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

Summicron-R 35mm f/2 (I)

Leica · Leica R · 1970 · Retrofocus, nine elements in seven groups

our own finding

Known as “9-element Summicron”, “taper-barrel Summicron”

Also known as: Summicron-R 35mm f2 11227 · Summicron-R 35mm f/2 11227 · Summicron-R 35mm 1:2 11227 · Summicron-R 35mm 1:2 · Summicron-R 35mm f2 I · Summicron-R 35mm f/2 I · Summicron-R 35mm f2 Type I · Summicron-R 35mm f2 V1 · Summicron-R 35mm f2 first version · Summicron-R 35mm f/2 first version · Summicron-R 35mm f2 early version · Summicron-R 35mm f2 9 elements · Summicron-R 35mm f/2 9 element · Summicron-R 35mm f2 tapered · Summicron-R 35/2 11227 · Summicron-R 2/35 11227 · Summicron R 35mm f2 11227 · Summicron R 35mm f/2 first version · Leica R 35mm f2 Summicron 11227 · 35mm f2 Summicron-R Type I · Leica 11227 · Leitz 11227 · ズミクロンR 35mm F2 初代

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
2-cam (11227) Leica R, 2-cam (fits the Leicaflex, SL and SL2; Leica says R bodies need the R-cam fitted first) 1970–1976 2403489 (1970, Flashback Camera, photographed)
2.46 million range (1970, Flashback Camera)
2,710,000 range (1974, Flashback Camera, two lenses)
up to 2791416 (Leitz 1978 catalogue and 1989 handbook: '11227 up to No. 2.791.416') 		—
3-cam (R-cam added) Leica R, 3-cam (fits every Leicaflex and R body) — 2.46 million range (1970, Flashback Camera)
2,730,000 range (1974, Flashback Camera) 		—
Converted to ROM by Leica service Leica R, ROM (R3 and later; not the Leicaflex bodies) — — —
  1. Specification from Leitz's General Catalogue of 1 January 1975 (64°, nine elements, Series 7, A 51, f/16, 0.3 m, 140 × 210 mm) and the discontinued-lens tables of 1978 and 1989 (hood 12509, cap 14172, rear cover 14162, internal thread M48 × 0.75). Groups (seven) from Erwin Puts. Leitz's 1975 and 1978 catalogues give no weight or dimensions for this lens.
  2. Size and weight: Puts gives a length of 61 mm and, in a ratio he quotes, 68 mm, which he calls the front lens diameter; Apotelyt and Kamerastore give 68 × 61 mm and 510 g. Shige's text gives about 61 mm long, 68 mm across and about 510 g; his specification table gives 61.5 mm long, 66 mm across and 508 g (569 g with hood and filter), his comparison table 68 mm, and his summary about 570 g with hood and filter. Eight blades are from Shige and Kamerastore; Shige's comparison table gives f/22, against the f/16 of Leitz's catalogue and his own specification table.
  3. Filter: Leitz's catalogues give Series 7 in the hood and an internal M48 × 0.75 thread; Flashback Camera and Shige describe the same as 'Series 7 or E48'. Apotelyt and Kamerastore give only Series VII.
  4. Silver: Kamerastore writes that the lens was first offered in a silver barrel, changed quickly to black because reflections affected the metering, and that only about 200 silver lenses were made. No silver example, Leitz order number or second source for it is known, so no silver row is given here. Leitz's 1975 catalogue lists the lens in black finish only.
  5. Maker: every example photographed is engraved LEITZ CANADA, and Flashback Camera and Kamerastore both call the lens a Leitz Canada product. One Japanese listing title of 2026 reads 'LEITZ WETZLAR SUMMICRON-R 35mm F2 初代 9枚玉', but no Wetzlar-engraved first version has been photographed, so it is unconfirmed. None of these sources names the optical designer.
  6. Dates: 1970 for the introduction (Puts, Shige, Kamerastore, Flashback Camera). 1976 for the end is Shige's, citing the Leica Wiki; Leitz still lists the lens in January 1975, and in September 1978 lists it as discontinued.
  7. Market prices in November 2026, none of them list prices: Kamerastore, a dealer, gives a reference price of €849 for a used 3-cam lens (sold out at the time). Apotelyt's R catalogue gives a used price of US$300–400 for this lens against US$400–600 for the second version. No period list price in DM or dollars is known.
  8. The editor's numbering: version I is this nine-element 11227 of 1970–76, version II the six-element 11115 and 11339 (its own page). The 2-cam, 3-cam and ROM forms here are one optical design.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The long first version against the short second: this lens is 61 mm long with a separate square hood that locks onto a pin-and-claw fitting at the front of the barrel and holds a Series 7 filter; the 11115 that followed is shorter (54 mm by Puts, 57.5 mm by Shige), with a hood built in and an E55 thread
  • The front of the barrel steps down to a narrower ring with the hood-locking pin standing proud, which is why Japanese sellers call it the tapered Summicron (先細ズミクロン); Shige says it feels slightly unbalanced on a camera without its hood
  • Front ring engraved 'SUMMICRON-R 1:2/35 LEITZ CANADA' on every example photographed; serial numbers run no higher than 2,791,416
  • Turn it over to read the mount: two sloped cams is the original 2-cam lens, a third stepped cam means the R-cam was added, gold contacts mean a ROM conversion
  • Not the Summicron 35mm f/2 rangefinder lenses (the eight-element 'V1' and later), and not the Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8, whose second version shares the 12509 hood

2-cam (11227):

  • Seen from the back: two sloped Leicaflex cams on the mount ring and no third, stepped R-cam
  • Front ring engraved 'SUMMICRON-R 1:2/35 LEITZ CANADA' and the serial; 'LENS MADE IN CANADA' on the focusing ring below the distance scale (Flashback Camera photographs of nos. 2403489 and 2713597)

3-cam (R-cam added):

  • Seen from the back: the two sloped Leicaflex cams plus a third, stepped R-cam on the mount ring
  • Otherwise identical to the 2-cam lens: the same 61 mm barrel, 12509 hood, Series 7 filter and LEITZ CANADA front ring

Converted to ROM by Leica service:

  • A strip of gold ROM contacts at the back of the mount where the first sloped cam was, on the long 61 mm barrel with the Series 7 hood
  • A serial below 2,791,417: no factory ROM lens was ever made on this barrel, so contacts on it always mean a later conversion

Serial-range notes

up to 2791416
The end of the run, by Leitz's own tables: the General Catalogue of September 1978 and the Leica Handbook of December 1989 both give the 11227 "up to No. 2.791.416", and the second version starts at 2,791,417. On the general Leitz year list that number falls in the 1976 band (2,761,101–2,809,400).
2403489 and the 2.46 million range
1970 by Flashback Camera's dating, and inside the 1970 band of the general list (2,384,701–2,468,500). Flashback calls no. 2403489 one of the first 2,000 lenses of the first lot; that figure is the dealer's and was not found elsewhere.
the 2,710,000 and 2,730,000 ranges
1974 by Flashback Camera's dating; the general list puts 1974 at 2,663,401–2,731,900, so a 2,73x,xxx number may fall at the turn of 1974 and 1975. Lenses of both years have been sold with two cams and with three.
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 and is safest read against the model's own block list. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, gives 11,316 lenses for this version (and "approximately 11,000" in his text); no block list for it is cited here.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, nine elements in seven groups
Construction
9 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
68 × 61 mm
Weight
510 g
Filter
48 mm (0.75 mm pitch), Series 7 held in hood 12509; internal thread M48 × 0.75 (Leitz 1978 and 1989 tables)
Years manufactured
1970–1976
Country
Canada (engraved LEITZ CANADA on the front ring, LENS MADE IN CANADA on the barrel)
Material
Black finished metal barrel; separate square hood 12509 on two pins

What reviewers say

History

The first Summicron-R 35mm f/2 brought f/2 to the Leicaflex wide-angles, and it shows how hard the job was. Erwin Puts writes that Leitz’s optical experience did not at first include retrofocus design. Its 35/2 of 1970 performed about as well as the rangefinder Summicron 35 of the day, but it needed nine elements in seven groups and a barrel 61 mm long to get there. Fifteen years later, he notes, the same effort produced a 35/1.4. Leitz’s catalogue of January 1975 lists it as 11227: 64°, nine elements, f/16, focusing to 0.3 m with a smallest field of 140 × 210 mm, a non-rotating focusing mount and a locking hood that holds Series 7 filters. Every example photographed is engraved LEITZ CANADA on the front ring and LENS MADE IN CANADA on the barrel, and the dealers who sell them say the same. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, gives 11,316 lenses between 1970 and 1976. Leitz’s own tables close the run at serial 2,791,416, and the six-element second version begins at the next number.

Puts calls it a lens designed for reportage: high contrast in the centre, falling off markedly in the outer zones, which matter less to a photographer working that way. Shige has used one on film in an R8, on the R8 with the Digital-Modul-R, on a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and on a Leica SL. He finds it sharp in the centre and soft, sometimes flare-tinged, wide open, with corners that break up at full aperture on full-frame digital. On film it is good into the corners by f/5.6. He suggests about 20 megapixels as the practical limit and prefers the later lens optically. He also suggests why it lasted only six years: the second version is some 25% lighter by his figures (about 570 g with hood and filter against 430 g), with three fewer elements to make and assemble, in a market where R lenses had to compete on price with Japanese ones. That is his reasoning, not a Leitz statement.

The versions differ at the back of the mount, not in the glass. Lenses were made with the two sloped cams of the Leicaflex SL generation. The first cam works the meter of the original Leicaflex and the second gives full-aperture metering on the SL and SL2, so a 2-cam lens works fully on all three Leicaflex bodies. The R3 of 1976 and later bodies read a third, stepped cam. Leitz’s 1978 catalogue offered to fit that cam to existing Leicaflex lenses, which then still worked on every Leicaflex, and the 3-cam examples sold today carry 1970 and 1974 serial numbers, so they were converted. On a lens without the R-cam the sources disagree. Kamerastore says 2-cam lenses work in stop-down metering mode only and should not be used on the R8 or R9; Leica’s R9 instructions say a Leicaflex lens without the R control cam may not be used on the R9, as it can damage the camera, and must have the cam fitted before use on any R camera from the R3. Leica later offered ROM contacts for this lens too: the Handbook 2000/2001 lists the 11227 as convertible and says the Leicaflex cams are removed in the process, so a converted lens fits only R bodies. Shige’s own copy is one, and he calls the type rare. Kamerastore says about 200 lenses were first made in a silver barrel before the change to black. No silver example or second source is known, and Leitz’s 1975 catalogue lists black only.

When buying, look at the mount first. Two cams are right for a Leicaflex. For an R body you need the third cam, and for the R8 or R9 a 3-cam or ROM lens. Do not force a ROM-converted lens onto a Leicaflex. Make sure the square 12509 hood comes with it. It holds the Series 7 filter and locks onto the pin-and-claw fitting at the front; Shige finds the bare lens unbalanced without it. Shige notes that the hood is shared with the first Elmarit-R 28 and the second Elmarit-R 35 and is easy to find on its own. The front ring also takes 48 mm filters (M48 × 0.75), a size Shige says is now hard to find. Flashback Camera reports faint haze at the edges of the front and middle elements as common on this lens, so check them with a torch. Titles that name only “Summicron-R 35mm f/2” usually mean the far commoner second version. The long barrel, the separate hood, the 11227 number and a serial below 2,791,417 identify this one.

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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

More sample photos elsewhere

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

Live listings

Asking price, EUR: a median of €1,300 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half €650–€1,300). First day tracked.

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

Listings updated 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Summicron-R 35mm f/2 (II) · Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 (II) · Summilux-R 35mm f/1.4 · Summicron-R 50mm f/2 (I) · Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8 (I)

Sources (10)

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.