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

Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH.

Leica · Leica R · 2002

Also known as: Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f3.5-4 · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm F3.5-4 ASPH · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 ASPH · Vario-Elmar-R 3.5-4/21-35 · Vario-Elmar-R 3,5-4/21-35 · Vario-Elmar-R 3.5-4/21-35mm · Vario-Elmar-R 3,5-4/21-35mm · Vario-Elmar-R 3.5-4.0/21-35mm · Vario-Elmar-R 3,5-4,0/21-35mm · Vario-Elmar-R 3.5-4/21-35 mm · Vario-Elmar-R 1:3.5-4/21-35 · Vario-Elmar-R 1:3,5-4/21-35 · Vario-Elmar-R 1:3.5-4.0/21-35 mm · Vario-Elmar-R 1:3,5-4,0/21-35 mm · Vario-Elmar-R 1:3.5-4.0/21-35mm · Vario Elmar R 21-35mm · Vario Elmar R 21-35 · Vario-Elmar R 21-35 · Vario Elmar-R 21-35 · Vario Elmar R 21 35mm · 21-35mm Vario-Elmar-R · 21-35mm f3.5-4 Vario-Elmar-R · Leica R 21-35mm Vario-Elmar · Leica R 21-35mm f3.5-4 · Leica R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 · Leica R 21-35 ASPH · Leica 21-35mm f3.5-4 ASPH · Leica 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH · Leica 21-35mm f3.5-4 Vario-Elmar-R · Leica 21-35 ROM · Leica 11274 · ライカ バリオエルマーR 21-35mm · バリオエルマーR 21-35mm · バリオ・エルマーR 21-35mm · ライカ バリオ・エルマーR 21-35mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
ROM, black anodized (11274) Leica R, ROM (R3 to R9 by Leica's data sheet; not the Leicaflex bodies) 2002–2009 3925810, a lens Leitz Auction dates to 2001
3942144 (Leica Store Munich), 3950693 and 3950841 (Leica Store Paris, both dated 2002), 3951627 (Leica Store Berlin) and 3960227 (Classic Store Wetzlar, dated 2003), lenses offered through Leica Camera Classic in November 2026 		—
  1. Specification from Leica's product information (11 February 2002) and technical data booklet: angle of view 91.6° to 63.4° diagonal, nine elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, internal focusing, 0.5 m to infinity, smallest field 462 × 692 mm at 21 mm (1:19.2) and 300 × 450 mm at 35 mm (1:12.5), fully automatic diaphragm with half-stop clicks to f/22, non-rotating front, E67 internal filter thread, separate bayonet hood, 66.3 mm long from the bayonet flange, 75 mm across, about 500 g. Apotelyt's R catalogue gives the same 9/8, 0.5 m, E67, 75 × 66 mm and 500 g.
  2. Diaphragm blades: Shige's hobby lists six. No Leica document consulted gives the number, so it is not entered as a specification.
  3. Dates. Leica's English product information is dated 11 February 2002 and gives the bayonet as for the R3 to the R8; the technical data booklet, which already names the R9, gives the R3 to the R9. Leitz Auction dates lens 3925810 to 2001 and Shige's hobby gives the release date as 2001, both from the serial. 2002 is used here as the year the lens was offered; 2009 is when Leica ended R production (Leica announcement of 5 March 2009, as Wikipedia reports it), and no document dating the last lens was found.
  4. Production. Shige's hobby gives about 3,400 lenses up to 2005, a figure it says comes from the Leica Wiki. Nothing is known for 2006 to 2009.
  5. Maker. Sellers write both 'Germany' and 'Japan'. The barrel of lens 3950841 is engraved LENS MADE IN GERMANY 11274 in the Leica Store Paris photographs, and the hood says LEICA CAMERA GERMANY. No Leica document consulted says which factory built the lens or who designed it.
  6. Body fit. Leica gives the bayonet as for the R3 to the R9, with additional electronic exposure control on the R8 and R9. It is a ROM lens without the sloped Leicaflex cams, and the site's Leicaflex page records Doug Herr's warning, as quoted by Photoethnography, that the Leicaflex cam follower can damage ROM contacts, and its Leicaflex SL page reports Apotelyt that ROM lenses cannot be used on any Leicaflex. It is therefore listed against the R3 to the R9 only, not the Leicaflex, Leicaflex SL or Leicaflex SL2.
  7. Filters. Leica's product information recommends only slim polarizing filters without a front thread, to avoid vignetting at 21 mm, and warns against its own circular polarizer 13407 with front thread. Leica offered a UVa filter, order no. 13386.
  8. Prices. No period list price was found. Leitz Auction 29 sold lens 3925810, near mint with hood, UVa filter, caps and box, for €1,920 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €2,000 to €2,400. In November 2026 Leica's own used shops asked €1,550 and €1,990 (Paris), €1,850 (Munich), €1,900 (Wetzlar) and €2,195 (Berlin). These are asking prices including VAT under the margin scheme, not sale results.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The only Leica R zoom that reaches 21 mm; about 66 mm long, 75 mm across and 500 g, with an E67 thread
  • The maximum aperture falls from f/3.5 at 21 mm to f/4 at 35 mm. Leica's MTF pages give f/3.62 at 24 mm and f/3.85 at 28 mm
  • Not the Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21mm f/4 ASPH. or Tri-Elmar-M 28-35-50mm for the Leica M, and not the autofocus Super-Vario-Elmar-SL 16-35mm for Leica's L-mount, which sellers list under similar names

ROM, black anodized (11274):

  • A row of gold ROM contacts at the back of the mount and no sloped Leicaflex cams (rear photographs of lenses 3951627 and 3950841)
  • Front ring engraved LEICA, VARIO-ELMAR-R 1:3.5-4/21-35 ASPH., E67 and the serial number
  • Ribbed focusing ring at the front with orange feet and white metre scale and no depth-of-field scale; ribbed zoom ring behind it marked 35 31 28 24 21 with 21-35 printed in orange; aperture ring at the back marked 3.5 to 22 beside a red mounting dot
  • LENS MADE IN GERMANY and the order number 11274 engraved round the barrel just above the aperture ring (lens 3950841)
  • Plastic petal hood engraved LEICA CAMERA GERMANY and R3.5-4/21-35 (photographs of lenses 3950841 and 3951627), with its two larger petals cut off straight so the lens can stand on its face (Leica product information)

Serial-range notes

the seven-digit number on the front ring
Leica numbered every lens in one running sequence reserved in blocks, so a number dates a lens only roughly. Lenses seen for sale run from 3,925,810, which Leitz Auction dates to 2001, to 3,960,227, which the Leica Store Wetzlar dates to 2003. The Leica Store Paris dates 3,950,693 and 3,950,841 to 2002. A number from 2001 is earlier than Leica's product information of February 2002: the date is when the block was reserved, not when the lens was finished or sold. Shige's hobby, reproducing the Leica Wiki, gives about 3,400 lenses up to 2005; no serial from the years 2006 to 2009 has been seen.

Specifications

Formula
Wide-angle zoom of nine elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, built as two systems that move together to zoom, focused internally by the first (Leica product information, February 2002)
Construction
9 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
75 × 66.3 mm
Weight
500 g
Filter
67 mm, E67 internal thread; separate scalloped bayonet hood 12438, which also fits reversed for storage (Leica product information, 2002)
Years manufactured
2002–2009
Country
Germany: the barrel of lens 3950841 is engraved LENS MADE IN GERMANY 11274 (Leica Store Paris photographs, 2026); no Leica document consulted names the factory
Material
Black anodized metal barrel with ribbed focusing and zoom rings (Leica technical data; dealer photographs)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Wide-angle zoom of nine elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, built as two systems that move together to zoom, focused internally by the first (Leica product information, February 2002)
ⓘ What these charts mean

MTF (modulation transfer function) shows how much contrast the lens keeps at a given fineness of detail, from the center of the frame to the corner — the coarse curves track punch, the fine ones resolving power, and a gap between solid and dashed lines means astigmatism. Relative illumination (falloff) shows how much darker the corners are than the center at each aperture. Manufacturers only began publishing these for modern lenses; no 1950s maker issued them, which is why older families here cite period magazine bench tests instead.

History

The Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH. was Leica’s first and only wide-angle zoom for the R system. Leica’s English product information, dated 11 February 2002, presents it as extending the R zoom range “to include the wide-angle sector” and as a lens to replace up to four fixed wide-angles, to be carried with the Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4 and 80-200mm f/4 as a three-lens outfit. It has nine elements in eight groups with two aspherical surfaces, and Leica says two of the elements are of highly refractive glass and glass with anomalous partial dispersion. The lens is built as two systems that move towards each other to reach 35 mm and apart to reach 21 mm; the first system focuses internally, so the front does not turn. Erwin Puts, in his Leica R-Lenses introduction of July 2003, groups it with the 35-70mm f/4 as a two-group zoom with mechanical coupling. At 66.3 mm long and about 500 g, with an E67 thread, it is a small lens for its range.

Leica’s own figures are frank about what a short wide zoom gives up. Vignetting at full aperture is about 2 stops in the corners at 21 mm and 1.3 stops at 35 mm, halved by stopping down two or three stops. Distortion is barrel-shaped, about 3% at 21 mm, 2% at 25 mm and 1% at 35 mm. The maximum aperture slips from f/3.5 to f/4 as the lens zooms. As a two-ring zoom it has no depth-of-field scale, so Leica printed depth-of-field tables for 21, 24, 28 and 35 mm in the manual. Close focus is 0.5 m at every focal length. Shige’s hobby, who has used the lens on an R8 with film and on Leica digital bodies, finds high and even resolution with little vignetting, but ghosting at 21 mm against strong light and slightly soft edges on fine detail.

There is one version, order number 11274, black anodized, with ROM contacts. On an R8 or R9 the contacts pass the lens data to the body for metering and flash. Leica gives the bayonet as for the R3 to the R9, so the R3 to R7 meter with it mechanically at full aperture. It has no sloped Leicaflex cams and should not be put on a Leicaflex, Leicaflex SL or SL2: the site’s Leicaflex page records Doug Herr’s warning, quoted by Photoethnography, that the Leicaflex cam follower can damage ROM contacts. Sellers describe it as made in Germany or in Japan, and the Vario-Elmar-R 28-70mm and 35-70mm f/4 of the 1990s were built in Japan by Sigma and Kyocera (Dr Joseph Yao, quoted in Andrew Nemeth’s Leica FAQ), but the lens 3950841 photographed by the Leica Store Paris is engraved “LENS MADE IN GERMANY 11274” round the barrel. No Leica document consulted names the factory or the designer. Shige’s hobby, citing the Leica Wiki, gives about 3,400 lenses made up to 2005. Leica announced the end of R production in March 2009; no document dating the last lens has been found.

When buying, check the front and rear elements for haze and cleaning marks, and the zoom and focus rings for smooth, even travel. Shige’s hobby warns that the plastic hood, order number 12438, and its bayonet lock break easily, and that replacements have become hard to find, so check that the hood comes with the lens. A complete lens has front and rear caps, the hood and the soft leather case. Leica advises slim polarizers without a front thread, which avoid vignetting at 21 mm. Leitz Auction sold a near-mint 2001 lens with box and UVa filter for €1,920 including buyer’s premium, and in November 2026 Leica’s own used shops were asking €1,550 to €2,195 including VAT.

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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

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH.? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,300 across 13 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $1,900–$2,500). First day tracked.

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

Show 2 more listings

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

Related: Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4 · Vario-Elmar-R 80-200mm f/4 · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH. · Vario-Elmar-R 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 · Super-Elmarit-R 15mm f/2.8 ASPH. · Elmarit-R 19mm f/2.8 (II) · Elmarit-R 24mm f/2.8

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.