Updated November 2022

Introduction

I have a complicated relationship with 28mm. I absolutely love the 28mm perspective, but as an eyeglasses-wearer, I’ve always had trouble seeing the 28mm framelines on Leica cameras. Despite this, I bought a Leica 28mm Summicron to replace my oversized Zeiss 35/1.4 as my go-to lens. I was excited by the compactness of the 28 Summicron, as well as its reputation for stellar image quality and unique rendering.

What I quickly found is the 28 Summicron is one of Leica’s greatest successes. It’s the perfect 28mm lens, and consequently this review will be brief.

The lens reviewed here is the version 1. The version 2, released in 2016, has an improved metal screw-on hood and improved sharpness in the periphery.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I like the 28mm field of view. There’s a reason most smartphone cameras are 28mm-equivalent. It’s a very natural-looking perspective that’s wide enough to capture an entire scene but not so wide that the edges look stretched. Photos shot with 28mm have the ability to draw me in and make me feel like I’m there. It’s an especially effective focal length for street photography:

Build quality

It’s Leica, not much else to say. The hood for the version 1 of this lens is plastic, but the current version uses a metal screw-on hood.

Size and feel

Perfection. Excluding the version 1’s oversized plastic hood, the 28 Summicron feels perfectly balanced on an M body. The aperture ring feels great and the focus tab moves as smooth as butter, with light resistance. Using the focus tab on this lens is my absolute favorite method for focusing on a Leica camera.

Minimum focus distance

If there’s one thing I could fault this lens for, it would be the 0.7m minimum focus distance. With rare exceptions, Leica is very consistent about all of their M lenses stopping at 0.7m, since this is the limit for rangefinder coupling. But 0.7m with a 28mm lens is very limiting in terms of magnification. There were many frustrating instances where I wanted to photograph something up close (e.g. food) with this lens but couldn’t get nearly close enough. In contrast, the Voigtlander 28/2 ASPH (review) focuses to 0.5m, which adds significant flexibility on cameras with liveview. With the introduction of the 35 APO-Summicron-M, Leica has indicated they will start making lenses that focus past 0.7m, so it will be interesting to see if they release a 28mm lens with this feature.

Here’s how the 28 Summicron looks at 0.7m:

Image quality

Distortion: None. Impressive.

Vignetting: Nothing excessive, even wide-open.

Chromatic aberration: Minimal/none.

Bokeh: Naturally, a 28/2 lens doesn’t produce a ton of bokeh, but the depth of field is shallow enough to isolate subjects at close distances. Out-of-focus regions are rendered beautifully by the 28 Summicron. Something about this lens’s rendering at f/2, combined with the 28mm perspective, is very immersive for me. It’s as if the lens is capturing just how things appear to the eye.

Sharpness:
At f/2, the 28 Summicron is already perfectly sharp through most of the frame. There is some softness in the edges/corners that improves by f/4:

The version 2 of this lens is said to have improved peripheral sharpness, so I imagine its performance is near perfect. But I was never disappointed by my version 1.

Focus shift: There is a small amount of focus shift at f/2.8-f/4 but not enough to impact sharpness.

Summary and recommendations

The Leica 28mm Summicron is one of my favorite Leica lenses. It’s small, sharp, and fast. Its handling is superb. It doesn’t even have geometric distortion, which is rarely the case with fast wide-angle lenses. And while a new copy retails for $4995, used copies of version 1 sell for around $2000, which is actually pretty good by Leica standards.

I eventually sold my 28 Summicron, but only because of issues unrelated to the lens itself. I never enjoyed trying to use the 28mm framelines on my M10, and the 0.7m minimum distance also continued to bother me. I eventually switched to the Leica Q for shooting 28mm. It’s not the same as shooting with an M, but it’s a much more practical solution for me since I can see the whole frame and focus down to 0.2m.

Based on this glowing review, it would be reasonable to assume that I highly recommend the 28 Summicron. However, the problem for the Summicron is the new Voigtlander 28/2 Vintage Ultron ASPH (review). This is a phenomenal lens that is just as perfect as the 28 Summicron V2 but costs a mere $899. It can also focus to 0.5m and is even a little bit smaller than the 28 Summicron. As excellent as the Summicron is, this new lens from Voigtlander has effectively made the Summicron, along with basically every other 28mm lens, obsolete.

Good
Fantastic image quality and rendering
Size and feel
Build quality

Bad
Much more expensive than Voigtlander alternative

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Other alternatives (not recommended)

Zeiss 28/2.8 Biogon
Leica 28/2.8 Elmarit ASPH
These lenses aren’t bad but they’re more expensive than the Voigtlander 28/2 ASPH despite being one stop slower and having worse performance.

Leica 28mm f/1.4 Summilux ASPH
I hear this lens is a fantastic performer, but I will probably never own one since it retails for the astronomical price of $7,795.00. Buying a new Leica Q2 would cost less and add more flexibility to your camera bag. But if you must have a 28mm f/1.4 rangefinder lens, this is the lens for you.

Voigtlander Ultron 28mm f/2 (pre-ASPH)
I’ve never used this lens. Although it offers an f/2 aperture and a very reasonable price, by all accounts it has significantly compromised image quality including very blurry edges at f/2.

7Artisans 28mm f/1.4
I reviewed this lens (link) and disliked almost everything about it.