
Review Summary
2013-03-19T21:00:00
This lens is a terrific starter lens. The 35 mm focal length gives you a great deal of versatility. You can shoot street scenes and landscapes with equal ease. As far as Leica lenses go this one is relatively speaking one of their "budget" lenses but you get a good deal of quality with it. I preferred it to my Zeiss 35 mm Biogon which I had owned for a longer period of time. It is low profile, lightweight and will allow you to stay within a wife friendly budget after also purchasing that new Leica M camera. However, I had returned this lens in after two weeks of shooting. There were two reasons. The first was that I am no longer shooting at a 35 mm focal length. I was cropping every single photos in post. The second was the mighty 50 mm Summicron was within reach so I brought this back to Adorama and exchanged it.
Jason P.
Summarit-M 35mm/F2.5
Number of lens elements: 6 / Number of Groups: 4
9
31.5 inches (0.8 m)
E39
M
Yes
Yes
1.3 inches (34 mm)
2.0 inches (51.4 mm)
7.8 oz (220 g)
Cloth
Leica 2-Year

Three pro-fashion photographers provide their hands-on views of this demanding, but rewarding genre with up-and-comers sage advice on breaking into this highly competitive field

All photography can rise to the level of fine art, but the lenses you choose can give you a real creative edge.

You don’t have to spend two grand or (much) more for a bona-fide Leica lens. Does Leica’s new lineup of f/2.5 Summarit-M lenses deliver true Leica performance?


A pretty good lens
By Jason P.
This lens is a terrific starter lens. The 35 mm focal length gives you a great deal of versatility. You can shoot street scenes and landscapes with equal ease. As far as Leica lenses go this one is relatively speaking one of their "budget" lenses but you get a good deal of quality with it. I preferred it to my Zeiss 35 mm Biogon which I had owned for a longer period of time. It is low profile, lightweight and will allow you to stay within a wife friendly budget after also purchasing that new ...
View full Review
The Summarit-M lenses are designed to offer traditional Leica optical and mechanical excellence while positioned at a price level below the current M ASPH lenses. The aim of these lenses is to bring classic Leica quality and performance to a broader market of users.
The Summarit-M maximum aperture of f/2.5 and the concentration on classical and proven spherical lens designs leads to very compact, but high performance lenses with excellent quality expected from a Leica lens.
The Summarit-M lenses will see the reemergence of traditional Leica elements. All letter and number engravings will be made using the traditional "Leitz-Norm" font as originally used by Leitz Wetzlar during the 1960's and the red button onthe lens mount will be true to the original color used on lenses produced since the introduction of the M mount through the 1970's.