If you own one M lens, it's probably a 35. It's the focal length the rangefinder was built around, and Leica currently sells four different ways to get there: the f/2 Summicron (now in standard and APO form), the f/1.4 Summilux, the tiny f/5.6 Summaron, and the budget-minded f/2.4 Summarit. On the used market the spread between the cheapest and the most expensive is roughly the price of an M10 body. Here's how to pick.
The short answer
Buy the Summicron if…
- You want one 35 that does everything and never gets in the way
- f/2 is fast enough (it is, for most people on a modern body)
- You care about size and a 39mm filter thread as much as speed
- You want the strongest resale and the biggest used supply
Buy the Summilux if…
- You shoot a lot at night or indoors without flash
- You want the shallow-focus "Leica look" wide open at f/1.4
- You're fine carrying an extra 70-ish grams and a 46mm filter
- You already know you'll keep this lens for a decade
The Summaron and Summarit are the outliers: one is a pocketable character lens, the other is the value play. Both are covered below.
Spec sheet, the parts that matter
| Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH | Summilux-M 35 f/1.4 ASPH FLE | |
|---|---|---|
| Introduced | 1997 (11879); updated 2016 (11673) with a new hood and knurled ring | 2010 (11663); updated 2022 (11726) with 0.4 m close focus |
| Maximum aperture | f/2 | f/1.4 |
| Minimum focus | 0.7 m | 0.7 m (0.4 m on the 2022 version) |
| Filter thread | 39 mm | 46 mm |
| Weight | roughly 255 g | roughly 320 g |
| Finder blockage | Minimal, even with the hood | Noticeable in the 35mm frame lines with the hood on |
| Character | Crisp, neutral, high micro-contrast from f/2 | Sharp wide open with a touch of glow; floating element fixes close-range softness of the older ASPH |
| Typical used price | Roughly $2,200 – $3,200 depending on version and box | Roughly $3,800 – $4,800 (2022 version at the top) |
Those numbers drift with every Leica price increase. Check what each lens has actually sold for on Aperture.market before you make an offer: 35mm Summicron-M sales and 35mm Summilux-M sales.
Summicron: the default for a reason
The 35 Summicron ASPH is the lens most M shooters end up with, and after selling a lot of them I think that's the right outcome. It's small enough to leave on the camera permanently, it's sharp across the frame from wide open, and it has no real vices. The 1997 version and the 2016 version share the same optics; the newer one gets a screw-in round hood instead of the rectangular clip-on, which is the main reason people pay a few hundred more for it. Used, the older 11879 is the best value in the whole line-up because there are so many of them and they're optically identical.
Then there's the APO-Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH, introduced in 2021. It's a different lens: a new optical design, apochromatic correction, and close focus down to 0.3 m, which is not something an M lens normally does. It's also larger and heavier than the standard Cron and costs more than twice as much, usually a bit under its new price on the used market because supply is thin. If you shoot an M11 at 60MP and pixel-peep, or you want near-macro framing on a rangefinder, the APO earns its money. If you shoot an M10 or film, the regular Summicron gives you nearly all of the result for a third of the price.
Summilux: the lens people dream about
The 35 Summilux ASPH FLE is the one that gets photographed on tables. The floating element (that's the FLE) was added in 2010 to fix the focus shift and close-range softness of the earlier ASPH, and it worked. Wide open it has that mix of sharp subject and softly dissolved background that people associate with Leica, and by f/2.8 it's as clinical as the Summicron. The 2022 refresh keeps the optics and adds the 0.4 m close-focus range and a new hood; it doesn't make the older FLE a worse lens, so the first-generation FLE is where the used value is.
"The honest difference between the Cron and the Lux is one stop and about 1,500 dollars. Whether that stop matters depends on where you shoot after dark."
What the spec sheet doesn't say: the Summilux is noticeably bigger in the finder. With the hood mounted it eats into the bottom right of the 35mm frame lines, which some people stop noticing and some never do. It's also the lens that gets lifted at the expensive end, so buy with the box and matching serial, and check the aperture ring and focus for grit.
Summaron: tiny, slow, full of character
Two different lenses carry the Summaron name and buyers mix them up. The 35mm Summaron f/2.8 is a vintage lens, made from the late 1950s into the early 1970s, with a classic rendering that goes a little soft and glowy wide open and tightens up by f/5.6. Clean examples run roughly $1,200 – $2,000, and the ones with the "goggles" for the M3 are usually cheaper because people don't want the attachment. The 28mm Summaron-M f/5.6 is the modern reissue Leica launched in 2016 of a 1955 design: essentially a pancake, a hair over 160 grams, and the lens to put on an M when you want it to disappear into a coat pocket. It is not a 35, but it's the lens people usually mean when they ask us about "the new Summaron," so it belongs in this conversation. Used, it sells for roughly $2,000 – $2,500, and you can see recent 28 Summaron sales here.
Either Summaron is a second lens, not a first one. f/5.6 or f/2.8 in 2026 means daylight and tripods, or an M11 where you can run ISO 6400 without thinking about it. Buy one for the size and the look, not as your only 35.
Summarit f/2.4: the value play
The Summarit-M 35 f/2.4 ASPH (2014, replacing the f/2.5 from 2007) is the lens Leica made for people who wanted a new M lens at a sane price. It's lighter than the Summicron, a third of a stop slower, and optically very good, slightly less bite in the corners wide open and a plastic-feeling hood. Used, the f/2.4 and f/2.5 versions sell for roughly $1,300 – $1,900. If your budget is the only thing stopping you from a Summicron, the Summarit gets you 90% of the way for 60% of the money, and it holds its value fine.
Buying any of them used
Lenses are easier to check than bodies. Shine a phone light through from the back and look for haze, fungus threads and separation; a little dust is normal and a lot of cleaning marks is not. Turn the focus ring through its full travel, it should be smooth with no gritty spots, and make sure the aperture clicks are even. On a rangefinder body, confirm that the lens focuses accurately at f/2 or f/1.4 at close range and at infinity; a lens that back-focuses wide open on an otherwise calibrated body needs a trip to a technician. Ask for the 6-bit coding (all four modern lenses have it) and the box, because Leica buyers pay for completeness when you sell.
Our condition guide explains how sellers on Aperture.market grade glass, and if you're the one selling, the AI listing writer will draft the description with the right version numbers. Aperture.market charges zero commission and lists the seller's location, so you can meet locally and test the lens on your own body before any money changes hands. That matters more for a 35 Summilux than it does for most lenses. Start with the Leica listings or all lenses.