RexGig0 wrote:
Not that I am a candidate for spending ~$9K US for a lens, anytime soon, but, I had wondered when supply would finally catch-up with demand.
The made the 1 copy that 1 guy was waiting for! Caught up!
It's nice that B&H has it in stock now, but I've seen them in stock in other stores.
I know about a dozen people who've got them, and have shot with three of those lenses. It's a great lens and while I am fully in agreement with Sean Reid's assessment of the lens, to me its major superiority over its nearest competitors is its size and ergonomics which in my case doesn't justify the price differential.
It's definitely expensive, but the Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH offers the ultimate image quality in a compact option. There are other choices, like the Voigtlander 35/2 APO-Lanthar and the Zeiss 35/1.4 ZM, which offer outstanding resolution and contrast. However, they are significantly larger and heavier. Leica managed to design the 35/2 APO to be small and compact.
I wish Cosina would try to make the current APO just as small without compromising quality. If that's not possible without adding pricey special elements and pushing the price too high, perhaps they could opt for a slightly slower aperture, like a 35/2.8 APO-Lanthar. I prefer small lenses on the M body for portability and frameline clearance.
I wanted to compare it to the Voigtlander 35mm f/2 APO-Lanthar when I wrote the review back in 2021, but I never had a chance to get one.
Long time coming! Hope this is the beginning of a reasonably reliable supply of this extra special M lens. I hope you get a chance to test and compare and post your results for the rest of us 😎
LBJ2 wrote:
I hope you get a chance to test and compare and post your results for the rest of us 😎
+1
I also agree it would be nice to see Cosina create a few higher-end, high optical performance, compact lenses to exploit the massive gap between their current ~$1000 offerings and Leica's average price point.
Fred Miranda wrote:
It's definitely expensive, but the Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH offers the ultimate image quality in a compact option. There are other choices, like the Voigtlander 35/2 APO-Lanthar and the Zeiss 35/1.4 ZM, which offer outstanding resolution and contrast. However, they are significantly larger and heavier. Leica managed to design the 35/2 APO to be small and compact.
I wish Cosina would try to make the current APO just as small without compromising quality. If that's not possible without adding pricey special elements and pushing the price too high, perhaps they could opt for a slightly slower aperture, like a 35/2.8 APO-Lanthar. I prefer small lenses on the M body for portability and frameline clearance....Show more →
The idea of a smaller, slower, high-performing APO-Lanthar 35 may be on their minds, if the 50/3.5 sells well. There are never enough 35s and 50s, after all.
It seems technical perfection, is no longer the be all and end all for a good proportion of active Leica shooters. The artistically 'flawed' Summilux steel rim and similar classic designs look to be getting far more attention than the APO-Summicron and APO-Lanthar.
Henning wrote:
It's nice that B&H has it in stock now, but I've seen them in stock in other stores.
I know about a dozen people who've got them, and have shot with three of those lenses. It's a great lens and while I am fully in agreement with Sean Reid's assessment of the lens, to me its major superiority over its nearest competitors is its size and ergonomics which in my case doesn't justify the price differential.
But that's the thing. Size and ergonomics costs. Large Marge at the cafeteria can flip a burger just as well as Sydney Sweeney, but Sydney for some reason is a much more expensive date. If you can even get a date.
I also agree it would be nice to see Cosina create a few higher-end, high optical performance, compact lenses to exploit the massive gap between their current ~$1000 offerings and Leica's average price point.
Let’s hope Cosina is better at centering their lenses on the production line than Leica is with the 35 APO-M. The Leica has some pretty extreme tolerances. I think Cosina is getting around this with small APOs by raising the max aperture as well as having a more simple mechanism for their 0.7m bumps.
There are not many 10/5 lenses equipped with four asph surfaces and six elements of APD glass. Two asph elements are part of cemented doublets. This lens has three doublets and a triplet. Just one element sits alone, (the rearmost) which does double duty as part of a floating element group.
It is heavier than the APO-Lanthar competitor - 320 grams to 304 grams. It looks like Cosina worked on minimising weight of the VM A/L, knowing it would have a small impact on the design's f2 performance.
The constant refinement of their own glass is now paying off for Cosina in the tiny and startling lenses they are currently producing. A version two of the APO-Lanthar 35/2 may be quite a different lens to the current one. It's only been out since March 2021.
rollei35_warton wrote:
It’s always in stock in Canada and Hongkong.
I recently gave up on big names in US like adorama and BH.
What's your preferred Canadian source?
Fred Miranda wrote:
It didn't last. It's already backordered!
Desmolicious wrote:
That’s what happens when they only get one lens.
Hopefully it was an affiliate sale.
FrozenInTime wrote:
It seems technical perfection, is no longer the be all and end all for a good proportion of active Leica shooters. The artistically 'flawed' Summilux steel rim and similar classic designs look to be getting far more attention than the APO-Summicron and APO-Lanthar.
Some of this may be due to the 35 Cron AA being unobtainium. Whether never in stock or beyond the budget of most. If I was building a 'perfect' M lens kit, the Cron would be in it and the VM would not (due to size and bokeh characteristics at certain distances). But the reality is that there are a lot of good 35s to pick from and the differences stopped down likely are not significant.
IMO this lens is like the 75 Nocti and 90 Lux - a statement piece to show off what Leica can do if they really want to without normal cost constraints. To prove that the Leica mythos is quantifiable and isn't the chimera that many Leica detractors claim. And because it's Leica, there are customers who will buy these because they are the best (most technically perfect) lenses Leica makes. But of these statement lenses, the 35 Cron AA is the closest to the traditional M system philosophy, along with the 50 AA, because of the focus on small size to complement the M's rangefinder-first priority. Whether many can consistently maximize that performance gain by perfect focus placement on the intended subject via rangefinder focusing, is another matter, though the 35 should be the easiest of the bunch.
I agree that use of the M system should not prioritize sharpness above all, rather immersion in the environment with 'focus' on timing the critical moment, above all else. For that one does not need perfect focus, or the sharpest lens.
FrozenInTime wrote:
It seems technical perfection, is no longer the be all and end all for a good proportion of active Leica shooters. The artistically 'flawed' Summilux steel rim and similar classic designs look to be getting far more attention than the APO-Summicron and APO-Lanthar.
Mostly because the APO cron is so hard to acquire - both in terms of price and availability. The size of the APO-Lanthar is a show stopper for many.
For a fan of 35mm, having both the 35 APO cron and the steel rim is a pretty great combination. Having used the 35 APO cron for a bit now, it's a wonderful lens in general and ideally suited to shooting with a rangefinder. Perfect ergonomics and very easy to focus. The ergonomics of the steel rim are much more fussy in comparison, but worth it for the look.
I've had my 35 APO for nearly two years - I somehow got lucky. it's such a small, clear, colorful and contrast-y lens and the close-focus with live view is great functionality, finally in the land of Leica.
At some point the used market will be a reasonable place to get one for sure.
(by then there will be another lens people are chasing...)
I mentioned in another thread --- a year ago Sept, I purchased one from a dealer and it was horribly de-centered. They were good about taking it back but it took about 4 months to get a replacement. The second one was fine
