Well behaved 35 lens for daylight?

Jerevan

Jerevan

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What would the options be for a 35 mm lens for daylight stuff (no need for f:1.4), and that is well-behaved (no focus shifts, using film) and reasonably affordable?
 
No expert here but Skopar 35/2.5 comes to my mind as first. After that Minolta 35/2.0 or Nokton 35/1.4. And there must be quite a bit of nice older glass too (other will hopefully chime in)
 
Summaron 35 f2.8 fits the bill. Prices have climbed lately, though. But not undeservedly so! :)

Greetings, Ljós
 
Really any 35mm would do in daylight...

Skopar 35mm and Biogon 35mm would be my choice for a lens on the less expensive-but-good side.
 
Another vote for the 35 Skopar. In addition to being tiny, sharp, good handling, and distortion free, it's also highly flare resistent. And not that expensive.
 
Skopar for tininess, bigger Biogon for IQ--but IQ differences are likely to appear minimal to all but the finickiest.

I love the focusing spar on my LTM Skopar. It's the lens I keep on my IIIc. It's about the same size as the 40 Rokkor, so nice for a CL size camera (and has produced wonderful 50mm equiv exposures on my GXR).

And rather cheaper than the Biogon. There's a Skopar in the Classifieds now.
 
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Yet another vote for the Color-Skopar. I've had Summarons too and I've had FAR better results with the Skopar.

Edit: 'Better' in the sense of sharper and contrastier. If you want low contrast and less resolution, to say nothing of sample variation in lenses that are half a century old, there's lots of choice.

Cheers,

R.
 
+1 for the Color Skopar. Had the LTM in chrome and regret selling it. Makes wonderful photos on color film, with a special mention on Portra.
 
kxl said:
If it can be deemed "affordable" the ZM C-Biogon 35/2.8 would be my first choice.
Click to expand...

Mine too. In fact, I have one. The Color-Skopar 35mm is very good, very sharp and with good bokeh. Both lenses are very contrasty, but I like the rendering of the ZM lens better.
 
I'll second the 35/2.5 Skopar and the f/2.8 Summaron. I have both, and use them with complete satisfaction.
 
The most unflappable 35mm lens I've ever used was a KM 35mm f2 Hexanon. Sharp, no focus problems and nearly impossible to induce flare.
 
the hexanon is a great lens but the prices these days in the states are pretty high.

my vote is for either biogon. I personally like the f2 version but the f2.8 c-biogon is probably better given your circumstances. the 35/2 biogon is exceptionally impressive at infinity stopped down a bit; it is probably the best there is for fine detail resolution in those circumstances.
 
You want rectilinear, nice bokeh, close focus of 0.7m, small, reasonable speed for size, and flare resistance (big in my book when talking about well behaved), either Color Skopar or Summicron v3 (smaller than either Biogon).

Roland.
 
35/2.5 Color-Skopar P II or - on a budget - Jupiter-12. The latter shows some pin-cushion distortion (at least one of my copies does) but renders BW a little smoother and shows more pleasing out-of-focus rendering. Problems are possible sample variation and also limited usability (not usable on CL, M5, Bessa ?)
 
Thanks very much, all of you! :)

How many 35 mm lenses does one... uh... need? From the descriptions, I could buy all of your suggestions, if I had enough money. :D

Helen - just gotta love that first photo of yours, it's magic!

Roger, I think that old lens variability is one of the reasons I am swaying towards a new lens, as much as a Summaron sounds enticing. Getting a bit exhausted by all the "repair this, fix that" bills.

Well, we'll see what the future brings...
 
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