People are going to differ, but the images coming from the ZM and the Lux have appreciably more pop, contrast and depth to me, and you can feel and see it. You can obviously get great photos with them all. Interestingly, I do wonder how many will prefer this over the 35/1.7–beyond ergo, not really a clear cut winner I think.
I ended up swapping mine out for a 35 Lux FLE last week. The images have more juice, but I am still not settled on a single fast M 35mm option. I think overall I’d settle for:
- ZM 35/1.4 best technical IQ with tons of pop, gorgeous color and spacial separation. Love the images. Reasonable price.
- 35 Lux is like the ZM with its high microcontrast and resolution WO across most the frame with some pleasant personality (structured draw) and Leica colors and better ergo/size. Horrible price.
- CV 35/2, smaller, similar IQ at f2 (but no midzone dip) but with a different structured (busier) draw with more personality. Great daily lens IMO. So cheap now used and great ergo.
- CV 35/1.7 quite sharp, great flare resistance, smooth rendering, never loved the ergo or colors.
- CV 35/1.5 smooth centrally and in most situations, good color/contrast, perfect ergo, wonderful size and stellar flare resistance and MFD, LoCal noticeable, midzone softer, high optical vignetting, not seeing the highest microcontrast. Probably the best option for the majority.
- CV 35/1.2iii - would rather use a ZM 35/1.4, 35 Lux, CV 35/2 Ultron or CV 35/1.5 unless I really needed 1.2
- The Leica 35 APO is silly price to me, and I’d prefer the ZM 35/1.4 to the CV 35/2 APO given the APO’s size
