How Much Is a Used Leica Elmarit-M 28mm Worth? (2026 Price Guide)

For everyday shooting the Elmarit-M 28mm ASPH is the easy pick: compact, low distortion, and crisp into the corners even wide open. The 9-element "Red Scale" original is the collector and character choice, but it costs more and is optically softer at the edges. Type 3 and Type 4 are the value sweet spot if you want a modern compact body without the ASPH premium.

Be careful. The earliest 9-element 28mm has a rear element that protrudes deep into the body, which can interfere with the metering cell on some film M bodies and is not recommended on digital M sensors. The later Type 4 and the ASPH are fully digital-friendly. Always confirm the specific version against your camera before buying.

Not on most modern bodies. M bodies from the M4-P onward, and all digital M cameras, include 28mm framelines, so no accessory finder is needed. On older bodies without 28mm frames you can use an external 28mm viewfinder or simply use the full finder view as an approximation.

Lenses produced after the mid-2000s 6-bit rollout are factory coded so digital M bodies recognize them automatically; earlier ASPH and pre-ASPH copies are often uncoded. Uncoded lenses can be manually selected in the camera menu or sent to Leica for coding, mainly to help correct vignetting and any color cast at the edges.