On the M7, the 35 Cron provided a great general, all-around lens. I liked the FOV but at the time, I just wanted more shallow DOF, so I sold it for a 35 Lux which was gorgeous on the M7.

ON THE M8 AND M8.2

On the Leica M8, the 35 Summicron becomes more like a 47mm due to the 1.3 crop factor of the smaller than full frame sensor. You no longer get the wider view, which after shooting with it on FF, you kind of miss that. I never really bonded with the M8 and 35 Cron combo partly because I seemed to prefer a wider view than 47mm for an everyday lens. But, during my time with the M8 and 35 cron, I really could not complain. It never gave me bad results.

Here is a shot where the 35 seemed to give me quite a bit of blur in the background. This was at F2 while my Mother was driving. M8 at F and ISO 160.

This was taken a couple of years ago with the M8 at F2.8 and yes we were both spinning and man was I dizzy.

This is a shot I took of my mother while she was talking to my wife. I was testing the cron and the M8 at ISO 1250 and F2. Not bad for M8 ISO 1250.

My thoughts when I shot this lens on the M8 is that it was crisp, sharp, had great color (though the samples here are all B&W, the color is terrific) and had no flaws. If you are someone who likes shooting around 50mm, the 35 Summicron on an M8 is actually a fantastic combo. With the M8, I ended up with the Summilux, but looking back I can say I had great results with the 35 Summicron. It will give you more detail, contrast, and sharpness and it has ZERO focus shift, which is an issue with the 35 Summilux. But you will lose that 1.4 magic that you get with the Lux.

There have been rumors that Leica is working on a new version of the 35 Summilux ASPH, which would solve the focus shift issue. If this is true, I expect it to come in at around $5k or almost double the cost of the cron, so no way I will be able to afford one if this indeed turns out to be true.

Click here to go to page 2: Full size out of camera samples with the 35 Cron and M9.

THE LEICA 35 SUMMICRON LENS REVIEW

PAGE 1 - The Legendary 35 Cron with the Leica M7 and M8.

PAGE 2 - Some full size out of camera samples with the Leica M9.

PAGE 3 - More of my M9 and 35 Summicron processed samples.

PAGE 4 - My final thoughts and opinions. Is this THE 35 to get with a Leica M9?

PAGE 1 - THE LEGENDARY 35 SUMMICRON ARRIVES

Are you ready to hear me go GA-GA over yet another Leica lens? Well, I am not sure what has taken me so long to write about the Leica 35 Summicron ASPH, as it is really one of the legendary Leica lenses. I have even owned it twice in the past 6 years! It has been around in one form or another since 1958 and today exists as an Aspherical version that is just about perfect at all apertures in regards to sharpness and lack of distortion.

I have shot this lens over the years on the Leica M7, the Leica M8, and now, the Leica M9. I have to admit, on the M8/M8.2, I was never a big fan of the 35 Summicron. Yea, I liked the lens, but I preferred the larger and faster 35 Summilux on my M8 (see that review here) for its dreamy, creamy, delicious look it gave to my images.

The main issue with a 35mm on the M8/M8.2 is that it becomes a 47mm so you are not getting the true FOV of a 35mm lens. To those who have been shooting a 35 on an M8... I will tell you now that you are in for a treat when and if you switch to an M9 as it is a whole new world.

Now that I own my own M9 (and I LoooOOOVE my M9), this 35 has become a REAL 35, and man, a real 35 is pretty wide when you are used to shooting it as a 50 (on the M8)! On the M9, my prized 35 Summilux did not seem as great as it was on my M8. When Leica dealer Ken Hansen sent me a 35 Summicron to test out with my M9, I knew there would be trouble ahead for my Lux.

Let me be clear, though. I love the 35 Summilux ASPH lens. On my M8.2, it was phenomenal at 1.4 and soft at 2.8-5.6. On the M9, it was soft at 1.4 through 5.6 so I decided to skip the headaches with focus shift and check out the Summicron on full frame.

When I first twisted the 35 Cron on to my beautiful M9 body, I instantly loved the size of the lens. It seemed much smaller than my Lux and the camera with the 35 Summicron just looked like a match made in heaven. After shooting with the 35 Summillux for so long, I forgot just how compact the Summicron is.

But looks are not everything and I was not sure if this lens would have the “magic” of the Summilux. I knew on the M8 it was sharp and contrasty, but I never really saw any of that beautiful glow and bokeh that I got from my Lux. Again, this was on the M8.

When I started shooting it on my M9, I was pleasantly surprised. From F2 on down, this lens was as sharp as any lens I have ever shot with. It reminded me a bit of the 28 Elmarit on the M8, but with a faster F2 aperture, and due to that, a more beautiful and smooth look.

As I shot it more and more (about 2 weeks), I realized that on the M9 I preferred this Summicron! It was pretty much perfection in a 35mm. But as I have said in previous reviews, just because a lens is super sharp does not mean it will make magical photos. Hell, some of my favorite images are not even close to being sharp! I wanted to see if the Summicron had the things I look for in a lens, like character and the way it renders an image. How is the Bokeh? Is it too sharp?

Before I get going into the details, here are a couple of shots of this gorgeous lens. BTW, it’s the lens to the right of the camera. My black paint 50 lux pre-asph looks so good on the camera, I had to leave it on :)

As you can see, this lens is pretty small and the lens hood is compact, unlike the one on the 35 Summilux, which is gargantuan. It’s such a nice looking and feeling lens and its aperture ring is solid, but smooth. Its focus is smooth, and one of the smoothest Leica lenses I have owned. The smoothest focusing Leica lens I have ever owned was the 75 Summarit (see review here).

So the lens looks good, it feels good, and from my first shots, appears to be a perfect mate for a  Leica M9. But while this review will mainly focus on this lens with an M9, I will also include some thoughts and samples from the M7 and M8 as well! As usual, this is a real world use review and not a tech head review filled with charts and graphs.

If you have not read my site before, I like to talk about how a certain camera or lens performs when they are used for what they are made for, which is taking a photograph. What an idea! A lens review without a single graph or chart! Fun ,fun...so let’s get started!

THE 35 SUMMICRON ON FILM WITH A LEICA M7

A few years ago, I bought this lens brand new from B&H Photo after I bought a Leica M7 kit with a 50 Summicron. B&H sells this lens in black or chrome (chrome version is very nice) and I bought the black to go with my then black M7. I remember shooting with it back then and not being 100% happy.

Why? Well, besides being stupid and not realizing how good this lens was, I was shooting with my very first rangefinder camera ever and I was craving that creamy shallow depth of field I saw from lenses like the Noctilux. On film, I found the 35 Summicron to be sharp and crisp with great contrast. I mostly shot this lens with Tri-X B&W film. Now that I look back at some shots with the lens on the M7, I am not sure what I was thinking. It did great and provides that “Leica Look” with great detail, contrast, and bokeh. Here are a couple of images I snapped while taking a train ride.