I am thinking about springing for a 35 1.4L, and intend to use it as my standard lens. I'll probably use it for 80% or so of my shooting. I shoot a lot of available light, mainly 400 speed print film, both color and black and white. I'd appreciate hearing from people about the quality of this lens before I buy it. I have some experience with the Leica M 35 1.4 asph, and would appreciate any comparisons. Thanks!

-- pat kelley (patrickk@co.sangamon.il.us), June 04, 2002

Answers

This guy seems to like it. I have no experience with the Canon, but I always thought it would be nice to have a small 35/1.4 Leica M set up. What has brought you to the Canon 35/1.4 instead of Leica?

-- AC Gordon (cgordon@stx.rr.com), June 04, 2002.

Thanks for the link. I love the M system, but do things the M is not meant for, ie, sports and macro. I can only afford one system, so the M had to go. Miss that 35 summilux asph, though.

-- pat kelley (patrickk@co.sangamon.il.us), June 04, 2002.

Hi Pat,

I also have a complete Leica M and Canon EF system. Once I made a comparison between the M 1,4/35 asph.1 against my EF 2,8/28-70 L at 35 mm both stopped down to f 5,6 / f8. There was only a very little difference in contrast and sharpness towards the Leica. Of course it was to see in slides, but you could mix slides in projection and nobody could clearly say, with which lens the picture was done. The 28-70 L is known superb and the difference to the Leica is only marginal, though it is by far the BEST ! As the EF 1,4/35 is even better than the 28-70 L, you will not find any difference. Generally Canon's L fix-focals are extremely near to Leica R and M lenses in term of sharpness and even colour.

Kind Regards from Germany Rainer

-- R. Krönke (Rainer.Kroenke@T-Online.de), June 05, 2002.