REVIEWS - Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH #11874

OVERVIEW

Since the Leica M9 days, a 35mm lens has been the anchor lens for my M kit. From a technical standpoint, I marvel at Leica's ability to package excellent optical performance and a fast aperture into a lens about the size of a kiwi fruit. While the 35mm Lux’s tiny size amazes me, alot more was going on during these early M9 days. My shooting style was also changing. I was starting to include more background in the images to give some context. There was less F1.4 and more F5.6 and F8. ISO performance was improving, so more low-light pictures too.

While the Leica 35mm ‘Lux ASPH has since been replaced (in my kit) by the Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH FLE, regardless of which 35mm 'Lux, nowadays I cannot imagine my M kit without a 35mm 'Lux. The 35mm Summilux is the cornerstone of the 35-75-135 trio.

BUILD QUALITY

Excluding different colors and special editions, there have been essentially four generations of the Leica 35mm Summilux-M -

The first generation is soft at F1.4, sometimes nostalgically referred to as the "Leica Glow". The second generation added TWO aspherical elements and is sometimes referred to as the AA. It is a very pricey used lens; Leica supposedly discontinued the AA quickly due to production costs. The AA was replaced by the third generation which is pretty sharp wide open, but often cited as having focus shift. And finally we have the fourth generation "FLE" which added a floating element to address the focus shift. The FLE generation is exceptionally sharp at F1.4. This review is for the third generation.

In comparison to a traditional F1.4 35mm SLR lens, the Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux ASPH M is minuscule, weighing a mere 9 ounces. The barrel and mount are metal, the focus and aperture rings sport finally machined knurling, markings are engraved and hand painted, tolerances are tight, focus is silky smooth. The build quality is excellent, which is table stakes for any Leica lens.

Compared to Leica's current screw-in metal lens hoods, the Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH's plastic lens is a bit coarse. There are two slots on the lens to guide where the lens hood should slide in place, then a ring at the base of the lens rotates about 30º to lock the hood in place. Attaching the lens hood is easy, but not really something you would to take on and off the lens on a daily basis. The lens hood includes a hood cap to protect the front element.

HANDLING

The lens hood does partially obstruct the viewfinder, but there is a cut-out. The image below shows approximately how much of the hood is visible on the Leica M8.2’s 35mm framelines -

Viewfinder Blockage Approximation on a Leica M8.2

The 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH is a “tabbed” lens, meaning it has the ergonomic lever (tab) on the focus ring. I love focus tabs. With the focus tab a can quickly determine by touch if a lens is focused at the near or far end of its range. Also, with compact lenses the focus rings are not very wide, so the focus tab is a quick way to find the focus ring and adjust focus.

The Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH epitomizes what I like about Leica M gear - a high performance compact lens with manual controls that feel great, like the ultra smooth and nicely dampened focus ring. The lens is light and I can carry the M and the 35mm Lux all day and never be bothered by the size or weight. The refined tactile experience adds to my overall enjoyment when using the lens. It just feels like how a camera should feel.

PERFORMANCE

My performance reviews are anecdotal - I buy a lens, shoot with it for a couple years and write about that experience -

• Sharpness:  Wide open sharpness is very good. Not quite as sharp as the Leica 50mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH, but after shooting many portraits and landscapes across the F-stop range, I have zero concerns about sharpness. If wanting the utmost in wide open sharpness (for a 35mm F1.4), look into the Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH FLE.
• Chromatic Aberrations:  There is some minor coma and color fringing at the extreme corners of the frame (on the M9) at F1.4, but it is minor and radically better than the Canon 35L. I am not experiencing any purple fringing in the focus plane (the DNGs are being processed in Phase One’s C1 software).
• Contrast:  Generally the shadows are open with good detail and the highlights do not blow out easily (my Canon 85L II would clip highlights very easily for some reason). Overall I am pleased with the contrast rendering, it is not heavy handed like the Canon 35L.
• Color:  The Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH's color is somewhat muted compared to Leica's more modern lenses such as the Leica 21mm F3.4 Super-Elmar M ASPH, Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH FLE and Leica 50mm F.95 Noctilux-M ASPH. Leica's latest lenses have more contrast, saturation or vibrance in their colors. The difference is not huge, but it is there.
• Focus Shift:  Focus shift is a legitimate concern. My lens is optimized for F2 at 1 meter, so any effect focus shift has at F1.4 and F2.8 has been negligible. Likewise, F5.6 and up have been a non-issue because depth of field tends to hide the focus shift. F4 is the danger-zone on MY lens. At F4 the keeper-rate has been questionable, so I avoid F4.

The bokeh can be smooth, but depends heavily on the background and the background distance relative to the focus plane. Overall the 35mm Lux’s bokeh has surpassed my expectations which is pleasantly surprising given that it is a relatively wide-angle lens. The Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M FLE is generally considered to have "busier" bokeh, but as the example below illustrates, both lenses are challenged with a busy background -

There is alot of double image bokeh (nisen bokeh) going on in both images, and neither lens is a bokeh rock star in those images.

CONCLUSION

The Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH (pre-FLE) served me well for several years, but ultimately I did change over to its replacement, the Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH FLE. Initially I felt the FLE's bokeh was harsher; however, in "real world" use the FLE's bokeh proved fine and has not bit me in 7+ years of use.

The Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH is still a wonderful lens, but I like the FLE version better. The FLE's wide open sharpness is amazingly good (in my opinion) and I like not having to worry about focus shift. Simply put, I just feel more confident with the newer FLE version. Either way, they are both great 35mm Summilux's, but if your budget allows for the FLE version, the Leica 35mm F1.4 Summilux-M ASPH FLE would be my recommendation.