What would you consider is the best bang for the buck in selecting a 'Leica'

[RexGig0]

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I test-shot a Leica dealer’s demonstrator 35 FLE I, a well-preserved Summilux 35 Version II, and my Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/1.4 ZM. Not long before this three-way challenge, I had tested a friend’s Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.4 II MC. To make a long story short, the Distagon won.

Then, shortly afterward, I bought the Re-Edition Steel Rim Summilux-M 35mm lens, when Leica USA, in NJ, received a shipment of them. Notably, this one cost less, new, than the asking prices of most pre-owned, original-version FLEs, at that point in time. I now have a choice between a 35mm with “character,” and one that is “modern,” including modern coatings for flare resistance, and highly optically-corrected.

Both the original FLE and the Re-Edition Steel Rim can exhibit “busy bokeh.” (The pre-aspheric Summilux 35mm lens behave similarly, in this regard.) In circumstances when that might be a problem, I can opt to use the Distagon. The Distagon never seems to make hash of any background. Zeiss seems to have sorted the bokeh problem, at 35mm, quite well.

To be clear, I actually do like the original FLE, and, had the Re-Edition Steel Rim not been extant, I might well have bought a pre-owned FLE, last year, or early this year. An irrational part of my brain still wants to add an original FLE, and attach a threaded Summarit hood. 😉 Aesthetics do matter!

Edited June 11, 2024 by RexGig0

[patrickcolpron]

19 minutes ago, RexGig0 said:

... 😉 Aesthetics do matter!

They do and Leica knows this, they are really good at selling the same cameras and lenses to the same people in different finishes. 

... I am one of "them" people 😉 

Edited June 11, 2024 by patrickcolpron
Them people...

[Eoin]

I prefer M and the modern Leica Summilux lenses as daily tools.
On the M8 at the time, the Summilux 35 ASPH pre FLE suffered from focus shift.
The 35 FLE on the M10 was perfectly focusing, bokeh wasn't quite as smooth, but I like the colour and bite in the outlines.

I’ve no issue with size, the 35 Summilux FLE v1 is my smallest and lightest lens by far. Perhaps my most versatile.
There is no bang for the buck in M mount with Leica’s name on it. Prices are insane. Yet it somehow just feels right in every way.

The image is the image, it is either a snap for a happy memory, documentary, Artistic, but ultimately, a photo of a time past.
Don’t over think it, choose your poison, FLE v1 is my suggestion if not buying new. €3k max 2nd hand.