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

Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 (III)

Leica · Leica R · 1979 · Retrofocus wide-angle, seven elements in six groups

Also known as: Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 III · Elmarit-R 35mm f2.8 III · Elmarit-R 35mm F2.8 Type III · Elmarit-R 35mm f2.8 V3 · Elmarit-R 35mm f2.8 3rd · Elmarit-R 35mm f2.8 third version · Elmarit-R 35mm f2.8 E55 · Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 · Elmarit-R 35mm f2.8 · Elmarit-R 35mm 2.8 · Elmarit R 35mm f2.8 · Elmarit R 35mm f/2.8 · Elmarit-R 35/2.8 · Elmarit-R 2.8/35 · Elmarit-R 1:2.8/35 · Elmarit-R 2,8/35 · Leica R 35mm f2.8 Elmarit · 35mm f2.8 Elmarit-R · 35mm f/2.8 Elmarit-R · 35 mm f/2.8 Elmarit-R · Elmarit-R 11231 · Elmarit-R 11251 · Leica 11231 · Leica 11251 · エルマリートR 35mm F2.8 · ライカ エルマリートR 35mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
3-cam (11231) Leica R, 3-cam (fits every Leicaflex and R body) 1979 From 2928901 (Leitz Handbook, July 1982) —
R-only (11251) Leica R, R-cam only (R3 and later; Leicaflex only after a service modification) — — —
11231 or 11251 converted to ROM by Leica service Leica R, ROM (R3 and later; not the Leicaflex bodies) — — —
  1. Specification from Leitz's own documents: the Handbook of July 1982 (11231, 0.34 kg) and the Handbook of December 1989 (11251, 0.305 kg). Kamerastore gives 305 g for both order numbers, Shige 300 g in his text and 305 g in his table, and Flashback weighed an 11251 at 311 g and gives its length from the mount, hood retracted, as 43 mm, against Leitz's 41.5 mm. Weight is given here as 305 g; the 1982 handbook's 0.34 kg for the 11231 is the one figure that disagrees, and no source explains it.
  2. Six diaphragm blades are reported by Kamerastore and Shige, not by a Leitz document. Flashback alone gives eight elements in six groups; every Leitz document and the other dealers give seven in six.
  3. Dates: Kamerastore and Flashback give 1979 for the introduction and Shige 1978. The end date of 1996 is Flashback's; the lens is absent from the range table of Leica's Handbook 2000/2001. Production: Shige gives 15,000 to the end of 1992, against 31,950 (to the end of 1971) for the first version and 8,250 (to the end of 1977) for the second on his first-version page; his reference links are to the Leica Wiki.
  4. How many designs: Leitz's September 1978 catalogue already gives the second version (11201) as seven elements in six components, 64°, f/22, 0.3 m and a 140 × 210 mm field, the same figures it later printed for the 11231 and 11251. Karen Nakamura (Photoethnography) believes the third version is optically identical to the second and differs in its built-in hood and E55 thread; Shige says the construction is the same as the second version but the barrel is different. Kamerastore says only that the design became more compact. Nakamura and Shige give the first version seven elements in five groups. This site's three-page split rests on the barrels and order numbers rather than on a settled optical history.
  5. English Wikipedia's List of Leica lenses counts four Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 versions and describes only the fourth, 'Built-in lens hood; 55mm filter'. That is this lens; no fourth barrel distinct from the 11231/11251 was found.
  6. Market prices seen in November 2026, all dealer prices for used lenses, not list prices: Kamerastore US$796 for 11231 no. 2929243 (asking, duties and tax calculated at checkout; the same lens, T144265, is 7,809 SEK on Kamerastore's Swedish store) and a reference price of £526 for the 11251 (sold out). GearFocus sold a 3-cam lens for US$559.98 in or after October 2025. No period list price in DM or dollars was found.
  7. Maker: Kamerastore describes the lens as Leitz Wetzlar. Whether late 11251 lenses, made after Leica's move from Wetzlar to Solms, are engraved differently is not recorded.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The built-on telescopic hood and E55 filter thread mark the third version at a glance: the first (11101) takes a separate hood 12564 and Series 6, the second (11201) a hood 12509 and Series 7, both 63 mm across (Leitz 1978 for the 11201; Nakamura and Shige for both)
  • Turn the lens over to read the mount: two sloped cams plus a stepped cam is the 3-cam 11231; the stepped cam alone is the R-only 11251; contacts mean a later ROM conversion
  • Not the Summicron-R 35mm f/2 II (11115), which shares the E55 thread and built-in hood but is 54 mm long and about 420 g; not the Summilux-R 35 (E67) or the Elmarit-M rangefinder lenses

3-cam (11231):

  • Order number 11231; from the back, two sloped Leicaflex cams plus the stepped R-cam, and no row of gold contacts
  • Compact barrel (41.5 mm from the flange, 66 mm across) with the hood built in and pulled forward to use it, and an E55 thread inside the front ring; the earlier 11201 takes a separate hood 12509 and Series 7 filters, the 11101 a hood 12564 and Series 6 (Leitz, September 1978)
  • Serial numbers from 2928901: the first number of the design in Leitz's own tables

R-only (11251):

  • Order number 11251; from the back, only the stepped R-cam, with no sloped Leicaflex cams and no contacts
  • Outwardly the same short barrel, built-on hood and E55 thread as the 11231
  • Kamerastore titles it '(3rd Cam)', meaning the third cam alone, not '3-cam'; Flashback calls it 'R-cam, also known as R-Only'

11231 or 11251 converted to ROM by Leica service:

  • A strip of ROM contacts at the back of the mount, where the first sloped cam would be, on a barrel with the built-on hood and E55 thread
  • There was no factory ROM order number for this lens: the 2000/2001 ROM table lists the 35/2.8 only as conversions, so a ROM Elmarit-R 35 is always a converted 11231 or 11251

Serial-range notes

2928901 onward
The first number of the third version, by Leitz's own tables: the 1982 and 1989 handbooks start the 2.8/35 at No. 2928901, and the Handbook 2000/2001 closes the previous Series 7 lens "up to No. 2928900". On the general Leitz year list (camera-wiki) that number falls in the 1978 band, 2,880,601–2,967,250. Shige dates the release to 1978; Kamerastore and Flashback give 1979, and Leitz's General Catalogue of 15 September 1978 still sells the 35/2.8 as the 11201.
2929243, 3049058
Two 3-cam lenses seen for sale: Kamerastore's 2929243 (November 2026; 1978 band) and the GearFocus lens of October 2025 whose SKU ends in 3049058, apparently its serial (1980 band, 3,013,651–3,087,000).
about 3510000
Flashback Camera's R-cam 11251, which it dates to 1990; the general list puts 3,503,151–3,540,467 in 1990.
the seven-digit number on the front ring
The rule for every Leitz and Leica lens: numbers run in one sequence shared across models, reserved in blocks, so a number dates a lens only roughly against the general year list. The number does not tell 11231 from 11251; the cams do. A 1980s number with ROM contacts is a conversion.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus wide-angle, seven elements in six groups
Construction
7 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
66 × 41.5 mm
Weight
305 g
Filter
55 mm (0.75 mm pitch), E55 screw-in; Series 7 through adapter 14225 (1982 and 1989 Leitz/Leica handbooks)
Years manufactured
1979–1996
Country
Germany (Kamerastore: Leitz Wetzlar)
Material
Black-finished metal barrel with built-on telescopic hood

What reviewers say

History

The third Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 is the Leicaflex launch lens of 1964 rebuilt for the R generation. Leitz’s General Catalogue of September 1978 still sells the 35/2.8 as the 11201: seven elements in six components, a separate locking hood that also holds Series 7 filters, 63 mm across, 40 mm long and 410 g. The Handbook of July 1982 lists the 11231 in its place, with the same 64° angle, seven elements in six components, f/22, 0.3 m and 140 × 210 mm smallest field, but in a wider barrel, 41.5 mm from the flange and 66 mm across, with a telescopic hood built on and an E55 thread for filters (Series 7 through adapter 14225). Kamerastore and Flashback date its introduction to 1979; Shige gives 1978, and the first serial number in Leitz’s tables, 2,928,901, falls in the 1978 band of the general serial list. Leica’s 1989 handbook gives 305 g (the 1982 one 340 g), against 410 g for the 11201; Flashback calls it compact and light for an R lens, and Shige notes that it is the size of the Summicron 50.

Whether the glass changed is not settled. Leitz printed the same construction and close-focus figures for the 11201 in 1978 as for the 11231 in 1982. Karen Nakamura believes the third version is optically identical to the second, and Shige says it has the same construction in a different barrel. Kamerastore says only that the design became more compact. Nakamura and Shige both give the first version seven elements in five groups, so on their account the six-group design arrived with the second version and was kept. Shige puts production at 15,000 to the end of 1992, against 31,950 for the first version and 8,250 for the second: scarcer than the first and more common than the second. English Wikipedia’s list of Leica lenses counts four 35/2.8 Elmarit-R versions and describes only the fourth, with built-in hood and 55 mm filter. That is this lens.

There are two factory versions, and they differ only at the back of the mount. The 11231 is a 3-cam lens. It has the two sloped Leicaflex cams and the stepped R-cam, so it meters at full aperture on every Leicaflex and R body. Leica’s Handbook of December 1989 lists the 35/2.8 only as 11251, an R-only lens with the stepped cam alone, “for LEICA R models (all modes)”. The handbook adds that a Leica service centre could modify it for the Leicaflex cameras. Leitz’s handbooks do not date the change. Leica’s ROM table lists no factory ROM version of it. Its Handbook 2000/2001 drops the lens from the range table but lists the 11231 and 11251, like the two earlier versions, as convertible to ROM, and says that any Leicaflex cams must come off in the process. On an R8 or R9 an unconverted lens meters normally but passes no focal length to the body or flash. Flashback gives 1996 as the end of production. The 2000/2001 accessory table lists only the Summilux-R 35 (11337) and the ROM Summicron-R 35 (11339) at this focal length.

When buying, turn the lens over before anything else. Two sloped cams and a stepped cam is an 11231 and will go on a Leicaflex, SL or SL2. A stepped cam alone is an 11251 and fits only an R3 or later unless it has been modified. Contacts mean a ROM conversion, which also rules out the Leicaflex bodies. Do not force an R-only or ROM lens onto a Leicaflex. English Wikipedia, cited on this site’s Leicaflex page, says R-only lenses are shaped so that they will not fit, and Doug Herr, quoted there from Photoethnography, warns that the Leicaflex cam follower can damage ROM contacts. Kamerastore’s listings title the 11251 “(3rd Cam)”, which is easy to misread as 3-cam. Check that the built-in hood slides out and stays put, because it cannot be swapped like the separate hoods of the earlier versions, and look for haze and cleaning marks on the front element. Shige, who used one on a Leica SL and a Sony α7, found solid image quality at full aperture, with enough resolution and consistent results out to the edges on 20-megapixel full frame, and recommends it as a first R lens because it is relatively cheap. In November 2026 Kamerastore was asking US$796 for a 3-cam lens and gave £526 as its reference price for the 11251, both used dealer prices.

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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

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Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $700 across 22 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $520–$800). First day tracked.

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Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 (I) · Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 (II) · Summicron-R 35mm f/2 (II) · Elmarit-R 28mm f/2.8 (II) · Summilux-R 35mm f/1.4

Sources (11)

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.