$289 for a brand new small M-mount lens, sonnar design with amazing build and stellar aperture and focus ring feel…too good to be true?

First off, you will not be disappointed by the build. Seriously good stuff there. The aperture and focus ring both smooth and wobble free, no extra stiffness or funny business, excellent. The lenses are free of stray debris (Mitakons should take note) and the packaging overall is nice, very much a cut-above what you should expect for the price . Rangefinder alignment on my Leica M9 was spot on on my copy. Thats not to say you couldn't adjust it if it was off ,the lens does come with an alignment sheet and instructions. In my experience you 100% need a digital rangefinder in order to make the tweaks, so grab yours or a friends.

Picture IQ is pretty good for a $300 lens, but besides surprisingly good center wide-open sharpness, its prone to flair and the bokeh can sometimes be less than smooth. Plus, the contrast just isn’t as strong as more modern Voigtlander’s we’ve tried. Its does have a definite “look” to the images. I do have to say that for $300 I would look at a well kept Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 Skopar and you may have a better lens overall.

All shots on Leica M9