The Leica Elmarit-S 45 mm f/2.8 ASPH. (36 mm in 35 mm format) is as outstanding for landscapes and architectural photography as it is for studio work. Its extremely elaborate construction, designed to deliver maximum contrast at maximum aperture and at the shortest focusing distance, ensures that the lens is practically free of aberrations; monochromatic aberration is almost nonexistent and chromatic aberrations are corrected to an absolute minimum.
Three of the twelve lens elements are manufactured from glasses with anomalous partial dispersion for the minimization of chromatic aberration and two others from high-refractive-index glasses with exceptionally low dispersion. In addition to these, one aspherical surface is employed for the minimization of monochromatic aberrations. Rear-group focusing guarantees consistently outstanding imaging properties from infinity to the closest focusing distance.