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

Summicron-R 35mm f/2 (II)

Leica · Leica R · 1977 · Retrofocus, six elements in six groups

our own finding

Also known as: Summicron-R 35mm f/2 · Summicron-R 35mm f2 · Summicron-R 35mm 1:2 · Summicron-R 35mm F2 II · Summicron-R 35mm f/2 II · Summicron-R II 35mm f/2 · Summicron-R 35mm f2 Type II · Summicron-R 35mm f2 V2 · Summicron-R 35/2 · Summicron-R 2/35 · Summicron-R 1:2/35 · Summicron-R 2/35mm · Summicron R 35mm f2 · Summicron R 35mm f/2 · Summicron R 35 f2 · Leica R 35mm f2 Summicron · Leica R 35mm f/2 Summicron · 35mm f2 Summicron-R · 35mm f/2 Summicron-R · 35mm Summicron-R · Summicron-R 11115 · Summicron-R 11339 · Leica 11115 · Leica 11339 · ズミクロンR 35mm F2 · ライカ ズミクロンR 35mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
3-cam (11115) Leica R, 3-cam (fits every Leicaflex and R body) 1977 — —
11115 converted to ROM by Leica service Leica R, ROM (R3 and later; not the Leicaflex bodies) — — —
Factory ROM (11339) Leica R, ROM (R3 and later; Leicaflex only after modification) — — —
  1. Specification from Leitz's own documents: the General Catalogue of 15 Sept 1978, the Handbooks of July 1982 and Dec 1989 (11115, 0.422 kg) and the Handbook 2000/2001 (11339, 0.430 kg). Leica's later data sheet adds 63° (54° horizontal, 38° vertical), a focal length of 35.2 mm, an entrance pupil 21.2 mm behind the first surface and a highest reproduction ratio of 1:6. Weight is given here as the 11115's 422 g from the Leitz catalogues; Leica lists the ROM lens at 430 g, and Kamerastore, Shige and Cinelenswiki give 430 g without distinguishing versions.
  2. Six diaphragm blades are reported by Shige, Cinelenswiki and Kamerastore, not by a Leica document. Shige also gives f/22 as the smallest aperture and 57.5 mm as the length; every Leitz and Leica document cited here gives f/16 and 54 mm from the flange.
  3. Dates: Puts and Kamerastore give 1977 for the introduction; Shige gives 1976, and the first serial number falls in the 1976 band. The end date of 2009 is Cinelenswiki's and matches the end of R production; Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, gives 1976–1999 as the production dates and 29,839 lenses, so lenses sold in the 2000s may come from earlier numbers.
  4. Shige, citing the Leica Wiki, lists 3-cam, R-cam and ROM versions. No Leica document cited here gives an order number for an R-only Summicron-R 35mm f/2, so an R-only row is not given here. The Leica 1989 handbook still describes the 11115 as fitting the Leicaflex models.
  5. Maker: Kamerastore says the lens was produced in Germany by Leitz Wetzlar; Puts calls it a design from Midland, Canada. None of the sources cited reports a Leitz Canada engraving on this version, or dates a change of engraving from Leitz to Leica on this lens.
  6. Market prices, all dealer asking prices for used lenses, not list prices: Kamerastore €999 (listing since sold) and €754 (no. T125208, with front-element scratches and slight haze) for 3-cam 11115 lenses, Leica Store San Francisco $995 for no. 3124870 (2026), Leica Store Milano €1,450 including VAT under the margin scheme for no. 3087091 described as ROM 11339 (2026). No period list price in DM or dollars is given here.
  7. The editor's numbering: version I is the nine-element 11227 of 1970–76 (its own page), version II this six-element lens in all its cam forms. The 11115 and 11339 are one optical design.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The short, straight-sided barrel with a hood that slides out of it tells the second version from the first at a glance: the first version (11227, 1970–76) is 61 mm long with a Series VII separate hood and nine elements, the second 54 mm with the hood built in and an E55 thread
  • Turn the lens over to read the mount: two sloped cams plus a stepped cam is the 3-cam 11115; a strip of contacts is ROM, factory (11339) or converted, and the serial tells which
  • Not the Summicron-M 35mm f/2 rangefinder lenses, which are a fraction of the size, and not the Summilux-R 35mm f/1.4 (E67) or the Elmarit-R 35mm f/2.8, whose 11231 version shares the E55 thread and built-in hood

3-cam (11115):

  • Order number 11115; seen from the back, two sloped Leicaflex cams and the stepped R-cam on the mount, and no row of gold contacts
  • Compact barrel 54 mm long from the flange and 66 mm across, with the hood built in and pulled forward to use it; E55 thread inside the front ring
  • Serial numbers from 2791417: the 1982 and Dec 1989 Leitz handbooks print the 11115 row 'from No. 2791417', the number after the last first-version lens (11227 'up to No. 2.791.416' in the 1978 catalogue)

11115 converted to ROM by Leica service:

  • A serial number from the 1977–1990s 11115 run together with a strip of ROM contacts at the back of the mount, where the first sloped cam was
  • Often sold under the factory ROM number 11339; the serial is the test, since a number from the late 1970s or early 1980s predates the factory ROM lens by many years

Factory ROM (11339):

  • Order number 11339; ROM contacts at the back of the mount and the stepped R-cam, no Leicaflex cams
  • Same outward barrel, hood and E55 thread as the 11115; Leica's later data sheet gives approx. 430 g against the 0.422 kg of the Leitz catalogues

Serial-range notes

2791417 onward
The first number of the second version, by Leitz's own tables: the 1978 catalogue ends the first-version 11227 at No. 2.791.416, and the 1982, 1989 and 2000/2001 accessory tables start the 2/35 at No. 2791417. On the general Leitz year list that number falls in the 1976 band (2,761,101–2,809,400), which is the root of the 1976 date some sources give; the lens itself is first catalogued in September 1978 and Puts dates its introduction to 1977.
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 29,839 numbers for this lens. A number from the late 1970s or early 1980s on a lens with ROM contacts most likely means a later conversion, not a factory 11339.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, six elements in six groups
Construction
6 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
66 × 54 mm
Weight
422 g
Filter
55 mm (0.75 mm pitch), E55 screw-in; Series 7 through adapter 14225 (1978 and 1982 Leitz catalogues)
Years manufactured
1977–2009
Country
Germany: made by Leitz Wetzlar (Kamerastore); a design from Midland, Canada (Erwin Puts)
Material
Black anodised metal barrel with built-in telescopic hood

What reviewers say

History

The second Summicron-R 35mm f/2 replaced a large and complicated first version. Erwin Puts writes that Leitz had no experience of retrofocus design when the SLR arrived, and that its first 35/2 of 1970 needed nine elements in seven groups and a 61 mm barrel to equal the rangefinder Summicron of the day. Its successor, which Puts calls a design from Midland, Canada, introduced in 1977, does the job with six elements in six groups: a negative front element with a plane first surface and a thick central element that flattens the field. Kamerastore says the lenses themselves were made by Leitz Wetzlar. Leitz’s catalogue of September 1978 already lists it as 11115: 64°, f/16, 0.3 m, a smallest field of 140 × 210 mm, an E55 thread (Series 7 through adapter 14225), a telescopic hood built into the barrel, 54 mm long, 66 mm across and 422 g. That catalogue closes the first version at serial 2,791,416, and the later Leitz and Leica handbooks open this one at 2,791,417.

What changed for the photographer is evenness. Puts describes the first version as a reportage lens, contrasty in the centre and much weaker in the outer zones, and the second as more even at full aperture and much better to handle. At f/2 he finds medium-high contrast with some softness at outlines. From f/2.8 the slight veiling flare disappears, the best results come at f/4 to f/5.6, and two stops of vignetting show only on even areas at the frame edge. Shige, who has used both versions on film, on an R8 with the DMR and on a Leica SL, makes the same comparison: the corners that break up on the first version hold on this one, and colour fringing is reduced but not gone. Shige also notes that the diaphragm has six blades where the first version had eight, so out-of-focus highlights are hexagonal.

The versions differ at the back of the mount, not in the glass. The 11115 is a 3-cam lens. It has the two sloped Leicaflex cams and the stepped R-cam, and Leica’s 1989 handbook lists it for all R models and all Leicaflex models, so it meters at full aperture on an SL, SL2 or any R body and with the first cam on the original Leicaflex. In the R8 era Leica sold it as 11339 with ROM contacts in place of the first cam. Leica’s Handbook 2000/2001 lists the 11339 for the R3 to R8 and says it can be modified for Leicaflex use through customer service. Leica’s handbook says only the R8 among its bodies of the time used the contacts, for focal length identification and a motor-zoom flash reflector; the later data sheet adds the R9. The same handbook lists the 11115 as convertible to ROM, and a conversion removes the Leicaflex cams. Lenses with early-1980s serial numbers and ROM contacts therefore turn up, and some are sold as 11339. Shige reports that the Leica Wiki also records an R-cam-only version, but no Leica document cited here gives an order number for one. Leica’s data sheet raises the weight to about 430 g for the ROM lens. The barrel, hood and optics are otherwise the same.

When buying, match the mount to the bodies first. A 3-cam lens fits everything from the 1964 Leicaflex to the R9. A ROM lens, factory or converted, should not be forced onto a Leicaflex: Doug Herr, as quoted by Photoethnography, warns that the cam follower can damage the contacts, and Leica’s answer was a service modification. On bodies before the R8 the contacts do nothing. Check that the built-in hood slides out and stays put, because it cannot be replaced like a clip-on one. Look for haze and scratches on the large front element. Do not take the order number on a box or in a title as proof of the mount: read the serial and look at the cams. A ROM lens numbered in the late 1970s or early 1980s was most likely converted later, not made that way.

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

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,300 across 30 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $1,000–$1,900). First day tracked.

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

Show 55 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 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

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

Sources (12)

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.