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

Zuiko 35mm f/2

Olympus · Olympus OM · 1973 · Retrofocus, 8 elements in 7 groups

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2 f=35mm · OM-System Zuiko MC Auto-W 35mm f/2 · OM-System Zuiko Auto-W 35mm 1:2 · Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f2 · H.Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2 · Olympus OM 35mm f/2 · OM Zuiko 2/35 · ズイコー 35mm F2 · ZUIKO AUTO-W 35mm F2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
H.Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2 (single-coated, silver nose) Olympus OM — — —
Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2 f=35mm (silver nose, then black nose) Olympus OM — — —
Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2 (MC dropped from the engraving) Olympus OM — — —
  1. The launch year. mir.com.my treats the H.Zuiko as an early OM lens and Pangerl's 1975 book describes it with a cross-section, but the dementix M-1 page does not list it among the lenses known to have been sold under the M-System name in 1972–73, and Olypedia's quotation from zeissikonveb.de puts Yamashita's work on it alongside Fujii's 1972 patent for the 28mm f/2. The frontmatter carries 1973 as the earliest year consistent with that; no source consulted prints a firm date, and lens-db's page title (unreachable from here) carries 1972.
  2. The H.Zuiko's coating is disputed. Braddon-Mitchell says the oldest version was single-coated and very rare because multicoating came early; Paul Amyes likewise calls the first silver-nosed version single-coated. Olypedia, which has never seen one, reads Pangerl as describing a multicoated lens and suggests it was lent to journalists for testing. The variant is named as single-coated on the two sources that describe examples, and the disagreement is recorded here.
  3. The 49mm filter. Paul Amyes gives the first version a 49mm thread and mir.com.my says "some older version may offer smaller filter attachment size at 49mm"; Olypedia knows a 49mm-thread lens only as a prototype pictured on an Olympus Japan wallpaper, and says Olympus Japan has no records of it because the staff of the time have retired or died. The spec table carries 55mm, the figure on Olympus's own sheet.
  4. Length. Olympus's sheet, Wikipedia's table and the Japanese table give 42mm; mir.com.my and Paul Amyes give 43mm for the MC lens and 42mm for the older one; Olypedia gives 60mm, which is the diameter in every other source and is treated here as a transposition. The spec table carries Olympus's 42mm.
  5. Prices. OM-mania gives a launch price of ¥58,000, without saying which year's list it comes from; it is the only yen figure found and carries the single-source badge. Olypedia gives 422 DM from "der große Foto-Katalog 92/93". mir.com.my's remark that the first 35mm f/2 with an MC designation "only appeared very late in 1982" contradicts the silver-nosed MC lenses that Olypedia, Amyes and Braddon-Mitchell all describe, and is recorded without being reconciled.
  6. No source consulted gives a blade count from Olympus's own data, so none is carried.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 55mm filter thread on an OM wide-angle: the f/2.8 takes 49mm, so the thread alone separates the two 35s
  • Eight elements in seven groups, 42–43mm long, 240g; a strongly convex front element that Olypedia warns is made of a soft glass and scratches easily
  • Front ring reads H.Zuiko, Zuiko MC or plain Zuiko in that order of age; a silver nose can carry either of the first two

H.Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2 (single-coated, silver nose):

  • Front ring engraved H.Zuiko (H for the eighth letter, eight elements), brushed-aluminium silver nose, no MC
  • Shorter and lighter barrel: 42mm and 230g against 43mm and 240g for the MC lens (mir.com.my; Paul Amyes)
  • Reported with a 49mm filter thread where the MC lens takes 55mm; disputed, see the table notes

Zuiko MC Auto-W 1:2 f=35mm (silver nose, then black nose):

  • MC on the front ring; the earliest have the silver nose, later ones an all-black front
  • 55mm filter thread, 43mm long, 240g; a large front element with a strongly convex first surface
  • Olypedia reports early MC examples with very colourful coating reflections and later ones less so

Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f/2 (MC dropped from the engraving):

  • Front ring reads OM-System Zuiko Auto-W with no MC; still multicoated
  • David Braddon-Mitchell finds it just a little longer than the MC lens, which he takes as a possible sign of a late mechanical or optical change

Serial-range notes

any number
No published serial table. CHLNGR's Zuiko list says each lens type started at 100,000 and ran its own series, and notes that on some lenses (it names the 35mm f/2.8) the count restarted at 100,000 when the multicoated version arrived. Nothing found ties a number on this lens to a version.
silver nose against black nose
Finish only. Olypedia calls the black-nosed MC lens the second version with cosmetic changes alone, and Braddon-Mitchell agrees the silver-nosed lenses, even marked MC, are the older body.

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus, 8 elements in 7 groups
Designed by
Yamashita Nobuo — worked on a Zuiko 2/35 mm alongside an 18mm f/3.5 at the time of Fujii's 28mm f/2, per Marco Kröger's retrofocus history on zeissikonveb.de as quoted by Olypedia
Construction
8 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
60 × 42 mm
Weight
240 g
Filter
55 mm
Years manufactured
1973
Country
Japan
Coating
Single-coated on the H.Zuiko per the sources that describe examples; multicoated on every MC and later lens
Original price
¥58,000 at launch (OM-mania, single source); 422 DM in the 1992/93 German catalogue (Olypedia) (today ¥163,000)

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Vignetting
gone by f/4
Flare & ghosting
prone to ghosting
Coma
visible wide open
Distortion
slight barrel
Optical formula — Retrofocus, 8 elements in 7 groups

History

The fast 35 of the OM system, and the lens whose reputation the OM community has argued over longest. Olympus built it as eight elements in seven groups, a retrofocus design with a large, strongly convex front element behind a 55 mm filter thread, the only OM wide-angle short of the 21mm f/2 to take that size; it is 42 or 43 mm long depending on version and weighs 240 g. Olypedia quotes Marco Kröger’s retrofocus history to the effect that Nobuo Yamashita was working on a Zuiko 2/35 at the same time Toru Fujii was patenting the 28mm f/2 in January 1972, and Franz Pangerl described it with a cross-section in his 1975 book, but it is not among the lenses the dementix M-1 page records as sold under the M-System name in 1972 and early 1973, and no source found here prints a firm launch date. OM-mania gives a launch price of ¥58,000, between the 28mm f/2.8 at ¥47,000 and the 28mm f/2 at ¥100,000, and Olypedia has it at 422 DM in the German catalogue of 1992/93.

Three engravings, and this time the first one is a real object. The H.Zuiko Auto-W, silver-nosed and without MC, is the version David Braddon-Mitchell calls single-coated and very rare, rare because Olympus multicoated this lens early; Paul Amyes and mir.com.my both give it a shorter, lighter barrel, 42 mm and 230 g, and both report a 49 mm filter thread on it, which Olypedia knows only from a prototype on an Olympus Japan wallpaper and which Olympus Japan can no longer document. Olypedia itself has never seen an H.Zuiko and reads Pangerl as describing a multicoated lens, so the coating of the earliest version is disputed and the table notes say so. The Zuiko MC Auto-W that followed came first with the silver nose and then with a black one, the same lens in a different finish, and Olypedia records that the early MC lenses have more colourful coating reflections than the later ones. The last version drops MC from the engraving; Braddon-Mitchell finds it a little longer than the MC lens and slightly better in contrast, doubts that the optics changed, and admits he cannot say when any change happened.

The reviews divide along a line that Braddon-Mitchell himself draws: the lens has a poor reputation in some circles, and he suspects that sample variation or a late change to the design explains it. Paul Amyes, testing an MC lens, found it quite soft and low in contrast wide open across the frame, much better in the centre by f/8, with slight barrel distortion, chromatic aberration at f/2 and a strong tendency to ghost with a point source in the frame. OM-mania agrees on the low contrast and the flare in backlight, adds coma near full aperture and a barrel distortion that grows at close range, and rates it below the cheaper f/2.8. PhotoArk’s Steven, who bought a late lens new old stock in 2005 expecting the worst, found contrast and sharpness as good as any of his Zuikos and shot most of his holiday slides through it for years. Olypedia’s own view is that the 28mm f/2 is the better corrected of the two f/2 wides at full aperture and that the 35 needs a stop down to match it, which is consistent with all of the above.

What to check when buying. The front element is large, exposed and, Olypedia warns, made of a soft glass, so scratches and cleaning marks are common and a filter is sensible; the lens ghosts readily, so the hood matters more than usual. A 49 mm thread on a silver-nosed H.Zuiko is either the rare early barrel or the prototype, and the sources do not agree which. No serial table has been published, and CHLNGR’s note that Olympus restarted the count at 100,000 on some lenses when multicoating arrived means a low number does not by itself mean an early lens.

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 taken with the Zuiko 35mm f/2
OM-System Zuiko 35mm f/2, the late version without the MC engraving — Hinnerk11, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the Zuiko 35mm f/2
The OM f/2 lineup; front row from left, the 28mm f/2, the 35mm f/2 and the 50mm f/2 Macro — Hiyotada, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $230 across 37 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $210–$280). First day tracked.

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

Show 39 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 2026-09-18. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Zuiko 21mm f/2 · Zuiko 24mm f/2 · Zuiko 28mm f/2 · Zuiko 28mm f/2.8 · Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

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.