LEICA ELMARIT R 35-II (2nd)

Review and photo examples of the second generation Elmarit R 35mm F2.8.

Gallery

Sample photos taken with the LEICA SL typ601.

Review

The second-generation Elmarit-R 35mm was released in 1972 as an R-mount wide-angle lens with a focal length of 35mm.

The image quality is stable from the widest aperture, as with all Elmarit-R 35mm lenses, and the background bokeh when taken close up is beautiful and flawless.

It was manufactured for about five years, with only about 8,000 units produced, making it one of the few of the three Elmarits, but it is a lens that is relatively common on the second-hand market and is not particularly rare.

The first-generation Summicron-R 35mm with an R-mount was released in 1970, two years before this lens was released, but the Summicron-R 35mm was larger and heavier than the Elmarit-R 35mm, with a lens length of 62mm and a weight of 508g, so it was larger and heavier than the Elmarit-R 35mm, and there was a demand for a lighter and more compact lens, which is thought to be one of the reasons why this lens was continued.

However, the second-generation Elmarit-R 35mm weighs 410g, about 30% heavier than the first-generation Elmarit-R 35mm, which weighed 310g. This is thought to be due to changes in materials and lens configuration.

The 35mm R-mount lenses are made up of three brands: Elmarit, Summicron, and Summilux. The 35mm is the only R-mount lens with three lines. This is evidence that Leica placed importance on 35mm in SLR cameras.

In addition, the rival of the R-mount Leica camera was the Japanese SLR camera, and many of the Japanese-made 35mm prime lenses were low-priced and high-performance, so it is speculated that there was a need for an inexpensive lens like the Elmarit.

As such, since the Elmarit was a lens that needed to be inexpensive, no dedicated lens barrel was made and parts were shared, so the appearance of this second-generation Elmarit R 35mm lens looks the same as the first-generation Elmarit R 28mm.
The model number of the hood is “12509”, which is the same as the first-generation Elmarit R 28mm and the first-generation Summicron R 35mm. The “12509” hood can accommodate a Series 7 filter and also has a dial for rotating the filter when a Series 7 PL filter is attached.

Specification

Lens name	ELMARIT-R 35-I	ELMARIT-R 35-II	ELMARIT-R 35-III
Focal length(mm)	35	←	←
Max aperture	2.8	←	←
Min aperture	22	←	←
Leaf blade	6	←	←
Lens Construction	6群7枚	5群7枚	6群7枚
Min distance(m)	0.3	←	←
Lens length(mm)	40	40	41.6
Max diameter(mm)	63	63	66
Filter Size(mm)	43.5 Series 6	48 Series 7	55
Weight(g)	310	410	305
Lens hood	12564 Cylindrical shape, iron hook, reversible Shared with SUMMICRON-R 50mm Lens cap is 14163	12509 Rectangular shape, screw and pin-fixed Shared with ELMARIT-R 28mm	Build in
Production number*1	31,950(end of 1971)	8,250(end of 1977)	15,000(end of 1992)
Release date	1963-	1972-	1978-

*1: Production numbers are reproduced from the Leica Wiki.

Reference links

Update

2024.7.28
2024.03.10
2023.12.02

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