Leica Compatible Rangefinder Lens Reviews

My goal is eventually to review and comment on all of the lenses I own or have owned. I'll update this page as I complete the reviews. For lenses that I use extensively, I'll create a separate page for the review and add a link.

Voigtlander

• 21/4 Color Skopar
- Great lens: no distortion, very minimal vignetting.
• 35/2.5 Color Skopar- It's a great small lens, but the fact it was f/2.5 bothered me. With 400 film, 1/30 shutter and f/2, I can take a photo indoors without a flash.
Smaller aperture (f/8 - f/16), Fuji Velvia 100:
• 50/1.5 Nokton- A wonderful lens. It's my go-to lens. Sharp wide open, which is what you want from a fast lens. You'd have to spend 10x the money to get an incremental improvement in quality (Leica Summilux 50/1.4)

Leica

• 35/3.5 Summaron
- Solid performer, although slow. It is very tiny lens, sometimes, almost too tiny to quick change apertures. If you leave your finger on the focusing scale, you risk getting your finger in the photo. I don't use it terribly often because the Canon 35/2 not much more bulky and is almost 2 stops faster. Mid-aperture, Portra 400NC:
• 50/2 Summitar - Recently acquired. Haven't shot it yet.
• 50/2 Summicron DR (M)- One of the greats. Beautiful built quality. My go to lens for black & white.
• 50/3.5 Elmar - Compact collaspible lens that takes sharp pictures. I have a post-war coated "red scale" version, that is nominally one of the best. Aperture adjustment is a bit time consuming.
• 90/4 Elmar - Decent performer given the cost. However, the Canon 100/3.5 is the same size, slight faster, much sharper, and only slightly more expensive.
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• 135/4 Tele-Elmar (M) - Sharp, not overally huge. Can't ask for more. Much better than the 135/4.5 Hektor
• 135/4.5 Hektor - An early long focal length lens. Performance is average at best.

Canon

• 35/2 Canon
- This compact beauty is one of my "go-to" lenses. It's fast and produces good results.
• 50/1.9 Serenar
- Collapsible Summitar take-off. It's a bit soft wide open, but not really soft enough for artistic shots. Wide open with high speed film (more grainy) produced some disappointing results. Wide open on Kodachrome:
• 85/2 Canon Serenar - Sharp fast lens from the early 1950s. The major drawback is that it is huge and heavy. It can be bought for about $100 give or take $20. I sold it to buy the Nikkor 85/2.
probably wide open on Tri-X:
• 100/3.5 Canon - Sharp, tiny 6 element lens. Great for travel.
  

Nikon

• 85/2 Nikkor compact chrome early Nikon lens. It is a Sonnar design based off the Zeiss Sonnar. The Germans effectively lost their patents after WWII and Nikon couldn't build equipment for the Japanese Navy anymore, so they started making camera lenses. It's probably the smallest 85/2 for any camera system, although its chrome body makes it heavy. It's got nice center sharpness and the out-of-focus area is pleasing.
Kodak Portra 400NC, at f/2: Kodak Portra 400NC, at f/2:
• 135/3.5 Nikkor - compact chrome early Nikon lens. It is a Sonnar design based off the Zeiss Sonnar.
Here it is compared in size to the Hektor 135/4.5. It's at least 1/2 stop faster and it is smaller in size: