Leica 35-70mm Vario-Elmar-R f/3.5

I now have a Leica german 35-70 3.5 zoom lense. So far my tests side by side to a 50 F2 Rom summicron lense, and the slides were just so close in quality at the 50 mm setting. There is a touch more contrast with the 50 f2, but make no mistake that the 35-70 will do very well.

Color, Sharpness, and almost like the prime lenses.

Three feet of close focus.

35-70 Zeiss

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An excellent all round lens in my opinion. I purchased this lens plus an R body for the times when the convenience of using a zoom would be handy (my normal equipment is Leica M with prime lenses).
I tried this (used of course, it is disc'd) as well as a new Leica 35-70 F4 and found that there wasn't enough sharpness difference to justify the cost of a new lens. The F4 is slightly sharper wide open because it is a newer design (the F3.5 is a Minolta design dating back to the mid 80's), but I could not see anything appreciable up to 11X14" prints.
Leica also has a 28-70 version, but it is made by Sigma and is not up to the other two lenses, according to most test.
One thing you want to watch out for. Used there is a huge price difference at times for these lenses. There is a reason. There were two versions of this lens. It was first produced by Minolta when they and Leica were allied in the 1980's. About 1987 Leica changed production to Solms in Germany, using exactly the same design optically. Supposedly there is no difference in optical perfomance....but the Solms version is supposedly much better mechanically. I have the German version, and after 15 years it is still rock solid. I'd say that if you were going to use this lens on a day to day basis it would probably be wise to spend the extra $$. A good used Japanese version will go for $600 US, the German version will be double that.

Convenience
Central sharpness good even wide open.
Quality constuction (with a caveat - see below)

Non that I've found so far that any other zoom in this range doesn't have.

Leica 35-70 F4 R
Olympus 35-70
Nikon 35-70 F2.8

Have always had excellent service and advice from Kindermann Canada.

Janiszeski's review is weak or he has a been ripped off with a broken used lens. I tested the lens next to the 50/2 Summicron, 35/2 and the 35/2.8 and the results we surprising. In an 18" x 12" enlargement I could only find minor differences upon extreme scrutiny. It had more sharpness and contrast than the 35/2 but slightly less sharp than the 35/2.8. Only very slightly less sharp than the 50/2. My lens was not prone to flare like Janiszeski's.

Rivals prime lenses in sharpness and contrast.

None

None

A fair to good zoom compared to other brands. Weak compared to Leica standards. I shoot a fair amount of architecture, so my comments regarding distortion and vignetting are for the critical shooters out there.

Leica robust construction. Decent to good performance stopped down.

Noticeable distortion, especially at shorter focal lengths. Vignetting at wider apertures, especially at shorter focal lengths. My lens had a loose zoom ring that was getting progressively worse (I bought it used). Not as noticeable for general shooting.

Nikon AIS, Contax SLR

Pictures between Contax 35-70mm and Leica 35-70 were indistinguishable, except that when shooting subject with bare light bulbs in background the Leica exhibited a bit more flare than Contax.

It's a zoom

Flare prone.

Contax 35-70mm zoom.