35mm Recommendation

[DanielDuarte]

Hey all, would love your two cents. As my pictures have evolved I've found myself leaving the wide side of the spectrum.

I just sold my 35mm Cron ASPH for two reasons.

1.) % wise it wasn't used enough.

2.) My logic told me that this focal length is my psyche holding on to some remnants of landscape work, but since I almost never shot the lens wide open was a lens with the purity of the 35 CRON worth keeping if I always stop down for f8 or thereabouts.

"If you're just going to stop down anyway" what lenses would you recommend when you'd rather spend more of your budget on other lenses but don't want to a lose a focal length all together.

 

[Nick R.]

I just got rid of my 35mm because I wasn't using it. I find that a 50 and 24 cover my needs. I crop the 24 when I have to.

 

[kkdanamatt]

If you can find a nice 35/2.8 Summaron at a reasonable price, I would not hesitate buying it. Stopped down, it's as good as the Summicron.

 

[presspass]

There's also the ZI 2.8 Biogon, a truly marvelous lens. It's a little big for its f-stop, larger than the Summicron. The smaller CV lenses have also been widely praised, but I have not used them myself. The same goes for the Summaron. If you want small, very retro, look at a LTM Elmar. Not widely praised, but the one I have works well, despite the fiddly f-stop setup. At f 8 or so, it's marvelous, and is still respectable wide open. Be sure to get the hood - it's not terribly expensive, but it does prevent some flare. Another plus is that they are very available and not expensive. Obviously, you will need an LTM/M adapter.

 

[ferider]

Try the color skopar. You'll be surprised how close it comes to the Summicron that you sold. My favorite version is the second LTM version, tiny, easy to code, etc.

 

[edge100]

If you can find a nice 35/2.8 Summaron at a reasonable price, I would not hesitate buying it. Stopped down, it's as good as the Summicron.

I was just about to say this. I had the M3 (i.e. goggles) version and it was a wonderful lens.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I can't afford Canadian 35 Lux, which I'm interested to use at f5.6-f8.

And here are my two rubles:
Wider aperture is handy option with comes with extra price.
It doesn't matter if lens is fast or slow if you tend to use it on middle apertures. It is the rendering of the lens on the apertures you use most, which is matter.

Summaron 35 2.8 is great for BW, Summicron v1 is very interesting in rendering. Ultron 35 in both mounts is high class lens. Personally (after having of two Color Skopars), I prefer Summarit-M 35 2.5.

 

[David Hughes]

If you can find a nice 35/2.8 Summaron at a reasonable price, I would not hesitate buying it. Stopped down, it's as good as the Summicron.

Another of its fans here...

 

[michaelwj]

I second ferider's choice: the CV color skopar - little, low distortion, frees up a lot of $, modern coatings, high contrast. If you're stopping down, anything else is just because you would prefer a leica or zeiss "rendering".

 

[Richard G]

Rendering, with size less important, the ZM C Biogon is wonderful. And the Zeiss bayonet fit hoods are very nice. Doesn't flare.

 

[Vincent.G]

I sold away my 35 cron asph recently too. It's a focal length I went for when I wasn't so sure what I liked. 35mm is good for general street snaps too. However I like the 21 and 50 nowadays.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Another vote for the Color Skopar. I've also had a couple of Summarons and the Color Skopar was better in every way than either of them. Then again my other 35mm is a Summilux (last pre-aspheric) and I sold a Summicron because although it was better than the Summilux at f/2 to f/5.6, at f/5.6 and smaller the Summilux was just as good and at f/1.4 the Summilux is a LOT better.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Jerevan]

Color Skopar - thats where it is.

I have the Summaron 35 and I like its haptics and I think I perhaps prefer it in the long run, but I have a hard time getting myself to sell the Skopar - it's such a gem of a lens.

What buggers me with the Skopar is the f:2.5 (why not just 2.8 and be done with it) and that it might be a bit on the small side. On the upside, the hood is very well thought out, the focus action is snappy (short throw), the tabs for setting the aperture are well placed and the photographs have a crsipness that I like.

It could well be that the Summaron draws the shorter straw in the end. 😀

 

[Nick R.]

Hmm, the 35 color skopar is the lens I got rid of.

 

[michaelwj]

Hmm, the 35 color skopar is the lens I got rid of.

Me too 😱 But it's still an excellent lens stopped down.

 

[tuanvinh2000]

35mm ultron ltm. it has 39mm filter small and feel like a f2 lens to me. nice round rendering. i like its mechanics than the skopar M i tried (very loose aperture ring on the skopar). the only limit is 0.9 minimum focus distance.

 

[Rob-F]

If you can find a nice 35/2.8 Summaron at a reasonable price, I would not hesitate buying it. Stopped down, it's as good as the Summicron.

Try the color skopar. You'll be surprised how close it comes to the Summicron that you sold. My favorite version is the second LTM version, tiny, easy to code, etc.

These two came immediately to mind when I read the question. I have them both, and can recommend them!

 

[k__43]

Summarit or Color Skopar for the real bargain
I was no big fan of the Summaron to be honest.

 

[Bille]

"If you're just going to stop down anyway" what lenses would you recommend when you'd rather spend more of your budget on other lenses but don't want to a lose a focal length all together.

Stopped down they all look the same. Get the cheapest halfway modern M mount lens you can find. Or simply skip 35mm and crop from 28 or whatever wide you have.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Stopped down they all look the same. Get the cheapest halfway modern M mount lens you can find. Or simply skip 35mm and crop from 28 or whatever wide you have.

Interesting comment! To me all lenses are hard to distinguish if photos are taken on color film.
But. I have taken bw pictures with Summaron 35 3.5, Summarit-M 35 2.5, Color Skopar 35 2.5 and Jupiter-12 35 2.8. The difference is visible anywhere from 5.6 to 22. Scans and Prints.