philip_pj
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The 35/2 Distagon does punch above its weight and it's a fine lens. But MTF does not lie.
The situation is far more extreme when you look at the nearest competition: the new Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH, to give it its full name. First, price: $8,295 against this CV lens at $949. Both are 'temporarily out of stock' at B&H, read into that what you will.
Cosina understand people want fine detail so they use 30lpmm in MTF rather than the 20lpmm and 40lpmm Leica use (out of 5-10-20-40). So, in the graph above for f4 you can quite accurately interpolate halfway between the top line pair and the second from top line pair (10+30)/2=20lpmm). Compare that with the Leica lens at 20lpmm shown below and you can see there is nothing between these two. Except that the Leica graph is for f5.6, and the Cosina graph is taken at f4. The M lens design is 'centre-weighted' so it's not intended for landscapes and I would not use one at f2-f2.8 for that purpose - too much drop-off of quality in outer frames.
The CV 35/2 is a better lens for critical mid-aperture work, all other things being equal. Leica made a very big deal out of the MFD of their 35/2 APO being 0.30m; the CV lens is 0.35m. I honestly think Cosina is sandbagging its APO lenses for EVF cameras so as to use the same design for M cameras. If they used a Sony/Otus level of complexity they would no longer be able to hide their expertise.
The GM 35/1.4 is a very modern 14/10 design, the Cosina lens is an 11/9, the Leica a radical 10/5 design to keep it small, but it's only 30 grams lighter than the Voigt 35/2 E. I won't even mention Cosina's recent breakthrough, the GA technology used in the 50/1, but I just did; let's hope it finds its way into future, more mainstream optics. A 28/2 APO would be a sensation because you could use wider apertures for images like the one of mine just above, which was taken at f10 and still retains excellent qualities.
Round apertures at f2.8, f5.6 and f16 plus IBIS would make a 28/2 APO an instant street competitor for the fixed lens cameras too (Q3). Does Leica own some share of Cosina? Most companies do the very best they can manage. And also, these people have the inside information of the Otus series that they themselves made.
Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH at f5.6 (5-10-20-40lpmm)
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