I've been planning for a while to make a formal comparative test of my four 35mm prime lenses and I finally got around to it today.

The lenses are:
1) Leica 35mm f/1.4 Summilux ASPH ("Lux35")
2) Zeiss 35mm f/2 Biogon ZM ("ZM35/2")
3) Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon Rollei ("ZR35/1.4)
4) Zeiss 35mm f/2 Distagon ZE ("ZE35/2")

(the lenses are always enumerated the same way which you'll see in the test image name)

The first two lenses were used on a Leica M9 and the last two on a Canon 5DII.
Mixing two camera systems was more complicated than I thought as:

1) Getting the same framing was difficult as the M9 and 5DII have different dimensions so just switching cameras on the tripod resulted in shifts in the framing.
2) Colors are different
3) White balance is different when set manually

I tried to work around those problems as best I could, but they are a source of variation between the shots - a lot in some and less in others.

Ok, the results. Open the images in separate tabs in your browser and flip between them.

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Scene A:

somebody please loan this man the new 35 1.4 when it comes out!

thanks for taking the time to compare these =)

@Denoir-after taking a good look at your work at your website, you are doing some SUPERB photography. The very fact your are making exquisite use of these tools allows me to give a lot more credence to any conclusions you have to make about any set of lenses. For that I thank you.

In all honesty, if you had posted a bunch of poorly lit cat and dog photos to make your point, I probably not have given your website a close look, which would have been my loss, since I always enjoy looking at top notch practioneers in this field. Bravo!

The Lux35 on M9 is amazing, at F2 it makes the ZM looks like a Canon! On the other hand, your perfect frame matching make its distortion quite obvious when compared with ZM. Wish you have more F4-5.6 shot comparison with the ZM as it is at its sweet spot.

As an aside - per your images, even the 35 Summilux causes red edges on the M9?
For $12,000 US....

Thank you for the comparison, though.

Thank you for the kind words anscochrome!

@Aleksander, here are two ZM35 vs Lux samples that I posted in another thread:

Both @ f/2:

35 Lux @ f/2
35 ZM @ f/2

Both @ f/5.6 (I focus bracketed four shots per lens and picked the sharpest):

35 Lux @ f/5.6
35 ZM @ f/5.6

100% crop of the f/5.6 set:

thanks for the effort denoir. I thought you had a Sony NEX? Even though it's a crop it would eliminate some factors and leave the lenses to do the work.

Nope, never used a NEX. Yes, with a cropper you can avoid some problems at the edges, but at the same time you lose the really good stuff at the edges as well. When using good lenses, especially wides and ultra wides the lenses there is no substitute for FF.

That Biogon is great... it's a shame about the magenta corners. I didn't realize the Summilux had so much distortion, but I guess it only stands out when compared to the very low distortion from the Biogon.

All we need to add now are the 'Cron-M ASPH and the 35L.

It's hard to beat a non-retrofocus design (e.g. rangefinder lenses). Thanks for the comparison.

Excellent stuff Luka!

Very helpful examination. Thank you for your effort, Luka.

The 35Lux looks nice and bright wide open too but I agree about the overall rendering of the Zeiss 35/1.4 is more pleasing to the eye (for me that is).

Luka, MANY inspiring shots on the slide show on your web site. Wow

JP

I know Cornerfix can clean up the files - my buddy gave me a half-hour tutorial once...I was chagrined though, to see such a marked problem. My point was more along the lines of "people accept this from a twelve-thousand dollar setup?" :/

I agree with you, about edges containing "good stuff"...it's a pity to lose it on cropping, sometimes.

(even with red edges, I wish I had your setup, the delicious street images that could be taken here...)

Nice!

I would have loved to see other brands included as well.

Especially Nikkor and Rokkor.

Thanks for the comparison. Very nicely done.

My Rollei/Zeiss 35/1.4 seems to do much better at the edge of the frame, at f/5.6. Could it be an adapter issue? I use the hard to find Kindai adapter.

The Rollei/Zeiss is the only one being used with an adapter, so it may be at a disadvantage

Awesome stuff luka!
KL

Excellent. Thanks. And as always, great shots.