Hands-on Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28-70mm f/2.8 Asph review: Leica sharp, Leica built… but not Leica priced?

The standard workhorse zoom 24-70mm f/2.8 delivers impressive versatility and a bright aperture, but these optics are typically heavy. That’s why brands have been launching alternatives to these standard workhorses with some similarities but in a lighter form factor. The Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28-70mm f/2.8 Asph is one such workhorse alternative.

Shaving off just 4mm of focal length on the widest end enables the Leica 28-70mm f/2.8 to come in nearly an inch shorter than the standard, and around 33% lighter than the Leica SL Vario-Elmarit 24-70mm f/2.8 Asph. But space in a camera bag isn’t the only thing this new Leica lens saves – it also comes in at around 40% less expensive than the brand’s standard 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.

Leica told me that the new 28-70mm lens isn’t just the lightest standard zoom lens in the SL series, but it also packs in the highest resolving power yet.

I borrowed a Leica 28-70mm f/2.8 lens with the SL3 during a photo walk in New York City at the B&H Bild Expo – and found the lens to be impressively sharp and well-built.

Leica SL 28-70mm f/2.8: Specifications

The Leica Elmarit-Vario-SL 28-70mm f/2.8 Asph is a full-frame L-Mount lens. Thanks to the L-Mount Alliance, it works with more than just Leica's SL series cameras and is also compatible with L-Mount bodies from Panasonic and Sigma.

Leica SL 28-70mm f/2.8: Price and availability

Leica’s lenses usually come at a premium, but the 28-70mm f/2.8 is far more affordable than the brand’s 24-70mm f/2.8 at $1,890 / £1,650. That’s even less than Panasonic’s Pro series 24-70mm f/2.8, but more than the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art II and quite a bit more than Sigma's 28-70mm f/2.8.

As a new launch, the Leica 28-70mm is available for pre-order from several retailers, including B&H and Wex, but retailers don’t yet list a ship date.

The lens will also be available as a kit option with the Leica SL3.

Leica SL 28-70mm f/2.8: Design & handling

The Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28-70mm Asph is designed to be a lighter, smaller alternative to the traditional 24-70mm f/2.8 workhorse lens. I placed the two lenses next to each other and the 28-70mm is noticeably shorter and lighter.

Leica’s 24-70mm weighs 1.9 pounds (856g), but the 28-70mm weighs 1.3 pounds (572g). That’s about 33% lighter. Shaving off 4mm on the wide end of the focal length also cuts off around 0.8 inches (21mm) on the length of the lens.

While smaller and lighter, the 28-70mm still feels every bit like a Leica. The lens’ housing is built with both magnesium alloy and aluminum alloy and includes weather seals. That gives the lens a lovely luxury feel that I’ve come to associate with Leica’s optics. I shot with this lens through some light mist without any issues, and the feel of the build suggests it could handle more than just a mist.

While durable, the lens design is also fairly minimalistic. There’s a zoom ring and a focus ring, with no other dials or switches. Aperture is controlled on the camera body. The lens feels both sleek and simple to use.

Leica SL 28-70mm f/2.8: Performance

The Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28-70mm f/2.8 is significantly more affordable than the brand’s 24-70mm, yet, both looking at the images and shooting with the lens, I didn’t feel like I was shooting with a “budget” lens. (The definition of a “budget” lens is a bit higher when looking at a Leica.)

Leica told me that the 28-70mm isn’t just the brand’s lightest f/2.8 zoom, it’s also the optic with the highest resolving power from the series yet. Mounted on the 60MP Leica SL3, I could still pixel peep at 100%. The lens nicely rendered texture in portraits even wide open, and kept buildings tack-sharp.

Shooting wide open, the lens created lovely background separation. Points of light are rendered to round bokeh without any soap bubbling or onion ring effects.

I love using the SL3’s built-in color profiles and the 28-70mm complements these colors nicely. The lens didn’t seem to oversaturate colors. I also didn’t spot any colored fringing during my tests – but I also only had an hour with this lens on a cloudy day, so more testing is needed to analyze chromatic aberration completely, as this tends to be most obvious when photographing backlit subjects.

The Leica 28-70mm f/2.8 lens lacks stabilization. But, using the in-body stabilization on the SL3, I was able to shoot at semi-slow shutter speeds like 1/15 sec and still have sharp stationary subjects and blurred motion without a tripod.

I shot portraits, street photography and landscapes during my time with this lens. The autofocus proved more than sufficient for those genres and also seemed to operate fairly quietly. The lens is also capable of focusing as close as 7.5 inches / 19 cm on the wide end, good enough for a macro reproduction ratio of 0.3x.

Leica SL 28-70mm f/2.8: Sample Images

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Leica SL 28-70mm f/2.8: Early verdict

The Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28-70mm f/2.8 is impressively compact, surprisingly sharp, and still rather versatile despite nixing 4mm off on the wide end. The build is everything that I’ve come to expect from Leica, including magnesium alloy housing and weather-sealing, yet it’s lighter than Leica’s standard 24-70mm.

While the cost is nothing to sneeze at, the 28-70mm is around 40% less than the cost of Leica’s similar 24-70mm. In fact, it’s slightly less than Panasonic’s S Pro 24-70mm f/2.8, which means L-Mount shooters that typically don’t look at Leica for cost reasons may even be tempted by this lens, It is, however, a bit more than Sigma’s 24-70mm f/2.8 II Art and significantly more than the Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8.

I had little to complain about shooting with the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28-70mm f/28. That said, I only had about a one-hour photo walk to play with this lens – which wasn’t enough time for key tests like using the autofocus on fast subjects. That photo walk was also on a cloudy, misty day, so I wasn’t able to look at factors like sun flare, either.

While more testing is needed in those areas, photographers looking for something sharp, bright, and versatile but still lightweight will likely want to take a serious look at this lens.

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