Hello,
thanks for all the answers and suggestions so far. I will summarize my thoughts to the answers so far.
I think, lens preferences are pretty different between photographers and style of shooting, so I tried to describe, what I'm aiming for. But even my wordings seems to be at least weak and ambivalent, because some of the suggestions just puzzled me...
🙂
Not sure, if my description of modern, "clinical" clear and sharp rendering was good, while small and light should not bee too hard to understand.
There are no (really) bad 35mm in this thread so far, as someone said. True, so don't feel insulted, when I reject your suggestion. They are good, but not necessarily, what I'm looking for.
So here is what I take so far:
Zeiss Biogon-C 35mm / f2,8:
I think, this meets my requirements pretty well, except that I'm not a fan of the Zeiss focusing knob. Best ergonomics for me is the Leica-Style focusing tab, that also can be found on many other lenses like Voigtländers. However, I could live with that, if the focus throw is right and doesn't have too much resistance. My Distagon for example is pretty heavy to focus, because of the moving lens-group of the design, and not so fast to focus, as I like sometimes. The Leica FLE is much better in that regard. Anyway, the Zeiss seems to be a good option, if I can handle its focusing.
7Artisans 35mm / f2.0:
I really don't know, where that suggestion comes from. Okay, it's small and has really good ergonomics and for it's price, you really can't say anything negative about it. I have it and it fits very well on the M10 with its weight and size. - But image quality...? Come on... When I wrote
modern, I didn't mean just build in this millennium, I meant a modern lens architecture, really good coating and so on. The 7Artisans just does not have is. I had it with me on a short walk just yesterday and it is really sensitive on light situations. Look at the upper left corner of
this (beware, its full size, 8.1 MB). As I said, it's a good lens for the price, but that... yuck... Also at infinity the RF-patch doesn't align with the lens. Not too important on a wide, but I just don't like it.
Voigtländer 35/f1.7 Ultron:
Well, I have the Zeiss Distagon 35mm / f1,4 and the lens I'm searching for should be a small and light companion to that to take with me on my next trip. The Zeiss is already a behemoth of a lens, why would I ever consider this tank as a
small and light companion to it.
😕
Also, I really hate its ergonomics like all Voigtländers with this type of focusing ring. With a tab I'm really quick, with such a focus ring it's the opposite. It's just unusable for me.
Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm f1.4:
Budget is not a concern and f2 is not set, faster is always good. However, the Nokton... I mean there is a reason why it has "classic" in its name, because that is what the essence of its character is. It's from the images that it produces the opposite of modern and nothing like what I'm searching for. I had this lens three times, I think. It was my very first Voigtländer lens, and I have to say, I really love it's size and ergonomics. In that regard, it's nearly perfect. Well, I don't really like the aperture-ring, but I'm pretty much using always the same aperture, when in a situation where I shoot a lot. And the focusing on that lens is really very well, I was quick with the lens liked how it felt on my Zeiss Ikon ZM and the digital Ms. But it is referred to as "King of flare" sometimes and this is a well earned title. Also it is pretty soft im many situations and just not modern in any way - for me, at least. Good lens, but not what I'm looking for.
Leica 35mm f/2.4 Summarit-M
I never had it, so far. But I had the modern 90mm Summarit and I had the feeling, that Leica really made a nice and modern lens family here. I guess, I have to look into it.
Konica 35mm f/2 UC-Hexanon
Would love to get one to try it out, I never had any Konica RF lens. Nut they seem nice. Hard to get, though. But it checks most boxes, small, light, focusing tab. Not sure about the crisp tack modern sharpness, I'm looking for. I've read, that it's a little softer that others wide open.
Voigtländer Color Skopar 35mm / f2,5
Well, I was indeed considering it. I had it once and I liked almost anything about it. I had the old version with the focusing pin instead of the focus tab of version 2. I also had the version 2 shortly, and I can't really say, why, but I just didn't bond with it. The old one however was really nice and the focusing pin worked surprisingly good for me. I can pin down focus with that one pretty quickly. So yeah, that is a good suggestion, that I already had in mind. I have to look into my old images however, because I think, it is also more of a classic rendering lens than I like. Very flattering to the subject.
Voigtländer 35mm / f2,0 Asph.:
I totally forgot about this new kid in town, when I was thinking about a 35. Besides the Biogon from Zeiss, it seems to be the best alternative currently. I have to look into it and see about it's image qualities regarding what I want. But it seems to be very modern, it's definitely small and light. I have to find some good image examples from it maybe some useful reviews (finding
useful reviews is really hard... the expertise here on RFF is usually unmatched by anything else out there).
How could I miss that lens...? I'm really attempted and the price seems to be okay. Also as I said for the Skopar, I can live with a focusing pin, I can focus pretty quick with it. Anyone here has some more experience with that lens?
Long post... But it's sunday, so what else is there to do, right? - Now I going a a little walk with the Zeiss Distagon behemoth, dreaming of a small companion to it.
Thank you all so far!
Stephan
