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

Tele-Elmarit 90mm f/2.8 (the fat one)

Ernst Leitz · Leica M · 1964 · Five elements in three groups, telephoto

Known as “Fat Tele-Elmarit”

Also known as: Fat Tele-Elmarit 90 · Tele-Elmarit 90mm f/2.8 first version · Fat Tele-Elmarit

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black Leica M 1964–1974 2147451–2148550 (1965) — ELC, marked chrome and black together; the only mixed-finish block
2215201–2216200 (1966), 2257401–2258400 (1968), 2342301–2345300 (1969), 2489201–2491200 (1971) — ELC, marked black
2520101–2520400 (1972) — marked black, no factory given; 300 numbers, the smallest block 		Part of about 11,900 lenses
Silver Leica M 1964–1974 2069501–2071500 (1964) — ELC, marked chrome alone
2147451–2148550 (1965) — ELC, chrome and black together, and the last block on the list to name chrome at all 		No separate figure published
Canada and Wetzlar Leica M 1964–1974 2069501–2071500, 2147451–2148550, 2215201–2216200, 2257401–2258400, 2342301–2345300, 2489201–2491200 — every block the table marks ELC, Leitz Canada
No block on the Leica Wiki's table is marked ELW. The Wetzlar half of the claim rests on the inscription line alone, and the numbers it gives — LEITZ WETZLAR 1XXXXXX — lie below the whole of the published list. 		Both factories built it
  1. Leitz catalogue number 11 800, which Overgaard's lens compendium shows was carried over unchanged to the 1974 second version — both the fat and the thin lens were sold under the same order number.
  2. Ken Rockwell records that Leitz originally pitched the lens as the "long-focus dwarf", sold at the same price as the full-size Elmarit 90, and that unlike the Elmarit its optical cell does not unscrew for the Visoflex.
  3. Rockwell's specification table gives five elements in five groups, against the five in three recorded here.
  4. The Leica Wiki holds two pages for this lens. "90mm f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit" gives the order numbers as 11807, 11899, 11800 and 11129-black, the variants as black and silver, and the total as under 11,900. "90mm f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit I" gives 11 800, 11 807 and 11 899, adds a titanium version to the variants, and gives the total as under 14,400. Its inscription line also reads ELMARIT rather than TELE-ELMARIT. The titanium claim appears on neither the other page nor any serial block.
  5. The order number 11129, listed at the head of the main page as this lens's black version, is given on the Leica Wiki's Elmarit 90 page as the black Elmarit 90 — the full-size lens this one was sold alongside. The Elmarit 90 entry in this catalog records the same overlap.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Collectors call it the FAT Tele-Elmarit — 60mm long and 355 g against the later version's 67 × 53mm and 225 g
  • Click stops at half and full values, 10 blades

Canada and Wetzlar:

  • ELC or ELW in the markings

Serial-range notes

2069501–2520400
THE RULE. Leitz never numbered a model from one and never put a date inside the number. Serials were issued in blocks drawn from a single running sequence shared by every lens the company made, so a number dates a copy only against a block list. Find it in the SN Start / SN End table on this lens's Leica Wiki page and read the year off its row; eight counted blocks cover the fat Tele-Elmarit between 2069501 and 2520400, and they add up to exactly the 11,900 the head of the page prints. Failing that, the general Leitz lens year list maps the whole sequence to years regardless of model, and it agrees with every block here. A number falling between the blocks belongs to some other Leitz lens.
2656951–2659450
TWO LENSES CLAIM THIS BLOCK. The Leica Wiki carries a second page for this model, "90mm f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit I", whose table repeats the eight blocks above and adds this ninth — 2,500 numbers dated 1973 — for a total of 14,400 rather than 11,900. The difference is exactly the block: 11,900 plus 2,500 is 14,400. The same block also appears on the thin Tele-Elmarit-M's page, where it is counted into that lens's 27,950. So 2,500 numbers are claimed by both the fat lens and the lens that replaced it, and the fat lens has two published production totals depending on which page is read. Both are recorded.
2001001–2002000
A block printed on this lens's page that is not this lens. The wiki gives the product as "90mm f/2.8 *Elmarit (ELC.chrom)", brackets the total as [1000] and leaves it out of the 11,900 — but attaches its own asterisk: "Lens nos. 2001179, 2001190 & 2001321 are 90mm f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit (11800)". Three numbers inside a block credited to the Elmarit 90 are recorded as fat Tele-Elmarits, and they are the earliest numbers associated with the model. The Elmarit 90's own entry records the same collision from the other side.
2147451–2148550
THE FINISH CHANGES HERE. Every block before it that names a finish is chrome; every block after it that names one is black; this one, 1,100 numbers in 1965, is the only block marked chrome and black together. A silver fat Tele-Elmarit above 2148550 is not covered by any published block, and a black one below 2147451 is not either.
1XXXXXX
The wiki's inscription line gives two forms, LEITZ WETZLAR 1XXXXXX and LEITZ CANADA 2XXXXXX, which makes the first digit a factory test: a one-million number is a Wetzlar lens, a two-million number a Canadian one. The serial table then covers nothing below 2001001 and marks no block ELW. On the published evidence every fat Tele-Elmarit with a block behind it is Canadian, and the Wetzlar lenses the inscription describes have no serial list at all.
2520101–2520400
The last block, 1972, and three end dates that do not agree. The row is dated 1972, the total beneath it is headed 1964–1973, and the production era at the top of the page runs to 1974. Nothing is published for 1967, 1970, 1973 or 1974.

Specifications

Formula
Five elements in three groups, telephoto
Construction
5 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/16
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
60 mm long
Weight
355 g
Filter
39 mm
Years manufactured
1964–1974
Country
Canada
Material
Black or clear anodised aluminium

What reviewers say

History

The Tele-Elmarit is a true telephoto 90 — physically shorter than its focal length — and the first Leitz lens to bring that trick to the M mount at this length. Five elements in three groups, 355 grams, 60mm long, and a great deal easier to carry than the 90mm Summicron.

It is known universally as the “fat” Tele-Elmarit, and only in retrospect. When Leitz replaced it in 1974 with a version 225 grams and 67 by 53 millimetres, the older lens acquired a nickname it had done nothing to earn: at 355 grams it was the compact 90 of its own generation. The Leica Wiki lists the name in quotation marks on the model page, which is how a collector’s joke becomes a catalogue term.

About 11,900 were made in a decade, in black and silver, at both Midland and Wetzlar.

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 Tele-Elmarit 90mm f/2.8 (the fat one)
Tele-Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8, 1969, black (Sodacan) — Sodacan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Tele-Elmarit 90mm f/2.8 (the fat one)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $950 across 11 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $500–$1,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: up 13% from $840.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$950$500–$1,00011
2026-09-06$840$500–$1,0009

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

Show 13 more listings

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

Related: Elmarit 9cm f/2.8 · Tele-Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 (the thin one)

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.