I acquired APO-Summicron 35mm ASPH a few months before M10-R BP. Since there’s no LiveView on M9, I only briefly tried (blindly) its short focus distance a few times. The results were obviously not inspiring as most focuses were off.

That changed dramatically since the arrival of M10-R BP. When it comes to street or portrait photography, I’m a die-hard range-finder fan. But man focusing APO 35mm at 30cm via LiveView on M10-R BP is so much fun! At a reproduction ratio of 1:5.6, APO 35mm is definitely not in the territory of real macro photography yet. But with the right objects (size & texture) it is definitely very enjoyable and can sometimes render fantastic photo works.

Here are a few shots that I took today (on a rainy afternoon in Paris) of my collection of glasses, cups and dishes.

What I found also was that while the coloring of focus peaking (I set it in Red or Green) helps, most of the time it’s much easier to just use your eyes to gauge if the focus is good. The Japanese whisky glass (made in Kanazawa) and the French dish above, due to their light colors, were not able to trigger edge coloring in focus peaking. That didn’t prevent me from taking satisfying photos. Just have to trust one’s eyes.

I think the 30-cm focus distance is really a gift from Leica. On a small lens like APO 35mm it opens up a lot of travel photography options that have been hitherto impossible. I was even considering using it to do my cooking photos, replacing my trustworthy Ricoh GR III. On the other hand I’m not yet comfortable with the image of nero di seppia sauce splashing and landing on the front element of a Leica lens. I think I’ll hold on to that thought for now.

With both APO 35mm and the new Summilux 35mm opening up for short focus distances, I wonder whether this feature would be a default for many of Leica’s new lenses going forward. For example APO 50mm is currently 70cm minimum focus distance (rangefinder limit) with a reproduction ratio of 1:11.3. One can imagine Leica fine-tuning it and opening up for 40cm, which would yield a reproduction ratio of 1:6.5, not far from APO 35mm but with a less-wide-angle-like perspective. It would be real fun!