SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH or SUMMICRON-M 35mm f/2 ASPH

[Maksarti]

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Thank you everyone for opinion, I truly appreciate it! I think to start with 50 cron non APO, one of the reasons is I need to wait till 50 APO arrives and dealer didn't gave me clear date, from another side it is way expensive.

[albireo_double]

Having used the 35 mm IV, Cron Asph and Lux FLE, my conclusion is that the LUX FLE is the best of them. The others are nice too..

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[Mr_Jones]

It's odd in the case of the 50 Summilux ASPH, I prefer it to the 50 Cron by a long way. I would prefer to carry a lighter 50 but the Summilux is incredible at every aperture. I only have them both because the I bought the cron first. Now it just lives on the shelf.

 

You might want to look at the Summilux again, if you don't do it now you probably will later on.

[Bill Livingston]

You might want to look at the Summilux again, if you don't do it now you probably will later on.

I couldn't agree more. When I bought my M-P I toyed with the idea of a Summilux 35FLE but decided I was already spending far too much on the camera and ended up with the Summicron 35... a few months later I found a mint Summilux 50, boxed at a good price in Red Dot Cameras and bought it for 'retail therapy' after a row with my wife ( ) and it is absolutely my favourite lens... the best thing photography wise I have ever bought.

 

And of course now I wish I had bought the Summilux 35FLE when I first bought my M... I wanted to start with a one lens kit, so it was a very stupid decision... it's just going to cost me in the long term (I bought both the M and the Cron 35 new from Leica Mayfair because it was my first M and I wanted it to be 'mine' from new and then to pass it on to my son at some point).

 

Which means that at some point in the near future I will sell my new Summicron 35 and probably my Elmarit 90 (another wonderful lens, but not used enough to justify keeping it) in order to fund a Summilux 35 anyway.

 

So the moral of story is (as we all find out eventually), always buy what you really want, even if it's a short term struggle, because that feeling of compromise never, ever goes away.

 

And as we all also learn, and it's far cheaper in the long run to buy the right thing first time...

Edited September 30, 2016 by Bill Livingston

[Rus]

Just as Bill said, I, too, have found that the best way (and perhaps also the most economical in the long run) is to get what you really want to have in the first go---if money is not too big an issue. This does save you lots of trouble in the future from all the lusting over, checking, waiting, selling, and buying. 

You also end up having a longer time with the lens you really like, and get to know how it behaves and how to use it better (IMHO)

 

I had wanted a Summilux 50 ASPH for a long time, but got the Pre-A type 3 first. While I did also like the Pre-A a lot, for many months I wondered how the ASPH ver. would be. And then it was all the same story: i decided to sell the Pre-A type 3, and eventually got the ASPH. And while I was all happy with the new lens and the IQ, it took me a goodly while to get use to the shorter focus throw and get my fingers to remember that I should push less when switching between focus distances without looking at the makings on the lens. These things do grow the more you use the same lens, and are what really keep me glued to one lens. 

Edited September 30, 2016 by Rus

[JonPB]

On buying what you really want first: that's come to be my philosophy, but let's be honest, it reduces future opportunities for retail therapy. Having a 35 FLE, I'm at a loss for excuses to upgrade. Even its flaws have become beloved to me. A lifetime lens! Great. Now what?

 

Oh, right, a larger format printer.

 

Onward!

 

Jon

[Bill Livingston]

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Good answer!

 

:D

[ibramr]

On buying what you really want first: that's come to be my philosophy, but let's be honest, it reduces future opportunities for retail therapy. Having a 35 FLE, I'm at a loss for excuses to upgrade. Even its flaws have become beloved to me. A lifetime lens! Great. Now what?

Oh, right, a larger format printer.

Onward!

Jon

Brutally honest, very well said, and in my case, very true. And I love the "Onward" part of it. I am about to acquire the FLE, and hope to benefit from your experience about the large format printer, because post the FLE, it is actually what is next in my mind.

 

But to be faithful to the spirit of the thread, I have no reason to upgrade to the FLE from the Summicron 35mm Asph, except the desire to get a similar perceived qualitative improvement I observed when I recently moved to Summilix 50mm Asph. Also, the f1.4 is a nice improvement to have.

 

 

Enjoy in good health.

[i-Leica]

Well.... could not resist and got 35 lux just before the prise got up.

[Bill Livingston]

Well done... I bought mine five months ago and it has been permanently attached to my camera ever since.

 

Absolutely wonderful lens - everything I had ever hoped it would be.

[Verteidiger]

I think the answer to this often discussed questions depends very much on how you want to go on. If you want to stay with one single lens only, I'd get the 35-mm-Summilux, too. But if you plan to get a second lens, the combination of a 35-mm-Summicron with a 50-mm-Summilux will be the better choice. From my point of view you will only need one lens to shoot wide open and get that blur-effect. You usually will want that effect to shoot portraits (or flowers maybe, animals and so on), and for that the 50-mm-lens seems to be the perfect one. On the other hand you have the smaller, ligther 35-mm-Cron to travel with and shoot things you want to see in focus all over the screen.

 

I personally do the wider, sharp pictures with a 28-mm-Elmarit and the portraits with the 75-mm-Summicron actually. (The latter seems to be very similar to the 50-mm-Summilux by the way.)

[hoolyproductions]

This is an ongoing internal debate for me - and of course there is no correct answer.

 

I started shooting with an M6 three years ago. Pretty quickly ended up with both 35mm Summilux FLE and 50mm Summilux ASPH, and for two years this pair were used for 95% of my shooting.

 

I love the results from the 35 Summilux but the viewfinder blockage disturbs me and, from an aesthetic perspective, I find the lens to be 'bulky' and not in proportion to the camera. (others do not find this to be an issue at all and I am aware this is a ridiculous perspective in comparison to SLR lenses). For this reason I acquired a second hand 35mm summicron about a year ago and now I rarely use the Summilux. Also I shoot film much less often which makes f/2 less 'limiting'.

 

In addition to that, my 50mm Summilux is more and more my main lens. I shoot 35mm relatively rarely these days and so am thinking to sell my 35mm Summilux. On the other hand I live in Scandinavia and, even with digital, f/1.4 can make a big difference in the winter, plus I do feel that the Summilux has a gorgeous look at 1.4, on both film and digital.

[Printmaker]

I really shouldn't read these threads. I'm expecting to get my M10 soon and was thinking about adding a new lens. Either a 35 FLE or a 75 Cron as I can't afford both. My 35 Summicron IV is my main lens and I love just about everything about it but I just can't help wondering if the FLE is significantly better. My type IV is about 25 years old after all. But I have no complaints IQ wise. Still, maybe an upgrade might be in order... especially for astrophotography. On the other hand, I'd like a little more reach than my 50 Summicrons for portraits, nudes and tabletop shots. A 75 might fill the bill there. Especially if I made an EVF part of the kit. 

 

Then there is the 50 Lux. I could trade both of my 50 Summicrons in and get one for about a grand...

 

Agghhha.....

 

Like I said, I hate these threads. They're confusing and cost too damn much money.

[wpm]

Truly GAS inspiring. As to your question, I've shot the 240 for a few years now and seem to leave the house with either the 35 lux fle or the 50 lux asph. Size and weight don't seem to bother me.

I've had nice results with both lenses. That said, I do like the 50 Summarit 2.5 and is the lens my daughter likes the best out of a number of them, in terms of IQ. I do have the 50 apo and it is special, if not hugely expensive.

You really can't go wrong with any of them, so that's a good thing, but you'll always play the but what if game. What if the other lens does this or that better. You won't know until you use them. I toyed with a 35 asph pre-fle

on the 240 and loved the IQ but it did back focus more than I wanted, but there was a richness to it that I liked. The 35 cron asph is nice but is very sharp, that's why I end up using the lux more. At some point, I'll get an M10, speaking of GAS. From what I've seen, it plays well with the 35 cron better than the lux, to my eye, as does the new 5.6 28mm and the 50 apo. 

Having to stay with the 240 for a good while, it's a toss up as for a 35. Try them both, see how they feel in the hand, how the IQ strikes you, and see how much money you're willing to part with. 

 

All the best in your hunt. 

Warren

[otto.f]

I have the Summicron 35 iv (very lightweight) and the 35FLE and this combination works for me perfectly. I even take them both on travels, because sometimes I want to go light and at day I really see no compromise at all in the Summicron 35 iv. It's beautiful and now on the M10 even more than on the M9. But at night I really need the 35FLE, not only because of the extra stop but it just handles the dark and artificial light better. And when it has to be real sharp for bigger prints, with landscape, architecture and so on I prefer the 35FLE. I see no surplusvalue for the Summicron 35 asph.

Edited May 5, 2017 by otto.f

[Klausb]

The Hood (Metal) of the new 35 Cron has the same size as for the 35 fle.

[mahakalaka]

I used to have the 35 Summilux ASPH, a version 3 Summicron and recently bought the latest Summicron ASPH. The Lux really didn't have any kind of magic that the others lack in my opinion. The v3 was lovely, but sometimes the soft corners bugged me a bit. I'm really enjoying the new Cron so far. Smaller and lighter than the Lux, with similar results minus the extra stop. 

 

I've heard people say that the 35 Cron ASPH is clinical and stale looking, but I'm just not seeing that. I never did understand if they actually changed anything with the new version or not though. The photos seem to pop out nicely at any aperture and be as smooth as anything. Here's a recent photo of my wife and daughter I took with the new 35 Cron. The photo itself is nothing special, but I'm really liking what I'm seeing from this lens. Of course, with some nice light and Portra 160, any lens would do! Unfortunately the attached file looks soft here. It looks really nice and lively in high resolution, almost as if you were there.

 

 

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[i-Leica]

I got the Summilux because of focus shift bei summicron - the M10 with 24 megapixel can show it more then the old M9

[i-Leica]

really hated the "bokeh" of Summilux 35mm, it was just ugly.... so I returned it, now think of Summicron or maybe Summilux 28?.....

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