carstenw
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 p.109 #15 · Leica M/X/T/S/Q/CL/SL Picture Thread | |
Luka, as Joe and Daniel have pointed out, the first 35Lux was labelled "Aspherical", whereas every Leica lens with aspherical elements since then has been labelled "ASPH.". The first one has a design very close to the second one, almost identical, but as Daniel pointed out, the aspherical elements were hand-ground, and even brand-new, it was unusually expensive. Now it makes no sense unless money has little value and a great presence in your life 
Because of the hand-ground elements, there was also a greater than usual variance in the results, which is the second reason why the second version was designed, the first being cost. The legend goes that if you find a good Aspherical, it is better than the ASPH, but all comparisons I have seen (which is admittedly very few), show that the higher consistency of the ASPH I beats out the Aspherical slightly, in all areas.
In the last few years, pretty much every 35 Lux ASPH I I have tried or have seen tests of has shown non-trivial focus shift. Tim Ashley over on l-camera-forum was the first to document it carefully, and he unfortunately received a fair amount of flack from a number of people who had owned them for years and never noticed. I went to the Leica store here (Meister Camera Berlin) and tried the new one on their shelf, and it showed dramatic focus shift. The sales staff had heard of it in the internet, but had never seen it, and their faces dropped when I was able to provoke it with ease. I just put my M8 on a tripod, focused on a specific object at about 1.5m and took two shots, one at f/1.4 and one at f/4. The one at f/1.4 was sharp, the one at f/4 was quite unsharp, as in unusable. It is apparently possible to make a small focus tweak to compensate, but the learning curve would be rather steep for getting it exactly right at all distances.
There are good copies of the 35 Lux ASPH out there, and they tend to be either a little older, or the chrome or titanium versions, which are made from brass rather than aluminium alloy. It is a rather good lens if you can find one. I have a chrome copy myself, with almost no focus shift, if any, and treasure it on my M8, where it is my most used lens. 35mm isn't really my focal length though, so once I get an M9 or M10, I might sell it and invest elsewhere. 21/28/50/90 is for me perfect. I might invest in a 21 Lux, or just get the 21 Elmarit ASPH or the ZM21. I haven't decided yet.
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No, Charles, I'm currently leaning towards not getting it. As it has turned up in stock here in Sweden it's reasonable to assume that the Leica carrier pigeons will reach Australia soon. It's very likely I'll be enjoying your 35 Lux shots much sooner than the other way around 
