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Sharpest 35mm under $1000


cartierbresson

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I'm coming to this late, but I had to at least mention just how much the Voigtlander 35mm Color Skopar PII punches above its weight. 

 

I got it for $290 used and it's an absolute steal depending on how you shoot. It has some clear warts - such as a significant amount of vignetting, and a magenta tint on the edges (mine only shows up on the right side for some reason). It also flares and the flare ain't pretty. The ergonomics aren't great (although that could be considered subjective).

 

All that said, many of its defects are not an issue at all if you use an editing application like Lightroom. The lens is sharper than I could have ever expected. It's not contrasty, but that doesn't bother me. It's ludicrously tiny as well. 

 

If you're a person who zone focuses and shoots in black and white, I don't know if you'll find a better bang for the buck. I love this little lens - it's been my best bargain in all my years in photography.

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Voigtlander Color-Skopar 2.5. Best little 35 for under $1k. Had one for years. Just as sharp as my type IV 35 mm Summicron but smaller and lighter. Mount one on a M body and you can put everything in a jacket pocket or belt pouch. And you will have enough cash left over for a 90 mm CV or used Tele Elmarit.

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a magenta tint on the edges (mine only shows up on the right side for some reason). It also flares and the flare ain't pretty. The ergonomics aren't great (although that could be considered subjective).

 

Decentered lens elements. 

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I agree with Jaap: the Summicron 40 or the Minolta 40 , coded as 35mm, gives more than excellent results: a beautiful booked and a slight improvement in sharpness over the Summicron 35 and that regularly at € 350-400 - a real snatch. 

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Thank you everyone for responding.  I finally decided on a Voigtlander 35mm Color Skopar PII yesterday. Today will be my first day out with it (and with the body too!). I'll try to post a picture or two with my results. Again, thanks to everyone who shared their opinion.

Nice lens for not a lot of money.  I really enjoy my 21.  Have fun and we'll be waiting for suggestions towards your next lens.

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I found the Skopar a nice 35 on the M9, but a close look in the landscapes revealed dips and waves in the mid zones. In fact, at f/8 the nokton 35/1.4, aside from distortion, seemed to best the skopar. I did quite a bit of research for a landscape 35, and settled on the ZM 35/2 over the asph cron. Very very even across the frame with the one caveat of softness is very extreme corners at all apertures. The lens is very strong at f/11 as well. 

 

my "copy variation" of the 35/1.2 ;)

 

16758105554_f8e9675e16_b.jpg

Wonder_0-274 by Charlie Webster, on Flickr

 

40/2:

11972500755_1a1b04deab_b.jpg

L1000554 by unoh7, on Flickr

 

skopar:

12183078654_ebd48ff710_b.jpg

L1002137 by unoh7, on Flickr

 

Nokton f/1.4:

 

14802373496_a67f855ebc_b.jpg

L1016865 by unoh7, on Flickr

 

zm 35/2 WO:

14265195402_b8732c7799_b.jpg

L1012424 by unoh7, on Flickr

 

Many wonderful 35s out there :) I'd like to try the v1 cron.

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The Zeiss 35 2.8 is so sharp that it creates artefacts on my M9,  but it is amazing on the MM. The Cron 4 handles better but it is over your budget.  The Zeiss is also extraordinary at infinity. All around a remarkable lens.  Also no distortion that I can see.  Cheshire Cat has a good question.  I always shoot at 5.6-8,  where lense are at their best.  I think Bokeh is the biggest myth in the game.  I hope Leica paid off Michael Johnson for creating both the term  and the idea  that the Cron 4 is the Bokeh king.  All nonsense. 

I'm sorry to disagree, but you are completely wrong on this. I own both the 35cron aspherical and the 35cron 4. I don't use the 35cron 4 for anything below 2.8-4 split because it is just too soft for my taste, but the rendering between f4 and 5.6 is absolutely gorgeous. 

 

I think that the term bokeh is misunderstood. The highlights in out of focus areas generally speaking don't look as nice with aspherical lenses. But there is more to it than what the out-of focus areas look like. The gradual fall of is very "round" with some of the older Mandler designs. Peter Karbe stated that one of his design achievements with the 50 APO was a very immediate fall-off in contrast behind the plane of focus. When you look at some 50 Apo pictures taken at medium distance, people looks so sharply defined, they almost look like cut-outs, which imho is the biggest strength of the 50 Apo.

 

Older lenses like the 35cron 4 on the other hand have a gradual fall-off and in the out-of-focus areas, despite being soft, objects are still clearly defined. When I started buying Leica lenses, I went for the newest and sharpest, which I don't regret, but I have come to appreciate some of the older lenses when I don't need to shoot them wide open and use a camera that exceeds the resolution of the lens like the Monochroms. I don't know which way your 35mm lenses render, but here is an example of the 35cron 4, which would look very different with my 35cron aspherical. Not a myth, I use them both.

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Moot discussion now for the original poster, but the I have to say I love the Zeiss 35mm/2.8 C Biogon ZM for a small, high quality lens. It's very modern in its look, imposing very little character due to its low aberrations, very high resolution, low flare, and good global contrast and micro-contrast. I don't find it excessively contrasty, but I've only shot it on M9-P and M-P digital cameras, and I shoot DNG raw only, so the contrast is very flexible, more so on the newer camera.

The new Zeiss 35mm/1.4 Distagon ZM does beat it in every way, except size and cost. The larger, faster sibling has better bokeh, a broader range of apertures, has a flatter field, and is optically better at every aperture they have in common. The size is probably a negative for some people. The Distagon 35mm is nearly exactly as long and wide as my old Leica screw mount 85mm/2 P. C. Nikkor. Size has been compromised to allow for better optical correction. I now carry the 35mm/1.4 ZM on my camera every day, I love it so.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Same optical formula as the well-received LTM version. That's why.

 

See, I read that a lot and then I compare the specs and there is a whole lot of differences. How can this be the same optical formula?

 

LTM version

39mm filter size

8 elements in 5 groups

 

New M-mount version

43mm filter size

9 elements in 7 groups

 

Unless my information is wrong, these are two different lenses. They may not be entirely different, but different enough to make me wonder about the results on sensor.

 

 

(same applies to the Nokton 50 f1.5; it's just not entirely the same optics as in the LTM version)

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See, I read that a lot and then I compare the specs and there is a whole lot of differences. How can this be the same optical formula?

 

LTM version

39mm filter size

8 elements in 5 groups

 

New M-mount version

43mm filter size

9 elements in 7 groups

 

Unless my information is wrong, these are two different lenses. They may not be entirely different, but different enough to make me wonder about the results on sensor.

 

 

(same applies to the Nokton 50 f1.5; it's just not entirely the same optics as in the LTM version)

 

I stand corrected.Thanks. I'd read initially it would be otherwise.

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See, I read that a lot and then I compare the specs and there is a whole lot of differences. How can this be the same optical formula?

 

LTM version

39mm filter size

8 elements in 5 groups

 

New M-mount version

43mm filter size

9 elements in 7 groups

 

Unless my information is wrong, these are two different lenses.

 

Therefore if the LTM was "extremely good", we can suppose the new M-mount version will be "extremely better" :p

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