"Pros:Easy To Clean, Easily Interchangeable, Rugged, Lightweight, Durable, Strong Construction, Sharp Focus, Consistent Output
Best Uses:General Use, Professional Work
Describe Yourself:Semi-Professional
Bottom Line:Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
Great lens, particularly for the M8. VERY sharp. And, the size makes it (with the M8) a very easy, always-have-with-you package.

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    "Excellent for landscape photography or other areas where a wide angle with a wide depth of field are required. Light weight ( but solid construction) make it ideal for a trek through the woods. Not a bargain by any means, but a decent lens that satisfies 50% of my photographic needs.

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    "On the USA version of Leica's website, the 28mm f2.8 ASPH M-Elmarit lens is described in these glowing terms: "This new high-speed lens is the most compact of Leica M lenses. By using an aspherical element it was possible to attain top imaging performance with a weight of only 180 grams. This lens is practically distortion-free down to the close focus range of 0.7 m and only protrudes slightly into the viewfinder field of M cameras. Used on the digital M8, it produces the effect of a 35mm lens which makes it ideal for reportage. Due to its attractive price it can be particularly recommended as an introduction to the high-quality range of Leica M lenses."

It is an attractive alternative all right for those interested in acquiring a Leica M lens on a budget. Indeed, its overall appearance and physical construction owes more to the newly announced Summarit line of "budget" Leica M-mount lenses, which Leica will offer for sale starting next month. I spent some time handling and focusing it at this year's Photo Plus East, and found its barrel construction quite similar to the Zeiss Ikon rangefinder wide angle Carl Zeiss Biogon lenses (Virtually all of these are made in Japan by Cosina (Voigtlander) under strict Zeiss quality control.), falling somewhere between the popular 25 and 28 Biogons with respect to ruggedness. But does this mean that this lens is optically better than the current 28mm Carl Zeiss Biogon or the 28mm f2 Summicron ASPH lenses? The answer is rather obvious with the 28mm Summicron, since the 28mm Summicron is the brightest fast wide angle M-mount rangefinder camera lens I've used (I own it and it has become an indispensable part of my kit.) and is tack sharp from corner to corner at virtually all apertures. In stark contrast, the 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH lens isn't as sharp a lens as its more expensive, faster sibling, until f5.6, judging from the MTF charts which are posted at Leica's website (Its optical performance is similar to that of the newly announced Summarit-M lenses since they, too, perform best once the lens is stopped down to f5.6.). As for the 28mm Carl Zeiss Biogon, it is an excellent lens in its own right, with better control for flaring - due to its Carl Zeiss T* multicoating - than the 28mm Summicron (I recently borrowed the 28mm f2.8 Biogon from the Zeiss USA office; it is almost as fine a lens as its illustrious predecessor, the Contax G Series 28mm f2.8 Biogon which I rate almost as optically superb as my 28mm Summicron. In stark comparison to the earlier 28mm Zeiss Biogon, the new Leica 28mm Elmarit lens shows some more distortion, but this shouldn't affect the quality of the pictures taken under most conditions.). So the choice ought to be easy if you are firmly committed to buying only Leica's M-mount rangefinder lenses: buy this lens, simply because it will be a fine performer for virtually every situation imaginable (The two most notable exceptions are under low light, or when a maximum aperture of f2 is required. A third one is the finest in image quality. In all three instances then you should be interested more in acquiring the 28mm Summicron.).
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