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

Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5

Cosina Voigtländer · LTM + Leica M · 2000 · Symmetrical, 7 elements in 5 groups

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Voigtländer Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 · Voigtlander Color Skopar 35mm f2.5 · Voigtlander 35mm f/2.5 Color-Skopar P II · Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35mm F2.5 PII · COLOR-SKOPAR 35mm F2.5 PII · COLOR-SKOPAR 35mm F2.5 P II · Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 Pancake II VM · Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 Color Skopar Classic LTM · Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 Color Skopar C L39 · Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 Color Skopar Pancake LTM · Cosina Voigtlander 35/2.5 Skopar · CV 35/2.5 · フォクトレンダー カラースコパー 35mm F2.5 · フォクトレンダー COLOR-SKOPAR 35mm F2.5 PII · フォクトレンダー COLOR-SKOPAR 35mm F2.5 C-type

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
C-type (Classic), Leica screw mount (2000–2009) LTM 2000–2009 — —
P-type (Pancake I), Leica screw mount (2000–2003) LTM 2000–2003 — —
P II (Pancake II), VM bayonet (2004–) Leica M 2004 — —
  1. Dates conflict at both ends. Cosina's discontinued-product pages, written years later, give March 1999 for both screw-mount versions, which is the month the Bessa L launched; CameraQuest's page of 2000, written at the time, has both 35mm f/2.5s announced with the Bessa R in January 2000 and on sale by March 2000, and the P-type's own Cosina page describes it as built to speed up the Bessa R. This entry uses 2000. For the P II, Cosina's page captured in June 2004 already lists the lens at ¥45,000 and CameraQuest had it at PMA in February 2004, against Cosina's current release date of 18 March 2006; this entry uses 2004.
  2. Whether the P II shares the LTM optics is stated both ways. Cosina's current C-type page says the C-type uses the same optical system as the VM P II; CameraQuest's page of 2004 called the P II a new optical formula that could not be built in screw mount; KJ Vogelius states the same optics were sold as four lenses (two LTM, one Nikon S, one M). All versions are 7 elements in 5 groups, 63°, f/2.5–22, 10 blades.
  3. Family specifications are the P II's (134 g, 55 × 23 mm, 0.7 m, 39mm). The C-type is 116 g, 49.5 × 31 mm with hood, 0.7 m, 39mm; the P-type 134 g, 55 × 25 mm, 0.9 m, 43mm — all from Cosina's pages.
  4. Prices: yen figures are Cosina's list prices excluding tax; US figures are CameraQuest's (the 2002 sale list for the LTM lenses, the 2005 page for the P II).
  5. The Nikon S / Contax RF version, engraved SC-Skopar, is a separate family in this catalog (sc-skopar-35mm-f25) with the same 7-element, 5-group optics.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Three Leica-mount barrels, one name: the tapered C-type with a lever and 39mm thread; the flat black P-type with a 43mm thread and no hood; the P II with a VM bayonet, a Summicron-style tab and PII engraved on the front
  • Only the P II has a bayonet — a Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 with a screw thread is a C or a P, and needs an M adapter that brings up the 35mm frame on an M body

C-type (Classic), Leica screw mount (2000–2009):

  • Engraved COLOR-SKOPAR 35mm F2.5 on the front, with a Leica-style '35' on the barrel to tell it from the 25mm f/4 whose barrel it shares
  • Slim barrel that tapers from the mount to the front, a focusing lever, 39mm filter thread, screw-in hood supplied
  • 116 g, 49.5 mm across and 31 mm long with the hood; close focus 0.7 m, rangefinder coupled
  • Silver or black finish (JAN 4530076 130616 silver, 130609 black)

P-type (Pancake I), Leica screw mount (2000–2003):

  • Black only; a flat barrel 55 mm across and 25 mm long, 134 g, with a very short focus throw
  • 43mm filter thread — the only version of this lens not to take 39mm filters
  • Close focus 0.9 m; hood sold separately (the P-type hood), the only Cosina screw-mount lens of its day shipped without one
  • JAN 4530076 130708

P II (Pancake II), VM bayonet (2004–):

  • Engraved COLOR-SKOPAR 35mm F2.5 PII; VM bayonet, black only
  • 23 mm long and 55 mm across, 134 g, 39mm filter thread, close focus 0.7 m
  • Focusing tab with a finger hollow and two aperture handles, styled on the pre-aspherical 35mm f/2 Summicron; the bayonet LH-4 or LH-4N vented hood is an extra and fits no other Cosina lens
  • JAN 4530076 130715

Specifications

Formula
Symmetrical, 7 elements in 5 groups
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2.5–f/22
Diaphragm blades
10
Min. focus
0.7 m
Dimensions
55 × 23 mm
Weight
134 g
Filter
39 mm
Years manufactured
2000
Country
Japan
Coating
Multi-coated
Original price
¥35,000 excluding tax for the C-type and ¥30,000 for the P-type (2000); $250 and $230 at CameraQuest in 2002; the P II ¥45,000 and $319 in 2004 (today ¥33,000–¥39,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

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

Vignetting
noticeable wide open
Flare & ghosting
very well controlled
Optical formula — Symmetrical, 7 elements in 5 groups

History

The Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 is the cheap, small 35 of the Cosina Voigtländer range and has been since the Bessa R, the first of the line with a rangefinder, arrived in January 2000 with two versions of it announced at once: a “Compact” C-type and a “Pancake” P-type, both in Leica screw mount. Stephen Gandy, the US importer, described them as one lens in two barrels — seven elements in five groups, symmetrical in the way only a rangefinder lens can be, multi-coated, ten blades, f/2.5 to f/22 — and Cosina’s own pages agree. The C-type was built on the barrel of the 25mm f/4, a slim tapered thing with a focusing lever, 39mm filters, a supplied hood and a Leica-style “35” engraved on it to stop people mounting the wrong lens; 116 g, 0.7 m close focus, ¥35,000 excluding tax in silver or black. The P-type was black only, 134 g, 55 mm across and 25 mm long, took 43mm filters, focused only to 0.9 m and came without a hood, ¥30,000. Gandy thought “pancake” a stretch — it was about the size of the last pre-aspherical 35mm f/2 Summicron — but its very short focus throw made it, he said, perhaps the fastest-focusing 35 you would find.

The P-type lasted until spring 2003. Its replacement was announced at PMA in February 2004 and is the version still sold: the Color-Skopar 35mm F2.5 P II, in Cosina’s VM bayonet rather than screw mount, 23 mm long, 134 g, back to 39mm filters and 0.7 m, with a Summicron-style focusing tab and a pair of aperture handles, ¥45,000 and $319 at launch. Gandy reported it as a new optical formula whose compactness could not be had in a screw-mount barrel; Cosina’s page for the C-type says the two share an optical system, and every version is listed as seven elements in five groups, so what changed inside is not settled by the sources. The C-type carried on in screw mount until 2009, Cosina’s page and Gandy’s sale notices agreeing within a year. Dates need a warning: Cosina’s retrospective pages give March 1999 for both screw-mount lenses and 18 March 2006 for the P II, while Gandy’s page written in 2000 and Cosina’s own page captured in June 2004 show the lenses on sale in 2000 and 2004 respectively; this entry follows the contemporary evidence.

What reviewers say about it barely changes across twenty years, which is the point of the lens. Theo Wiersema at 35mmc found the P II incredibly sharp in the centre wide open and surprisingly hard to make flare, and would recommend it to anyone buying a first M lens at a seventh of the price of a Summarit; KJ Vogelius, who calls it one of the smallest M-mount lenses ever made in series, smaller than the Summicron-C 40, describes a neutral, transparent tool with excellent on-axis resolution wide open, average resolution outside the central third and poor deep corners — “often overlooked as it might never be spectacular, but instead it’s always reliable.” Matt Osborne measured it as the sharpest 35 he owns after the Ultron 35mm f/1.7 and keeps it for stopped-down travel work at f/4; Leica Lenses for Normal People calls it the white bread of 35s, perfect and therefore forgotten because other lenses have more speed and more soul. The one consistent complaint is the corners wide open on adapted mirrorless bodies, where vignetting is also plain; on film and on Leica M sensors nobody minds.

Buying one means knowing which of the three barrels is on offer. Only the P II has a bayonet; a C or P needs a screw-to-M adapter, and on a Leica M it should be the 35/135 ring so the right frame comes up, while on a Bessa R the thread mounts directly. Filter size sorts the two screw-mount lenses at a glance — 43mm on the P, 39mm on the C — and the C’s hood is part of the lens, whereas the P’s hood and the P II’s LH-4 bayonet hood were sold separately and are often missing. The same glass also went to Nikon and Contax rangefinder owners as the SC-Skopar, on a bayonet that fits nothing here, and a listing that says only “Voigtländer 35mm f/2.5 Skopar” may be that lens.

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 Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5
A Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 on a Leica M4-P (A Vahanvaty) — A Vahanvaty, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5
Pacifica, California, 2012 — Bessa R2, Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5, Kodak Gold 200 (Michael Fraley) — Michael Fraley, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $330 across 37 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $300–$390). First day tracked.

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

Show 118 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: Color-Heliar 75mm f/2.5 · Color-Skopar Vintage Line 21mm f/3.5 Aspherical · Snapshot-Skopar / Color-Skopar 25mm f/4 · Color-Skopar 28mm f/2.8 Aspherical · Color-Skopar 28mm f/3.5 · Color-Skopar 50mm f/2.5 · Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical · Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 · Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 · SC-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 · Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical · Ultron Vintage Line 35mm f/2 Aspherical

Sources (13)

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.