5 mm across, approx. 710 g. Erwin Puts (November 2003) gives the true focal length as 15.6 mm, against 15.4 mm for the f/3.5, and describes a floating element for internal focusing. Shige's specification table gives both 15 mm and 15.6 mm.
  2. Blades: six, from Shige and CineLensWiki; Leica's data sheet gives no count.
  3. Maker: Puts calls it 'an original Schneider design' that Leica did not accept as first delivered, the main change being the shape and curvature of the second element, and adds that whoever designed and makes the lens matters less than the performance Leica required. Shige and CineLensWiki state that Schneider-Kreuznach also manufactured it. No Leica document seen names the maker.
  4. Production and dates: Andrew Nemeth's Leica FAQ dates the announcement to October 2001, quoting a US dealer who had it from Leica USA that the lens would be available in November 2001. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, gives one batch of about 420 lenses in 2001–2002 and says the number made afterwards is unknown. CineLensWiki gives 2001–2009; 2009 is the end of the R system, so it is an outer limit rather than a recorded last batch.
  5. R-cam version: Shige says that given the period it would not be surprising if versions without ROM contacts existed, but that he has never seen one. None is given a variant row here.
  6. Price: the October 2001 figures are Leica USA's, as relayed by a US dealer and quoted by Nemeth: 'the price for the new 15mm ƒ2.8 ASPH is going to be $4,895 (list is $5395.)'. These are US list and quoted prices at announcement; the source says nothing about tax.
  7. Filters: Puts says the turret is the same mechanism as in the Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5 and that a filter must always be in place, because the filter is part of the optical design. Leica USA's description of the new lens, as relayed by a dealer and quoted by Nemeth, lists NDx1, KB 12, yellow-green and orange.
  8. Adapting: Shige found the rear of the lens hits the mirror box of a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, while an EOS 7D cleared it; with Leica's R-Adapter L on a Leica T the camera recorded the lens as 'Unknown lens' at 35 mm. On a Hasselblad X2D the image circle covers the 35mm frame and a little more, with the scalloped hood showing beyond it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The only Leica R 15mm at f/2.8 and the only one marked ASPH.; its predecessor, the Zeiss-designed Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5 (11213), is longer at 92.5 mm, heavier at 815 g and focuses to 0.16 m
  • Filter turret reading NDx1, YG, OR and KB12, where the f/3.5 has UV, yellow, orange and blue
  • Distance scale to 0.18 m, jumping from 1 m straight to infinity (Shige); the lens length does not change when focusing

ROM (11326):

  • ROM contacts at the back of the mount, as on the example Shige owns and uses on an R8; he has never seen a version without them
  • Named SUPER-ELMARIT-R 1:2.8/15mm ASPH. (as on the label of Shige's box); the filter selector for the four-filter turret sits in front of the focusing ring, the aperture ring with half-stop clicks at the base (Shige)
  • Rigid built-in scalloped hood with a slip-on metal cap that has no catch; there is no front filter thread
  • Leica order number 11326 (Shige); Shige's copy came in the white box Leica used before its silver boxes

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus ultra-wide of Schneider-Kreuznach design, 13 elements in 10 groups with one aspherical surface and internal focusing by a floating element (Leica data sheet; Puts)
Designed by
Schneider-Kreuznach — original optical design, revised at Leica's request chiefly in the shape and curvature of the second element (Puts, 2003)
Construction
13 elements / 10 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.18 m
Dimensions
83.5 × 85.3 mm
Weight
710 g
Filter
Built-in turret: NDx1, yellow-green, orange, KB12 blue; no front thread, built-in scalloped hood
Years manufactured
2001–2009
Country
Germany (made by Schneider-Kreuznach in Germany, per Shige; CineLensWiki also names Schneider-Kreuznach as maker)
Material
Black anodised barrel with a rigid built-in scalloped hood
Original price
US$5,395 list, US$4,895 quoted price (Leica USA, October 2001, as relayed by a US dealer and quoted in Nemeth's Leica FAQ) (today $9,560)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Retrofocus ultra-wide of Schneider-Kreuznach design, 13 elements in 10 groups with one aspherical surface and internal focusing by a floating element (Leica data sheet; Puts)
ⓘ What these charts mean

MTF (modulation transfer function) shows how much contrast the lens keeps at a given fineness of detail, from the center of the frame to the corner — the coarse curves track punch, the fine ones resolving power, and a gap between solid and dashed lines means astigmatism. Relative illumination (falloff) shows how much darker the corners are than the center at each aperture. Manufacturers only began publishing these for modern lenses; no 1950s maker issued them, which is why older families here cite period magazine bench tests instead.

History

The Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH. is one of the last lenses Leica added to the R system, developed, as Shige puts it, when the R8 and R9 were the current bodies. Andrew Nemeth’s Leica FAQ dates its announcement to October 2001, alongside the Vario-Elmar-R 21–35mm zoom, and quotes a US dealer who had been told by Leica USA that it would ship in November at US$4,895, against a list price of US$5,395. It replaced the Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5, a Zeiss design shared with the Contax Distagon 15mm f/3.5, which Nemeth calls a “Zeiss-derived monster”. Leica USA called the new lens half a stop faster, more compact and lighter; Leica gives roughly 710 g, against 815 g in Leitz’s handbook figure for the f/3.5. Leica’s data sheet gives 13 elements in 10 groups with one aspherical surface, internal focusing to 0.18 m, a rigid scalloped hood and a built-in turret of four filters: neutral, yellow-green, orange and KB12 blue.

The optics did not come from Solms. Erwin Puts, in the 15 mm chapter of his Leica R-Lenses (November 2003), calls it “an original Schneider design” that Leica did not accept as Schneider first supplied it. He says he studied the original design, and that the main change was the shape and curvature of the second element. Shige and CineLensWiki say Schneider-Kreuznach built it as well. Puts gives the true focal length as 15.6 mm, against 15.4 mm for the f/3.5. He found it clearly crisper in fine detail than its predecessor, best at f/5.6 to f/8, with at most 2% distortion and up to 2.5 stops of vignetting wide open. He also notes that the turret is the same mechanism as in the f/3.5, and that one filter must always be in place because the filter is part of the optical design.

There is one version, order number 11326, with ROM contacts. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, puts production at about 420 lenses in a single batch of 2001–2002, and says the number made afterwards, before the R mount was discontinued in the late 2000s, is unknown. He has never seen a copy without contacts. Leica’s data sheet lists the lens for the R3 to R9, with the electronic data used only by the R8 and R9. It names no Leicaflex. Doug Herr, quoted by Photoethnography, says ROM lenses are made with a slightly different bayonet so that they will not mount on any Leicaflex, and warns against forcing one because the Leicaflex cam follower would damage the contacts; his list of lenses that foul the mirror of the Leicaflex and SL also names the 15mm Elmarit-R. It is an R3-to-R9 lens.

When buying, check the hood and the front element first. The hood is fixed and the slip-on cap has no catch, so Shige warns it falls off easily. Turn the turret through all four positions and check that it settles on each: Puts says a filter must always be in place, because it is part of the optical design. Look at the ROM contacts at the back. Puts found accurate focusing on the normal screen hard, leaving the split-image to do the work. Shige, on an R8, tried the Microprism Screen 14343 that Leica’s literature recommends for this lens and then a grid screen, and now sets distance mostly by scale, which jumps from 1 m to infinity. On adapted digital bodies, Shige found that the rear of the lens hits the mirror box of a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, though an EOS 7D clears it. The name is often shortened: Puts’s chapter heading and Nemeth’s FAQ both call it the Elmarit-R 15mm, so read the aperture and the ASPH. marking rather than the title. The f/3.5 has its own page, and so does the Contax Distagon that shares the f/3.5’s optics, not this lens’s.

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 Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH.? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $8,800 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $8,500–$8,800). First day tracked.

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

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

Related: Super-Elmar-R 15mm f/3.5 · Elmarit-R 19mm f/2.8 (II) · Fisheye-Elmarit-R 16mm f/2.8 · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 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.