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

Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f/4.5

Leica · Leica R · 1978

Also known as: Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f/4.5 · Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f4.5 · Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm · Vario-Elmar-R 75-200 · Vario-Elmar-R 4.5/75-200 · Vario-Elmar-R 4,5/75-200 · Vario-Elmar-R 1:4.5/75-200 · Vario-Elmar-R 1:4,5/75-200 · Vario-Elmar-R 1:4,5/75-200 mm · Vario Elmar R 75-200mm · Vario Elmar R 75-200 · Vario Elmar R 4.5/75-200 · Vario Elmar R 1:4.5 / 75-200 · Vario Elmar-R 75-200 · Vario-Elmar R 75-200 · Vario-Elmar 75-200mm · Vario-Elmar 75-200 · Leica Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f4.5 · Leica Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f/4.5 · Leica Vario Elmar-R 11226 4,5/75-200mm · Leica 75-200mm f4.5 Vario-Elmar-R · Leica R 75-200mm f4.5 · Leica R 75-200mm f/4.5 · Leica R 75-200 4.5 · Leitz Vario-Elmar-R 75-200 · Leitz Wetzlar Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm · Leica 11226 · ライカ バリオエルマーR 75-200mm · バリオエルマーR 75-200mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
3-cam (11226) Leica R, 3-cam (every Leicaflex and R body) 1978–1984 — —
  1. Specification from the Leitz catalogues of September 1978 and July 1982, which agree: fifteen elements in eleven groups, angle of view 32° to 12.5°, f/4.5 to f/22 with half-stop clicks, focusing to 1.2 m (48 in), length 157 mm from the bayonet flange, diameter 70 mm, weight 0.725 kg. The smallest field is 270 × 405 mm at 75 mm (about 1:11) and 107 × 160 mm at 200 mm (about 1:4.5) in the 1982 handbook. The 1978 catalogue prints the 75 mm field as 207 × 405 mm, a transposed digit. The 1982 handbook's own contents page calls the lens "f/2.5", a misprint for f/4.5 that its specification page corrects.
  2. The eight-blade diaphragm comes from dealers, Kamerastore and allphotolenses.com, not from a Leitz document. allphotolenses.com also gives 735 g and 170 mm, against Leitz's 725 g and 157 mm from the flange.
  3. Dates. English Wikipedia's Leica R bayonet table, citing Erwin Puts, gives 1978–1984, and the September 1978 Leitz catalogue calls the lens new. English Wikipedia's List of Leica lenses gives 1976–1984. The 1978 date is followed here. The December 1989 Leica handbook lists 11226 only in its section of accessories for discontinued items, so it had left the range by then; its successor, the Vario-Elmar-R 70-210mm f/4 (11246), is dated 1984 in the same Wikipedia table.
  4. Who made it. English Wikipedia credits Minolta with the design and the glass. Kamerastore says it was "made in collaboration with Minolta". allphotolenses.com says Leica assembled it from glass made by Minolta. Doug Herr, writing on the MFLenses forum in 2009, says it was one of several lenses "produced by Minolta" and "optically ... a cherry-picked clone of the Minolta-branded lenses". The Leitz catalogues do not name the maker, and no source states the country of manufacture, so the entry gives none.
  5. Close-up. Leitz sold the ELPRO 3 (16543) and ELPRO 4 (16544) achromats for this lens. With ELPRO 3 at 200 mm and 1.2 m it reaches about 1:1.7 on a 41 × 62 mm field; with ELPRO 4, about 1:2.6 (Leitz 1978 and 1982). The 1982 handbook offers the Extender-R 2x (11236, and 11237 for the Leicaflex SL/SL2) for focal lengths "from 50 and more", without naming the zooms.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Push-pull one-touch zoom, 75 to 200 mm at a constant f/4.5, with a built-on sliding hood and E55 filters
  • 157 mm long and 725 g by Leitz's figures: the same length as the later 70-210mm f/4 (11246, E60), which has a rubber-covered tube rather than grained PVC

3-cam (11226):

  • Seen from the back, two sloped Leicaflex cams plus the stepped R-cam on the mount ring, and no row of gold ROM contacts: Kamerastore lists the lens as 3-cam, 'two sloped cams and a third stepped cam'
  • One long tube, covered in grained PVC, that is pushed and pulled to zoom and turned to focus; there is no separate zoom ring (Leitz 1978: 'focusing tube sets both focal length and focusing distance')
  • A hood built into the front that slides forward, and an E55 filter thread inside it
  • Order number 11226 in the Leitz catalogues of 1978 and 1982, which dealers quote in listing titles

Specifications

Formula
Zoom of fifteen elements in eleven groups, a Minolta optical design (English Wikipedia's Leica R bayonet table, citing Erwin Puts' Leica Lens Compendium)
Construction
15 elements / 11 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
1.2 m
Dimensions
70 × 157 mm
Weight
725 g
Filter
55 mm (0.75 mm pitch), E55 (M 55 × 0.75), or Series 7 with adapter 14225; built-on extending hood, cap 70 mm (Leitz 1978 and 1982)
Years manufactured
1978–1984
Material
Black finish, the one-touch focusing and zoom tube covered in grained PVC (Leitz 1978 and 1982)

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

The Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f/4.5 was the Leica reflex’s telephoto zoom from 1978 to 1984. Leitz’s general catalogue of September 1978 introduced it, order number 11226, as “new, for all LEICA R and LEICAFLEX models”. It replaced the Vario-Elmar-R 80-200mm f/4.5, the earlier Minolta-made zoom, which Leitz had sold for the Leicaflex SL2 and which the site’s Leicaflex page lists among the lenses that hit the mirror of the first two Leicaflex bodies. The 75-200 is a one-touch design: a single grained-PVC tube is pushed and pulled to change the focal length and turned to focus, at a constant f/4.5 down to 1.2 m. It has fifteen elements in eleven groups, an E55 filter thread and a hood built into the front. It is 157 mm long and weighs 725 g.

Like the other early R zooms it came out of the co-operation between Leitz and Minolta. English Wikipedia credits Minolta with the design and the glass, and Kamerastore says it was made in collaboration with Minolta. allphotolenses.com says Leica assembled it from Minolta glass. Doug Herr, who used the lens for a couple of years, wrote in 2009 that it was one of several zooms Minolta produced for Leica, with “some mechanical differences” and optically “a cherry-picked clone of the Minolta-branded lenses”. The Leitz catalogues name no maker. Minolta sold an MD Zoom Rokkor 75-200mm f/4.5 of its own, which Kamerastore lists at the same 157 × 70 mm and 1.2 m close focus, but with six aperture blades and 622 g against the Leica’s eight blades and 725 g. Herr’s is the only source that ties the two optically.

There is one version. It is a 3-cam lens, with both sloped Leicaflex cams and the stepped R-cam, so it mounts and meters on every body from the original Leicaflex to the R9, and meters at full aperture on the SL and every later body. Leica’s 2000/2001 handbook says it cannot be converted to ROM, so it never passes data to an R8 or R9. The lens had left the range by December 1989, when Leica’s handbook listed 11226 only in its section of accessories for discontinued items. Its successor was the Minolta-designed Vario-Elmar-R 70-210mm f/4 of 1984. Wikipedia’s list of Leica lenses dates the 75-200 from 1976, but the 1978 catalogue calls it new, and that date is used here.

Its reputation is modest. Herr called it “a good but not great performer”. He credited it with adequate sharpness, little flare and light weight, but disliked its “ugly” out-of-focus rendering, found polarising filters awkward to use with it, and said its Minolta construction was not up to Leica standards. He preferred the later Vario-Elmar-R 80-200mm f/4 “by a wide margin”. It is not a costly lens now: in November 2026 Kamerastore gave US$222 as its reference price for an example in certified condition, a dealer’s price.

When buying, look at the back of the mount for all three cams. Push-pull zooms wear, so check that the tube does not creep when the lens points up or down, and that zooming and focusing feel even and do not grind. Check the sliding hood, which is built on and so cannot simply be swapped, and look through the lens for haze and dust. Leitz sold ELPRO 3 and ELPRO 4 close-up lenses for this zoom, with a leather case (14553) for one attachment, so a lens that comes with them is a period outfit.

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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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Vario-Elmar-R 75-200mm f/4.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 15 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $230–$350). 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: Vario-Elmar-R 80-200mm f/4.5 · Vario-Elmar-R 70-210mm f/4 · Vario-Elmar-R 80-200mm f/4 · Angénieux Zoom 45-90mm f/2.8

Sources (10)

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.