A buddy of mine loaned me a copy of the Leica Summaron 35mm 2.8 (M-mount) for a test run. I loaded it with Ilford's Delta 400, and pushed it to 800 for the evening light of Singapore. I was excited to see how this highly rated lens would compare with the new offerings such as my Voigtlander 35/1.4 SC, and even the Zeiss C-Biogon 35mm/2.8 (which I don't have). Greed is getting to me and I am contemplating adding a 35mm to my current stash of lens (only one, good excuse eh? Hehe)

Most of the shots from the Summaron are at F4-11 as I was worried the light would drop and I would have to cease shooting (GOSH!) I rated my film at 800, developed in Ilford's DDX (I think), either that or Kodak's T-Max.

I simply love the tones for the second shot. I also like how the straight lights are straight.

A little caveat though, I found it tricky to work with. The lens focus throw was a little odd for me, where from 0.7m to Infinity, it was an awkard big swing. The newer Summarit 35mm/2.5 in comparison has a shorter focus throw, and seemed more contrasty. I shall have another post for the results from the Summarit later  this week.

This Summaron is small, pretty fast at 2.8, and looks pretty darn cool on my M2. Framing this 35mm with my M3 also gave me pretty good results -

Again, I like the tones, and this is straight from the scan.

Had to throw in some edits in Lightroom for this one as the darks were not dark enough.

CDR2015_5K_DJT23849

I have not worked with colour on this lens yet, and I hope they are 'contrasty' enough, else a vintage feel would be excellent too.