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Diving In: Use of Leica 35 on A7R II

rga

Member
Hi All,
I'm going to dive into the Sony A7 world when the RII becomes available. I understand that prior A7's had issues with WA lenses. My primary lens initially will be the Leica 35mm f/2 ASPH used mainly for night photos. I'm figuring if the Batis 25 works so well, the Leica will be fine for this purpose also...

Is/are there any reason(s) you can think of that this is the wrong route to go down?
Thanks for your help,
Bob
 

uhoh7

New member
Well that lens is not great at all on A7II or any A7 so far.

The BSI Sensor may be alot better.....it will need to be for the ASPH Cron.

Much less risky would be the CV 35/1.2 or even the tiny CV 35/1.4, which for some reason the A7x actually seem to shoot decently. But you can always resell the asph Cron.
 

nsng

Member
I had the opportunity to handle the A7R II during the launch here in Singapore. I brought 3 M wide angle lenses, 21mm Elmarit-Asph, 28 Summicron-Asph and 35mm Summilux-Asph. These lenses do not perform well with the A7R. The 21mm still has corner and edge smearing with the A7R II. The 28 'Cron, did show some improvements, but I am still uncertain if I could use it wide open. There might be some corner and edge improvements with the 35 'Lux-Asp, but it might not be enough for my taste. However, these short tests were done indoor in a mix lighting situation and I will have to shoot outdoor in bright light to gauge the actual performance. Unfortunately, Sony did not allow us to use our own SD cards to record any images. The A7R II will go on sale here on 6 Aug. The good news is, it is about USD200 less than the US price.

Instead of the Summicron, you could look at the Zeiss Loxia Biogon f2.0 35mm. You could also try the 35 'Cron-Asph with the A7s.
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
My Summicron 35mm Asph was unusable on my A7r..... lots of side smearing. Time will tell regarding the A7r ll but as far as I'm concerned there are better offerings for this focal length.

Victor
 
I understand that prior A7's had issues with WA lenses. My primary lens initially will be the Leica 35mm f/2 ASPH used mainly for night photos. I'm figuring if the Batis 25 works so well, the Leica will be fine for this purpose also...
The Batis was optimized for the sensor design of the Sonys; the Leica is not. Whether the A7Rii will improve the situation for non-optimized lenses, remains to be seen.

If it were me, I'd sell the Summicron and get the Loxia 35mm, which is superb. (in fact, I did!) I sold all my Leica glass, now that there is a wider choice of native wide-angle lenses for the A7 family.
 
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iiiNelson

Well-known member
The 35 Cron ASPH was my favorite Leica branded M lens. It doesn't work well on the FE bodies. If you're hell bent on using M lenses then grab a Voigtlander 35/1.2 Nokton II. Otherwise I'd recommend the 35 Loxia or 35 Distagon if IQ is more important than size to you. It's not that the FE bodies can't handle wide angle lenses - it's that they generally don't play as well with rangefinder lenses in comparison to native or DSLR lenses.
 

rga

Member
Thanks everyone. Not good news. I'll wait and see what folks discover, but, based on past experience described here, don't hold out a lot of hope.
Appreciate very much all the responses,
Bob
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Thanks everyone. Not good news. I'll wait and see what folks discover, but, based on past experience described here, don't hold out a lot of hope.
Appreciate very much all the responses,
Bob
Many Leica lenses do well on the M because it was designed for them and because of corrections. Case in point many older RF lenses don't do well even on color digital M's.
 

Bob Parsons

New member
The 35mm Summicron ASPH was the first Leica M lens I tried on the A7RII because it's corner performance was so bad on the A7II and A7R. Sadly I've not found much improvement in the smearing. In fact I didn't even develop the files, just viewed the magnified corners of the image in the viewfinder. On the A7RII the corners still show the odd effect of being diffuse one side of focus and a double image on the other side of focus. The best focus point still has significant smearing. This is so very different compared to the corner performance of the little 35/2.8 FE lens on the A7RII, there's just no comparison. Even stopped down the Summicron is no match for the FE lens at full aperture.

Bob.
 

Viramati

Member
If you can stand it's large size the CV 35/1.2 vII performs well on the the A7II and A7s and would be great for night work.

Shame to see that there doesn't seem to be any improvement in performance with other RF wide lenses on the the A7rII
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
If you can stand it's large size the CV 35/1.2 vII performs well on the the A7II and A7s and would be great for night work.

Shame to see that there doesn't seem to be any improvement in performance with other RF wide lenses on the the A7rII
For the record the CV 35/1.2 Nokton II works well on the A7R as well. I'm sure it's great on the A7RII.
 
Or try the 40 Cron. I tested a bunch of lenses, and no 35 except weightlifter's CV 35 1.2 could do as well in the corners. It also covered the corners better than most 50s.

Kirk
 

uhoh7

New member
The 35mm Summicron ASPH was the first Leica M lens I tried on the A7RII because it's corner performance was so bad on the A7II and A7R. Sadly I've not found much improvement in the smearing. In fact I didn't even develop the files, just viewed the magnified corners of the image in the viewfinder. On the A7RII the corners still show the odd effect of being diffuse one side of focus and a double image on the other side of focus. The best focus point still has significant smearing. This is so very different compared to the corner performance of the little 35/2.8 FE lens on the A7RII, there's just no comparison. Even stopped down the Summicron is no match for the FE lens at full aperture.

Bob.
TY for this Bob, sounds like you took a good look. What a shame. :(

To OP, the FE 35 is overall the sharpest the available for the A7 series. Very nice lens really, but copies must be checked closely for decentering.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Or try the 40 Cron. I tested a bunch of lenses, and no 35 except weightlifter's CV 35 1.2 could do as well in the corners. It also covered the corners better than most 50s.

Kirk
The Summarit 35/2.5 does better than the 40/2 in all aspects (except the speed).
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
TY for this Bob, sounds like you took a good look. What a shame. :(

To OP, the FE 35 is overall the sharpest the available for the A7 series. Very nice lens really, but copies must be checked closely for decentering.
I'd recommend the Loxia and Distagon over the Sonnar. I've owned the Sonnar and the Distagon. I've used the ZM version of the Loxia on the M9 but the Cron won me over at 3 times the price. I'd say the Loxia is improved a great deal above the ZM version IMO.

The 35 FE Distagon is simply the best 35 I've used to include the Summiluxes, Sigma Arts, DSLR lenses, etc.
 

uhoh7

New member
The FE 35/1.4 is like the Otus. A marvel in the studio, a nightmare in the bag. You may as well have a D810 with a constant aperture Zoom. Great lens though and if you forget the huge mass and weight it is the best 35. Nobody forgets that, real world.

For infinity landscape my reading of many posts is that a good copy of the FE 35/2.8 will beat the Loxia, which has lost much of it's stellar M punch seen in the ZM 35/2, thanks most likely to Sony's thick cover glass. These from guys who have tried both in some cases, and also quite a few "disappointed" stories from Loxia buyers.

Not that it's terrible. Just "not quite". But others swear by it. We tend to want to love what we just payed a fortune for....LOL

I can just say, after paying very close attention from the start, having owned both A7r, A7, and now A7.mod, I would start with a FE 35 if buying A7r2.

Now, on the M9, my main daylight 35 is the ZM 35/2, which I purchased over the Leica cron asph, so it's nothing personal :lecture:
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
The FE 35/1.4 is like the Otus. A marvel in the studio, a nightmare in the bag. You may as well have a D810 with a constant aperture Zoom. Great lens though and if you forget the huge mass and weight it is the best 35. Nobody forgets that, real world.

For infinity landscape my reading of many posts is that a good copy of the FE 35/2.8 will beat the Loxia, which has lost much of it's stellar M punch seen in the ZM 35/2, thanks most likely to Sony's thick cover glass. These from guys who have tried both in some cases, and also quite a few "disappointed" stories from Loxia buyers.

Not that it's terrible. Just "not quite". But others swear by it. We tend to want to love what we just payed a fortune for....LOL

I can just say, after paying very close attention from the start, having owned both A7r, A7, and now A7.mod, I would start with a FE 35 if buying A7r2.

Now, on the M9, my main daylight 35 is the ZM 35/2, which I purchased over the Leica cron asph, so it's nothing personal :lecture:
Having owned a M9, M9-P, A7, and A7R that's modified for Full Spectrum I can say the exact opposite from personal experience living with most of the lenses mentioned. The 35/2.8 when I owned it (and no it wasn't a decentered copy) is not in the same league as the Distagon I do own or the Loxia samples I've seen. The ZM 35/2 also is not as good at the 35 Cron ASPH... It's just isn't... I wouldn't have paid 3X the price if I could've saved the money.
 
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