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

Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4

Leica · Leica R · 1997

Also known as: Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4 · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f4 · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f4.0 · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70 f4 · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70 f/4 · Vario-Elmar-R 4/35-70 · Vario-Elmar-R 4/35-70mm · Vario-Elmar-R 1:4/35-70 · Vario-Elmar-R 1:4/35-70mm · Vario-Elmar-R 1:4/35-70 mm · Vario-Elmar-R F4 35-70mm · Vario Elmar R 35-70mm f4 · Vario Elmar R 35-70 f4 · Vario Elmar R 4/35-70 · Vario-Elmar R 35-70 f4 · Vario Elmar-R 35-70 f4 · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm ROM · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70 ROM · Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm Macro · Leica R 35-70mm f4 · Leica R 35-70mm f/4 · Leica R 35-70 f4 · Leica R 35-70mm f4 ROM · Leica 35-70mm f4 Vario-Elmar-R · Leica 35-70mm f/4 Vario-Elmar-R · Leica Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f4 ROM · Leica Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f4 · Leica 35-70 f4 ROM · Leica 11277 · ライカ バリオエルマーR 35-70mm F4 · バリオエルマーR 35-70mm F4 · バリオ・エルマーR 35-70mm F4 · LEICA VARIO-ELMAR-R 35-70mm F4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
ROM with focal-length sensor (11277) Leica R, ROM (R3 and later bodies; cannot be modified for the Leicaflex bodies) 1997 — —
  1. Specification from Leica's 2000/2001 handbook: angle of view 64° to 34°, eight elements in seven components, E60 with an internal M 60 × 0.75 thread, fully automatic diaphragm with half-stop clicks, smallest aperture 22, focusing to 0.6 m with a macro setting at 0.26 m, smallest field 350 × 525 mm at 35 mm (about 1:14.6), 192 × 288 mm at 70 mm (about 1:8) and 67 × 101 mm at the macro setting (about 1:2.8), separate rubber-armoured zoom ring, front lens 62 mm across, 79 mm from the bayonet flange, 0.505 kg, lens cap 14233, rear cover 14162, hood 12437.
  2. Conflicts between Leica's own documents. Leica's technical data sheet for the lens gives focusing from 0.5 m (0.26 m in the macro position), a smallest aperture of f/16, 63° to 34°, 79 mm long, 74 mm across and 505 g; it also labels the 35 mm figures '28 mm focal length'. The handbook gives 0.6 m and 22. The aperture ring on the lens Kamerastore photographs runs to 22, so f/22 is given here. Kamerastore and English Wikipedia also give 0.6 m, and Nemeth says it focuses to 60 cm. English Wikipedia gives the size as 62 × 79 mm; 62 mm is the handbook's front-lens diameter, against the data sheet's 74 mm largest diameter. The data sheet credits one element with an aspherical surface; the lens is not named ASPH by Leica.
  3. Number of diaphragm blades: Kamerastore gives eight; neither Leica's handbook nor its data sheet gives a figure, so the field is left empty.
  4. Dates. Yao gives a launch in 1997 and called it the current model in July 2002. Leica's 2000/2001 handbook lists it. English Wikipedia's lens table gives 1997–2009, 2009 being the year Leica ended R production; no Leica document dates the last lens, so no end year is given. No production figure is given here.
  5. Body fit. Leica's 2000/2001 handbook gives the bayonet as for the R3 to R8 and says the lens cannot be modified for the Leicaflex models; Leica's data sheet gives the R3 to R9, and the site's R-E page records that the R-E takes ROM lenses on its R-cam. Kamerastore says it will not fit Leicaflex cameras, and the site's Leicaflex page records Doug Herr's warning, quoted by Photoethnography, that ROM lenses should not be forced onto a Leicaflex, whose cam follower would damage the contacts. The page is therefore joined to the R3 to R9 only; it does not mount on the Leicaflex, Leicaflex SL or Leicaflex SL2.
  6. Extender. Leica's 2000/2001 handbook page for this lens approves the APO-Extender-R 2x (11269), making an f/8 70-140 mm, and names no other extender.
  7. Prices. No period list price in DM or dollars was found. Yao offered the lens new at US$799 in July 2002, a dealer's price, the same as he asked for the 28-70 11364. In November 2026 Kamerastore's product page for a used 11277 showed US$1,287, a dealer's asking price with duties and taxes added at checkout, marked sold out.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Constant f/4: the aperture ring starts at 4, and the front ring reads 1:4/35-70. The earlier Minolta-derived Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm (11244, 11248) is an f/3.5
  • MACRO marked on the zoom ring past 70; the macro setting focuses to 0.26 m
  • E60 filter thread and the same separate screw-in hood, 12437, as the Kyocera-built 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5; there is no built-in hood
  • Not the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f/2.8 ASPH (E77, built-in telescopic hood, about twice the weight), and not the fixed Vario-Elmar 35-70mm f/3.5-6.5 of the Leica minilux zoom compact

ROM with focal-length sensor (11277):

  • A row of gold ROM contacts at the back of the mount beside the stepped R-cam; no sloped Leicaflex cams (Kamerastore: 'a stepped cam, like on the 3rd-Cam, plus electronic contacts')
  • Front ring engraved VARIO-ELMAR-R 1:4/35-70 and E 60 (Kamerastore's photograph)
  • Two broad ribbed rings: focusing at the front with the distance scale in orange feet and white metres, zoom behind it marked 35 40 50 60 70 and MACRO beyond the 70, with 35-70 printed in orange; aperture ring at the back running 4 to 22 (Kamerastore's photograph)
  • Order number 11277 on the box and in Leica's 2000/2001 lens and ROM tables

Specifications

Formula
Zoom of eight elements in seven groups, one element with an aspherical surface (Leica data sheet); a Leica optical design (Yao, quoted by Nemeth)
Construction
8 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/4–f/22
Min. focus
0.26 m
Dimensions
74 × 79 mm
Weight
505 g
Filter
60 mm (0.75 mm pitch), E60, internal thread M 60 × 0.75; separate screw-in hood 12437, which also screws on reversed (Leica 2000/2001; Leica data sheet)
Years manufactured
1997
Country
Japan: built by Kyocera to a Leica design, per Dr Joseph Yao quoted by Andrew Nemeth
Material
Black anodized finish with a separate rubber-armoured zoom ring (Leica 2000/2001)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Zoom of eight elements in seven groups, one element with an aspherical surface (Leica data sheet); a Leica optical design (Yao, quoted by Nemeth)
ⓘ 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 35-70mm f/4 is the constant-aperture standard zoom of the late R system: a Leica design, made in Japan. Dr Joseph Yao, a Leica importer and dealer whose notes of July 2002 Andrew Nemeth reproduces in his Leica FAQ, gives its origin plainly: launched in 1997, Leica optics, Leica-designed mechanics, built by Kyocera in Japan. It is a compact two-ring zoom of eight elements in seven groups, one of them with an aspherical surface, at a constant f/4, with an E60 filter thread, a separate screw-in hood and a macro setting that reaches 0.26 m, about 1:2.8. It weighs 505 g by both of Leica’s own documents.

There is one version, order number 11277, and it came with ROM contacts and a focal-length sensor from the start: Leica’s 2000/2001 handbook marks it “already with ROM and sensor”. On an R8 or R9 the contacts pass the focal length to the body, which can set the zoom head of a suitable flash to match, and supply the R8’s additional electronic exposure compensation; every other R body from the R3 on, the R-E included, uses the stepped R-cam and meters at full aperture. Yao says that the 11277 and the 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 (11364) launched the same year, which he says Kyocera also built, are mechanically and cosmetically identical, sharing mount and build and differing only in optics, which in the 28-70’s case are Sigma’s. Nemeth’s own summary calls both 28-70s Sigma-built and the 11277 Solms-designed and Kyocera-made. The 28-70 and the 35-70 take the same hood, 12437 (Leica 2000/2001).

It does not fit the Leicaflex bodies. Leica’s handbook footnote says the lens cannot be modified for the Leicaflex models, Kamerastore says it will not fit them, and the site’s Leicaflex page records Doug Herr’s warning that a Leicaflex cam follower would damage ROM contacts. Leica’s own documents disagree on two figures: the handbook gives focusing from 0.6 m outside the macro range and a smallest aperture of 22, while Leica’s later technical data sheet gives 0.5 m and f/16. The lens Kamerastore photographs has an aperture ring running to 22. The handbook also approves the APO-Extender-R 2x with it, making an f/8 70-140mm.

Nemeth’s answer to which short R zoom to buy is this one, by elimination: the Minolta-sourced 35-70mm f/3.5 vignetted with filters and turned its front when focusing, its later Solms-made version still focuses only to 1 m, the 28-70s have no great reputation, and the f/2.8 ASPH had become a scarce and expensive collector’s piece. Yao, who sold both Kyocera zooms at the same US$799 in 2002, thought the 35-70mm f/4 optically much better than the 28-70 and valued its constant aperture. It is easy to confuse with its predecessor, the Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/3.5, which also has an E60 thread in its first version; the f/4 reads 1:4/35-70 on the front ring and has MACRO marked on the zoom ring.

When buying, look at the back of the mount: the 11277 should show gold contacts beside the stepped R-cam and no sloped cams. Check that the zoom moves into the MACRO position and back cleanly and that focus has no play, and look for haze, as with any lens of its age. The hood is a separate part, so check that it comes with the lens. Sellers sometimes title the lens with the camera it is sold with, and the fixed Vario-Elmar 35-70mm of the minilux zoom compact shares the name without the “-R”.

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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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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,200 across 16 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $1,100–$1,500). First day tracked.

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

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

Related: Vario-Elmar-R 35-70mm f/3.5 · Vario-Elmar-R 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 · Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f/2.8 ASPH. · Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH. · Vario-Elmar-R 21-35mm f/3.5-4 ASPH. · Vario-Elmar-R 80-200mm f/4

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.