A lucky owner of Elmar 35mm

[Krnome]

Hello! This arrived in the mail to today! A Birthday and Christmas Eve on same time!

Leitz Elmar 35mm Prewar lens used in action during WWII by the grandfather of the seller. It was used to on a 1937 Leica IIIa during the war. The lens was also used to take pictures of a shattered Berlin just after the war ended. The lens has not been used since the 60s, it has been storaged in nearly 50 years.
The seller tested the lens before he put it out on sale. It's in good working order according to the seller.

Now, I have mounted it on my Leica II ready to shoot a roll of Portar 160 🙂

Following included:
Leitz Film Canisters
First version of Fikus Lenshood
Color Filters

 

[rgeorge911]

Beautiful!

Beautiful!

That is my "Whole Lotta Leica" lens for this month - quite a coincidence.

http://dmc-365.blogspot.com/2013/12/wrapping-up-lotta-leica-december-lens.html

I'll be shooting mine on the M9, hopefully this weekend.

It's such a tiny lens. I have not used mine much in the past, so look forward to seeing what it can do!

Reed
Blog: DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

[Luddite Frank]

I have the 1940 version of this lens. It is in my "daily-shooter" LTM kit, and for the most part was my everyday lens until I got a digi-cam for every-day snap-shots.

Slightly prone to flare, and vignetting (if you're using the FIKUS, check frequently to make sure that the telescoping shade is pushed-back all the way - they can creep-forward...), but not a bad lens, overall.

I was generally more pleased with the sharpness f4rom my Elmar 35 than I am / was with my LTM Canon 35/1.8.


Please share some pics from yours !

LF

 

[Krnome]

Allright! Thanks for both inputs. I sure will post some pics in the nearest future.

Any opinions on what kind of viewfinder which is best for 35mm? I have the silverplated VIDOM viewfinder which is bigger than the lens. How about the WEISU? It's very expensive!

Merry Christmas 🙂

 

[thaung]

Nice to see someone else starting to use this lens. I´m waiting for a kit with a IIIc, 35mm F3.5 Elmar and two other lenses. It will be arriving any day and I´m also looking forward to testing it. Looking forward to see some of your pictures!

 

[Monochrom]

congrats...that elmar is a great lens!

imho much better than the summaron 3.5...it handles flare much better!

It´s like having no lens attached to the camera, it has negative bulk 😀

great little lens, and not so expensive!!!

 

[Bingley]

Congrats on getting this little Elmar! It looks to be in great shape, and cool to use a lens with a history like that (oh what events that lens must have seen!).

When shooting a 35mm lens on a Barnack Leica, I use the metal CV Brightline 35mm viewfinder. It's well made and very, very bright. You can get them new from Cameraquest, lathough they also turn up used from time to time.

 

[Krnome]

🙂 Thanks for kind respons from all of you. Thank you for the advise Bingley

 

[dleyva2]

Elmar 35+bw Film Of Any Make= Love

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I need to clean the internals on mine, from 1936 if I recall correctly, but haven't figured out how to open it up yet.

 

[Luddite Frank]

As for finders, my go-to finder is Nikon's "Varfiocal" zoom-finder from the 1950's S-rangefinders. Great multi-purpose finder - not squinty like the Letiz Imarect.

A close second is the Tewe Poly-focal, which is a clone of hte Nikon ( or vice-versa ).

 

[Davidhel]

I love this lens too! Mine could also do with a clean.. I tried opening it up last weekend. Unlike the 50mm elmar I couldn't take the back right off when I unscrewed the pin on the focus mount. Anyone got any ideas of how to open?!

If you want to see examples of this lens in action check out my Melbourne cityscapes series on flickr - pretty much all shots are taken with my 35mm elmar...

 

[Erik van Straten]

Leica II, Elmar 35mm f/3.5 thick cam, Tmax400.

Erik.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Congrats to OP!

 

[FrankS]

congrats...that elmar is a great lens!

imho much better than the summaron 3.5...it handles flare much better!

It´s like having no lens attached to the camera, it has negative bulk 😀

great little lens, and not so expensive!!!

There must have been something wrong with your Summaron f3.5, otherwise the Elmar 35 would not have been superseded by the Summaron.
The Elmar does have a pleasing very vintage look, if that's what one is looking for.

 

[Krnome]

Great shot Erik.

Leica II, Elmar 35mm f/3.5 thick cam, Tmax400.

Erik.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Great shot Erik.

Thank you, Krnome, the swan came towards me at great speed. I had a WEISU viewfinder on my Leica II. I anticipated the moment to press the shutter while looking trough the WEISU. Really a "decisive moment" picture.

Erik.

 

[Greg Jackson]

I have had one of these for a while, CLA'd by Focal Point. Sad to say i've never shot one picture with it but after seeing these pics I'm gonna get it out and try it this week. Seems you never hear much about these lenses; I'm looking forward to seeing some more pictures

 

[FrankS]

It would be interesting and enlightening to hear Tom A's thoughts on this lens.