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New summicron asph 35mm. How and why did they improve the current one?


Paulus

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Funny the Elmar 135/4 was one of my first M lenses also. Great lens indeed. Mine is now retired due to the king 135/3.4 apo ruling over it and my good old 135/2.8 but the Elmar 135 is still a sharp lens provided i don't use it a full aperture. Same for the 35/2v4 and most pre-asph lenses the way i see them. Modern asph and apo M lenses feel really sharper at full apertures to the point that i often forget how open i've been shooting with them. This is the true novelty of Karbe lenses to me. They make me feel that the only significant difference between apertures is DoF with them. Also Karbe lenses are generally less flare prone than Mandler's and earlier glass even if they don't match the best Zeiss lenses from this standpoint. Now Karbe lenses look often harsher at slower apertures due to higher contrast and not-so-smooth bokeh i suspect. At prices they demand, Leica should improve there imho. Perhaps the next (?) 35/2 apo will be as good as the 50/2 apo from this standpoint...

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  • 2 months later...

I'm ressurecting this thread. Has there been performed a side-by-side comparison of the Mk1 and Mk2 of the 35/2 ASPH lenses? And what's the result?

 

I recently grabbed a 2011 manufactured 35/2 ASPH with factory 6-bit coding and the box and stuff for about $1620 USD locally. And it's in perfect, if not almost mint condition. I thought it was quite a good deal, but then again, I haven't been paying attention to the used prices on these for the last year or so. I had no idea the Mk1 had gone down in value.

Edited by indergaard
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I'm ressurecting this thread. Has there been performed a side-by-side comparison of the Mk1 and Mk2 of the 35/2 ASPH lenses? And what's the result?

 

I recently grabbed a 2011 manufactured 35/2 ASPH with factory 6-bit coding and the box and stuff for about $1620 USD locally. And it's in perfect, if not almost mint condition. I thought it was quite a good deal, but then again, I haven't been paying attention to the used prices on these for the last year or so. I had no idea the Mk1 had gone down in value.

 

 

I checked in here a few days ago after not visiting for a while, fully expecting to see more information about the new lens but there seems to be little, if nothing at all. No user reviews, or even images of the lens "in the wild" so to speak. Just stock advertising images of and by the lens.....

 

Anyone out there with the new version care to chime in?

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Hi,

 

Took me a while but managed to find some two reviews:

 

http://www.streetsilhouettes.com/home/2016/5/27/leica-35mm-summicron-asph-vers-2

 

http://www.leica.paris-montmartre.fr/l1/p334-35-F2-Asph-35-F2-Asph-V2016.html  = in french with side by side pictures

 

Seems that the new lens has a bit more contrast, and OOF areas are slightly differents. But the differences are very subtle at my eyes. Moreover, the lens hood makes the new lens a big lens.

 

Regards.

Edited by jcm0
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Hi,

 

Took me a while but managed to find some two reviews:

 

http://www.streetsilhouettes.com/home/2016/5/27/leica-35mm-summicron-asph-vers-2

 

http://www.leica.paris-montmartre.fr/l1/p334-35-F2-Asph-35-F2-Asph-V2016.html = in french with side by side pictures

 

Seems that the new lens has a bit more contrast, and OOF areas are slightly differents. But the differences are very subtle at my eyes. Moreover, the lens hood makes the new lens a big lens.

 

Regards.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Hi,

 

Took me a while but managed to find some two reviews:

 

http://www.streetsilhouettes.com/home/2016/5/27/leica-35mm-summicron-asph-vers-2

 

http://www.leica.paris-montmartre.fr/l1/p334-35-F2-Asph-35-F2-Asph-V2016.html  = in french with side by side pictures

 

Seems that the new lens has a bit more contrast, and OOF areas are slightly differents. But the differences are very subtle at my eyes. Moreover, the lens hood makes the new lens a big lens.

 

Regards.

I can't complain about the contrast of the old one, so I stick to that one..

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am seeing some issues with the 35/2 ASPH in regards to flare.
​I've owned and used the 35/1.4 FLE for 3 years, but it's simply too big and heavy I think. So I want to replace it with the 35/2 ASPH.

 

But I've made thousands of pictures with the 35/1.4 FLE, even without the hood most of the time, and with a filter (!) and never seen flare in situations where I'm currently experiencing flare with the 35/2 (with the hood, without the filter).

​Example 2 especially puzzles me. This isn't really a challenging situation at all... Kinda disappointed. And let me repeat - the hood was on and there was no filter on the lens. Both where shot with the MM1. I don't mind nice flare, but this is definitely not the nice kind.

 

EDIT: I'm making a new thread about this so please don't respond here.

 

Example 1 (shot at F/8 or F/11):

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Example 2 (shot at F/2):

 

Edited by indergaard
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  • 1 year later...

I own the new version and have used, but never owned the old one. I also owned the 35/1.4 FLE which produced gorgeous results, but which I had to part with for financial reasons.

 

The new cron is about as perfect as a Leica lens can be. Mine has no noticeable focus shift, at least not at the distance and aperture combinations I usually shoot at, isn’t particularly flare prone, is crazy sharp and has very nice bokeh and rendering.

 

Mine is the silver version, and thankfully it is the same weight as the black one (unlike the previous generation whcih was heavy brass).

 

Overall, I’m very happy with it and would likely do just fine with this as my only lens, and often travel as though it were.

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One reason for an updated version might actually not be directly related to Leica. Quite a few people now use Leica lens gear on newer mirrorless camera models from other brands - e.g. Sony A7 series. This includes me, too. I bought the 35/2 ASPH one year ago before I had a Leica M camera. I sold this lens quickly again - because it did not work at all with the Sony FF sensor (always blurry corners even at f/11, uneven focus plane). There are several reasons for it, one is the pupil entrance of the lens the other one is a thicker glass cover on Sony A7 series based sensors compared to Leica's digital sensors. Interestingly, the version 4 non-ASPH and older Leica 35/2 lenses work well here. I suspect that the latest 35/2 ASPH version might correct for those issues very visible on non Leica based FF sensors. I am sure we will hear more about its performance later. 

 

To improve performance of Leica M lenses on Sony cameras, you can get the thin sensor stack from Kolari.

 

Other than that I strongly doubt that Leica cares how good or bad the performance of their lenses on Sony is.

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To improve performance of Leica M lenses on Sony cameras, you can get the thin sensor stack from Kolari.

 

Other than that I strongly doubt that Leica cares how good or bad the performance of their lenses on Sony is.

 

Officially they would never admit that they care. Probably only a very small amount of new M lenses is bought by users of competitive MLC systems - the majority of them buys older used M lenses. But if you want to benefit from more than 24 MP FF resolution and more DR with optically superb M lenses, there is currently only one choice....

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  • 5 months later...
On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 9:34 AM, lct said:

I don't know how many times i'll have to repeat this, probably as long as contrary rumours will be spread on the LUF, but the Summicron 35/2 asph (at least mine) has no focus shift, zero, nada... 

My (silver) Summicron 35mm ASPH doesn't have any focus shift either.....it's an astonishing lens in my view, and my firm favorite.

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14 minutes ago, lct said:

Is it 6-bit coded? Just curious. 

It’s not

Do you think that the earlier brass ones might have more accurate machining and people conflate focus shift with focus accuracy?

Edited by Guest
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