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

Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH.

Leica · Leica R · 2003

Also known as: Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f2.8-4.5 · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm F/2.8-4.5 E67 · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 ASPH · Vario-Elmarit-R 2.8-4.5/28-90 · Vario-Elmarit-R 2,8-4,5/28-90 · Vario-Elmarit-R 2.8-4.5/28-90mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 2,8-4,5/28-90mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 2.8-4.5/28-90 mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 2,8-4,5/28-90 mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 1:2.8-4.5/28-90 · Vario-Elmarit-R 1:2,8-4,5/28-90 · Vario-Elmarit-R 1:2.8-4.5/28-90mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 1:2,8-4,5/28-90mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 1:2.8-4.5/28-90 mm · Vario-Elmarit-R 1:2,8-4,5/28-90 mm · Vario Elmarit R 28-90mm · Vario Elmarit R 28-90 · Vario-Elmarit R 28-90 · Vario Elmarit-R 28-90 · Vario Elmarit R 28 90mm · Vario-Elmarit 28-90mm R · 28-90mm Vario-Elmarit-R · 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical Vario-Elmarit-R · Leica R 28-90mm Vario-Elmarit · Leica R 28-90mm f2.8-4.5 · Leica R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 · Leica R 28-90 ASPH · Leica 28-90mm f2.8-4.5 ASPH · Leica 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH · Leica 28-90 ROM · Leica 11365 · ライカ バリオエルマリートR 28-90mm · バリオエルマリートR 28-90mm · バリオ・エルマリートR 28-90mm · ライカ バリオ・エルマリートR 28-90mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
ROM, black anodized (11365) Leica R, ROM (R3 to R9 by Leica's data sheet; not the Leicaflex bodies) 2003–2009 3954762, a lens the Leica Store Wetzlar dates to 2003
3974015, dated 2003 by the Leica Store Munich, and 3989393, dated 2005 by the Leica Store Milano, both offered through Leica Camera Classic in 2026 		—
  1. Specification from Leica's technical data sheet of 2003: angle of view 73.4° to 27.6° diagonal, eleven elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, front-group focusing, 0.6 m to infinity, smallest field 400 × 600 mm at 28 mm (1:16.7) and 133 × 200 mm at 90 mm (1:5.5), fully automatic diaphragm with half-stop clicks to f/22, non-rotating focusing mount, E67 internal filter thread, built-in pull-out hood, 99 mm long from the bayonet flange, 80 mm across, about 740 g. Apotelyt gives the same 11/8, 0.6 m, E67, 80 × 99 mm and 740 g; Cinelenswiki gives 11/8, 2 ft, 67 mm, 3.9 in long and 740 g. Puts adds that the aspherical surfaces are the first surface of the front element and the second surface of the last element, and that three groups move in internal grooves.
  2. Number of diaphragm blades: no Leica document consulted gives it, so the field is left empty.
  3. Dates. Leica announced the lens in a press release dated 1 December 2003 (reprinted by Photography Blog), and Andrew Nemeth's FAQ says details began to appear that month. Flashback Camera and the Leica Stores in Wetzlar and Munich date early lenses to 2003. Cinelenswiki gives a release date of 2004 and production from 2003 to 2009. 2009 is when Leica R production ended; no Leica document dating the last lens was found.
  4. Production. Cinelenswiki gives 2,135 lenses made. Flashback Camera estimates about 2,600. Neither says where its figure comes from, so both are given.
  5. Maker. The Leica Store Wetzlar's side photograph of lens 3954762 shows a faint barrel engraving LENS MADE IN GERMANY, and Flashback Camera's listing says 'Made in Germany'. Leica's data sheet gives only the company's Solms address, and Puts writes of 'the engineers at Solms' only to suggest a brighter R8 and R9 screen. No Leica document consulted names the factory or town.
  6. Body fit. Leica's data sheet gives the bayonet as for the R3 to the R9, with additional electronic exposure control on the R8 and R9. It is a ROM lens without the sloped Leicaflex cams, and the site's Leicaflex page records Doug Herr's warning that the Leicaflex cam follower can damage ROM contacts, so it should not be mounted on the Leicaflex, Leicaflex SL or Leicaflex SL2. The page is therefore listed against the R3 to R9 bodies only.
  7. Extenders. Thorsten Overgaard lists the 28-90 among the lenses Leica specified for both the APO-Extender-R 2x (11262) and the APO-Extender-R 1.4x (11249). No Leica document consulted here confirms either.
  8. Prices. Nemeth gave US$3,295 at the announcement. In November 2026 Leica Stores selling used lenses through Leica Camera Classic asked €2,000 (Leica Store Wetzlar, lens 3954762, with case and caps), €2,100 (Leica Store Munich, 3974015, with caps) and €2,490 (Leica Store Milano, 3989393, boxed). These are dealer asking prices including VAT under the margin scheme, not sale results.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The only Leica R zoom running from 28 to 90 mm, with a built-in pull-out hood cut in petals. The Vario-Elmar-R 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 and 35-70mm f/4 use a separate screw-in hood (12437); the Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/3.5 and Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f/2.8 ASPH. have plain telescopic hoods
  • The aperture ring reads 2.8 to 22, but Puts says those figures hold only at 28 and 35 mm: at 50 mm the widest aperture is f/3.4, and at 90 mm it is f/4.5 and the 22 mark is really f/36. Leica's MTF pages give f/3.1 at 35 mm
  • Not the autofocus Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH. for Leica's L-mount

ROM, black anodized (11365):

  • A row of gold ROM contacts at the back of the mount, and no sloped Leicaflex cams (Leica Store Wetzlar's photographs of 3954762)
  • Front ring engraved LEICA, VARIO-ELMARIT-R 1:2.8-4.5/28-90 ASPH., E67 and the serial number
  • Built-in hood with petal-shaped cut-outs that pulls out over the front of the lens
  • Long ribbed focusing ring at the front with an orange feet and white metre scale; ribbed zoom ring behind it marked 90 70 50 35 28 with 28-90 printed in orange; aperture ring at the back marked 2.8 to 22
  • Faint engraving LENS MADE IN GERMANY followed by the order number on the barrel just in front of the mount (Leica Store Wetzlar's side photograph of 3954762)
  • Order number 11365 on Leica's data sheet, quoted by dealers in their listings

Serial-range notes

the seven-digit number on the front ring
Leica numbered every lens in one running sequence reserved in blocks, so a number dates a lens only roughly. Lenses offered for sale run from 3,954,762, which the Leica Store Wetzlar dates to 2003, and 3,974,015, which the Leica Store Munich also dates to 2003, to 3,989,393, which the Leica Store Milano dates to 2005. Flashback Camera calls a lens in the 3.97 million range a first-year lens of 2003. No dated serial from 2006 to 2009 is recorded.

Specifications

Formula
Zoom of eleven elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, focused by the front group (Leica technical data, 2003)
Construction
11 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Min. focus
0.6 m
Dimensions
80 × 99 mm
Weight
740 g
Filter
67 mm, E67 internal thread; built-in pull-out hood with petal-shaped cut-outs (Leica technical data, 2003)
Years manufactured
2003–2009
Country
Germany: the barrel of lens 3954762 is engraved LENS MADE IN GERMANY (Leica Store Wetzlar photographs), and Flashback Camera's listing says 'Made in Germany'; no Leica document consulted names the factory
Material
Black anodized aluminium mount (Leica technical data; Erwin Puts, January 2004), with ribbed grips on the focusing and zoom rings (Leica Store Wetzlar photographs)
Original price
US$3,295, the price Andrew Nemeth's Leica FAQ gives for the lens when details appeared in December 2003; he does not say whether it was a list or a dealer price (today $5,620)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
Faint colour fringing
Vignetting
Marked at 28mm
Flare & ghosting
Better than average
Distortion
Barrel at 28mm
Optical formula — Zoom of eleven elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, focused by the front group (Leica technical data, 2003)
ⓘ 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 Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH. came late in the life of Leica’s reflex system: Leica announced it in a press release dated 1 December 2003 as a fast universal lens covering “the four most common fixed focal lengths with no loss of quality”, and Flashback Camera writes that it was made until 2009, the end of the R series. Andrew Nemeth’s Leica FAQ, which says details appeared online that month, gives its price as US$3,295. It is a two-ring zoom of eleven elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, focusing to 0.6 m, with an E67 filter thread and a built-in pull-out hood. It is 99 mm long and weighs about 740 g. Leica’s product information points out that it is only about 20 mm longer and 200 g heavier than the Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4, but it reaches further at both ends: about 10° wider at 28 mm and 7° narrower at 90 mm than a 35-70.

Erwin Puts, in the chapter on it in his Leica R-Lenses of January 2004, calls it the first Leica zoom with a range above 1:3. Leica chose to optimise the design for the 50 to 90 mm end. Puts describes three moving groups guided in internal grooves that Leica cut with special CNC machinery developed with Weller, thin aluminium tubes to keep the weight down, and mechanical compensators adjusted by hand during assembly, which he says takes more than two hours per lens. From the MTF, distortion and vignetting graphs he reproduces, he finds the weakest images at 28 mm wide open, with soft corners, -3% barrel distortion and about 2.5 stops of vignetting. It is superb at 70 mm and best at 90 mm, where the corners match the centre. He rates its control of veiling glare better than the average Leica lens. The maximum aperture falls as the lens zooms, to f/3.4 at 50 mm and f/4.5 at 90 mm. The figures on the aperture ring hold only from 28 to 35 mm, so at 90 mm the 2.8 mark means f/4.5 and the 22 means f/36. Puts warns users of hand-held meters to read the aperture in the finder.

There is one version, order number 11365, black anodized, with ROM contacts. On an R8 or R9 the contacts pass the focal length and correction data to the body for metering and for a zoom flash head. Leica’s data sheet gives the bayonet as for the R3 to the R9, so the R3 to R7 meter with it mechanically at full aperture. It has no sloped Leicaflex cams and should not be put on a Leicaflex, Leicaflex SL or SL2: the site’s Leicaflex page records Doug Herr’s warning that the Leicaflex cam follower can damage ROM contacts. The barrel is engraved LENS MADE IN GERMANY, as the Leica Store Wetzlar’s photographs show and Flashback Camera’s listing says, though no Leica document consulted names the factory. That sets it apart from the cheaper standard zooms Leica sold alongside it: the dealer Joseph Yao, quoted in Nemeth’s FAQ in 2002, says the Vario-Elmar-R 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 (11364) and 35-70mm f/4 (11277) were built in Japan by Kyocera and the first 28-70 (11265) by Sigma, while Nemeth’s own summary calls both 28-70s Sigma-built. Flashback Camera and Cinelenswiki both give 2009 as the last year of production. Cinelenswiki gives 2,135 lenses made, and the Japanese dealer Flashback Camera estimates about 2,600. Thorsten Overgaard lists the lens among those Leica specified for the APO-Extender-R 1.4x and 2x.

When buying, check the zoom and focus action for smoothness. Puts notes that pressing hard on the focusing ring adds friction, which some owners took for a mechanical fault, and Flashback Camera reported some focus shift while zooming on the lens it sold. Look for haze and cleaning marks on the large front element, and check that the hood slides out and stays put. A complete lens has front and rear caps, the slip-on cap that covers the focusing ring and the soft leather case. In November 2026 Leica Stores selling through Leica Camera Classic were asking €2,000 to €2,490 including VAT; these are dealer asking prices, not sale results.

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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

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH.? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $4,300 across 8 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $3,000–$5,300). First day tracked.

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

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

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

Related: Vario-Elmar-R 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4 · Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f/2.8 ASPH. · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH.

Sources (12)

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.