honestly im just so fed up with my current kit right now because carrying three different apo-summicrons across a city all day is actually killing my back and im missing shots left and right because im too busy fumbling with lens caps in the rain. i love the quality of the primes obviously but for professional travel work its just becoming a nightmare to manage and i feel like a total amateur struggling with my bag while the light is changing.
so i was thinking about finally biting the bullet and getting a high end zoom for my sl2 but im stuck between the options and keep going in circles. my logic was that the 24-90mm vario-elmarit would be the perfect one lens solution because of that extra reach on the long end but man that thing is a literal brick and it feels so front heavy when im hiking. then there is the 24-70mm which is lighter and has the constant f2.8 but ive heard people say it doesnt have that same leica rendering or character and is basically just a repackaged sigma design which drives me crazy considering the price jump.
im heading to the dolomites in about three weeks for a commercial landscape shoot and i need something that can handle the grit and the moisture without me needing to swap glass every five minutes. i have a budget of around five thousand but i really dont want to spend it on something that feels clinical if that makes sense. i considered the sigma 24-70 art as a temporary fix but if im shooting for a client i want that native performance and weather sealing and that specific micro-contrast you usually get from the house of leica.
is the 24-90 really still the king for travel despite the age and weight or is the 24-70 actually better for modern sensors and i just need to get over the lack of ois? really torn because i need to order this by friday to get it in time...
Honestly i have spent way too much time obsessing over this exact dilemma for my own SL2 setup. If you are doing a commercial shoot in the Dolomites you definitely want to minimize the lens swapping because that mountain weather turns in a heartbeat. If you really care about that specific Leica look and micro-contrast then the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH is still the undisputed king despite the weight. It is a beast but the optics are noticeably different from the newer 24-70mm. However since you mentioned being budget conscious and hating the price jump for a repackaged design i think you should seriously consider the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art for L-Mount. I know you want native performance but the Sigma is basically the same internal glass as the Leica 24-70 for a fraction of the cost. You could save about three thousand dollars which is insane. With that extra cash you could literally buy a backup body or a killer telephoto like the Panasonic Lumix S PRO 70-200mm f/4 O.I.S. which is great for those distant peaks. The 24-90 is the better lens for character but for a commercial gig where you need to be fast and light the Sigma is the smarter financial move tbh. Just grab a good hardshell for the rain and you will be fine.
