Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M · 2021

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical VM · Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 35mm F2 Aspherical VM · APO-LANTHAR 35mm F2 Aspherical · Voigtlander 35mm f/2 APO-Lanthar · Apo Lanthar 35/2 VM · CV 35/2 APO · フォクトレンダー アポランター 35mm F2 · フォクトレンダー APO-LANTHAR 35mm F2 Aspherical VM · アポランター 35mm F2 アスフェリカル

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
VM (2021–) Leica M 2021 — —
  1. Specification, price and release date from Cosina's Japanese and English product pages, the Japanese one read through machine translation; DPReview's launch report confirms the optical layout, size, weight and yen price, and phillipreeve.net the US and UK prices.
  2. Cosina states no production figure. A silver finish is not listed on the pages reached here, so none is claimed.
  3. The APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical for Sony E, and the later II for Nikon Z, share the name and the aims but not the optics; they are not part of this family.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Leica M bayonet only; the mount brings up the 35mm frame on the M6 and later, and the barrel intrudes on it more than any other Cosina 35 but the f/1.2
  • Half-stop click aperture ring, all-metal helicoid with about 120 degrees of travel, LH-13 bayonet hood sold separately
  • Rangefinder coupled to 0.7m; focuses on to 0.5m by scale or live view

VM (2021–):

  • Engraved APO-LANTHAR 35mm F2 Aspherical; red and white engravings on a black barrel
  • 55.6mm across, 58.1mm long, 304g, 49mm filter — the longest 35 in Cosina's M-mount range
  • Twelve-blade diaphragm cut to stay circular at f/2, f/2.8, f/5.6 and f/16

Specifications

Formula
Eleven elements in nine groups: five anomalous-partial-dispersion elements, two double-sided aspherical elements, a floating group
Construction
11 elements / 9 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
12
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
55.6 × 58.1 mm
Weight
304 g
Filter
49 mm
Years manufactured
2021
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated
Original price
¥120,000 before tax (2021); $1,149 in the United States (today ¥130,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
reviewers disagree
Vignetting
nearly 3 EV
Coma
well corrected
Distortion
hardly visible
Optical formula — Eleven elements in nine groups: five anomalous-partial-dispersion elements, two double-sided aspherical elements, a floating group

History

APO-Lanthar is the name Voigtländer reserved for its most corrected lenses from 1951, and Cosina has used it sparingly: the 90mm f/3.5 of the screw-mount years, the 50mm f/2 Aspherical of 2019, and in 2021 this 35mm f/2, released on 25 March at ¥120,000 before tax in Leica M bayonet only. Cosina announced it in February alongside a Sony E-mount APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 and the Ultron Vintage Line 35mm f/2 II, and the E-mount lens is a different design with its own layout; the VM is eleven elements in nine groups with five anomalous-partial-dispersion elements, two double-sided aspherical elements and a floating group, built to bring the axial colour of red, green and blue, in Cosina’s phrase, practically to zero. It carries a twelve-blade diaphragm cut so that the opening stays circular at f/2, f/2.8, f/5.6 and f/16, an all-metal helicoid with half-stop clicks on the aperture ring, a 49mm filter, and it focuses to 0.5m by scale with the rangefinder coupled to 0.7m. The point of it is what an f/2 35 gives up to get: 55.6mm across, 58.1mm long and 304g, which makes it the longest 35 in Cosina’s M range and, as every review notes, the size of an f/1.4.

The reviewers agree on resolution and disagree on the apochromatic claim. Jack Takahashi called it the highest-resolution 35 he had tested in M mount, razor sharp across the frame at every aperture and distance including the corners at f/2 at close focus, with longitudinal colour practically non-existent, and set it against Leica’s APO-Summicron-M 35 at a seventh of that lens’s $8,195. Fred Miranda found superb resolution from wide open, the best of it at f/2.8–f/4, exceptional correction of distortion and colour, and highlights kept round by the twelve blades, with cat’s-eye discs toward the corners and a trace of onion rings. Bastian Kratzke, on a Leica M10, saw the same flat-field performance at f/2 that hardly improves on stopping down, low distortion and coma, and nearly 3 EV of falloff — but the longitudinal colour he expected an Apo to have banished he simply did not see, and he found the M-mount lens worse than its E-mount sibling in that respect and in the corners on a Sony body. Nobody praises the bokeh: busy and double-edged for Kratzke, soap-bubble edges at f/2 and weaker separation than a Summilux for Takahashi. The consensus is a lens for landscape, architecture and anything that rewards a flat field, and quite a bargain at $1,149.

Buying is simple because there is one version. Check that the hood is the bayonet LH-13, which Cosina sells separately and does not include, that the aperture clicks in half stops and that the floating group moves without play at the close end of the helicoid; on a film M the 35mm frame comes up and the barrel intrudes into it more than any other Cosina 35 short of the f/1.2. The 0.5m close focus is for scale or live view only. Cosina states no production figure, and no silver finish appears on the pages read for this entry.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical
The APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical VM, photographed in 2024 — TTTNIS, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $860 across 25 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $790–$870). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 39 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: APO-Lanthar 50mm f/2 Aspherical · APO-Lanthar 90mm f/3.5 · APO-Skopar 90mm f/2.8 · Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 · Nokton Vintage Line 35mm f/1.5 Aspherical · Ultron Vintage Line 35mm f/2 Aspherical

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.