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

Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE (v5, 2010 · 2022 close focus)

Leica · Leica M · 2010 · Aspherical, with floating element

Known as “FLE”

Also known as: Summilux-M 35 FLE · 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE · FLE Summilux · Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH 11663 · Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH 11726 · Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH 11727 · Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH 11675 · Summilux 35 v5 · Summilux 35 FLE v5 · Summilux 35mm v5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black (11663) Leica M 2010 4006688–4099313 (2010) — observed span, not an assigned block
4101380–4139941 (2011) — observed span
4152171–4194109 (2012) — observed span
4213204–4236795 and 4300338–4307609 (2013) — two observed spans 		No figure published
Edition 600, stainless steel (11675) Leica M 2014–2014 4307610–4308210 (2014) — the only closed block on the page, marked SS, and the only row for this lens with no dashes on either end 600 lenses
Close-focus version, 2022 (11726 black, 11727 silver) Leica M 2022 — In production; no figure published
  1. Takes E46 filters and is supplied with the 12 465 hood, which is smaller and made of solid metal: Ken Rockwell weighs the lens at 328 g with that hood fitted, and notes that where the 1994 ASPH hid the aperture ring under its lock ring, this one leaves it reachable.
  2. No production total has been published for this lens. The wiki's total row reads "unknown" for both the quantity and the closing year, and the entry's "No figure published" stands.
  3. The 2010 row's arithmetic does not close. The wiki gives the span as 4006688 to 4099313 and the total as 92,696+, where the span itself is 92,626 numbers inclusive — a difference of 70. Every other row on the page agrees with its own span to the number.
  4. Buyers name the 35mm f/1.4 Summiluxes by barrel and glass rather than by strict number, but the sequence is: v1 the steel-rim of 1961 and v2 of 1967 (one design, the pre-ASPH); the double-aspherical 'AA' of 1990; the ASPH of 1994; the FLE of 2010 with its floating element, and the 2022 close-focus barrel of the same glass. Where a seller writes v3, v4 or v5 they mean the AA, the ASPH and the FLE. This entry carries its place in that sequence; the other pages carry the rest.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • FLE — a floating element that moves independently as the lens focuses
  • True focal length 35.6mm; entrance pupil 16.6mm from the front surface
  • 63 degrees on film, 49 degrees on an 18×27 sensor, behaving as a 47mm

Edition 600, stainless steel (11675):

  • Stainless steel finish

Close-focus version, 2022 (11726 black, 11727 silver):

  • Minimum focus 0.4 m against the FLE's 0.7 m, with a second, click-stopped focus range below 0.7 m for live view
  • Round screw-in hood in place of the FLE's rectangular clip-on; 11726 in black, 11727 in silver

Serial-range notes

4006688–4308210
THE RULE, and it is weaker here than on any pre-2006 Leitz lens. Leica never numbered a model from one and never put a date inside the number: every lens drew its serial from one running sequence, so a number is dated by looking it up rather than by reading it. For lenses of this era that means two lists that do not agree. The general lens list on the Leica Wiki's serial-number links page gives 4100001–4115000 for 2010, 4115001–4130000 for 2011, 4130001–4210000 for 2012, 4210001–4280000 for 2013 and 4280001–4400000 for 2014. This lens's own model page gives 4006688–4099313 for 2010 — a span the general list reads as 2004 to 2009. The model rows run roughly a year ahead of the general list throughout. Both are recorded; neither can be preferred on what is published.
the leading and trailing dashes
What the model table actually is. Every row but one is printed as -4006688 and 4099313-, with a plus on the total, and the page says the numbers are "compiled from known lenses". These are the lowest and highest serials anyone has reported for an FLE in that year, not blocks Leica assigned. A number inside a span is consistent with the year and is not evidence of it; a number outside every span is not evidence against one either.
4307610–4308210
The Edition 600 in stainless steel, 2014, and the only row on the page with no dashes — a closed block. It runs 601 numbers for an edition of 600, the off-by-one that comes of counting a range inclusively at one end and not the other; the page prints 600. It also begins one number above 4307609, where the last 2013 row ends, so the edition was numbered straight on from ordinary production rather than out of a reserved sequence.
4074699
Recorded on the wiki with a tilde, its notation for a stolen lens, in the 2010 row: "please report if found on sale". It is the only individual FLE serial the page singles out.
4074683–4083334
A caution for anyone buying on serial alone. This span is printed on the Leica Wiki's page for the 1994 ASPH Summilux, dated 2007 there, and it sits wholly inside the 4006688–4099313 the FLE page claims for 2010. The product column on the FLE page reads "Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH." with no FLE, so the two lenses are not distinguished by the tables at all — only by the 2010 start of this one's production era. The barrel, which carries the floating element and the 12465 hood mount, tells them apart; the number does not.

Specifications

Formula
Aspherical, with floating element
Construction
9 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/16
Min. focus
0.7 m
Weight
320 g
Filter
46 mm
Years manufactured
2010
Country
Germany

What reviewers say

History

FLE stands for floating element, and it addresses the one thing the 1994 ASPH Summilux did not. A lens computed to be excellent at infinity drifts as it focuses closer, because the distances between its elements were optimised for one subject distance. A floating element moves independently of the rest as the barrel turns, holding the correction across the focusing range.

At 0.7 m and f/1.4 on a 35mm lens that matters more than it sounds: this is exactly the combination — close, wide, wide open — where the earlier lens softened.

Its data sheet gives the true focal length as 35.6mm and its behaviour on a cropped sensor as a 47mm, which is the modern Leica convention. A stainless steel Edition 600 followed in 2014.

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 Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE (v5, 2010 · 2022 close focus)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $5,300 across 73 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $4,700–$6,400). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $5,300.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$5,300$4,700–$6,40073
2026-09-06$5,300$4,700–$6,40069

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

Show 73 more listings

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

Related: Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH (v4, 1994) · Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 Aspherical (AA, double aspherical) · Summilux 35mm f/1.4 (v1, steel rim) · Summilux 35mm f/1.4 (v2, pre-ASPH)

Sources (5)

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.