Vintage Lens Review | Canon 35mm F1.8 L39 Mount

A concise review, after 1 year of daily usage (50+ sample images)

Author Note: Discover why I highly recommend these vintage lenses for your collection! This review series focuses not on technical specs, but on the lens’ unique character, quirks, and my personal experiences with each.

Logic behind purchase:

So this lens actaully failed at its original mission. Initially it was purcahsed to prevent me from buying an Epson RD1. The niche and expensive camera wasn’t something I could logically justify at that moment, so I figured I could replicate some of the experience by buying a (still expensive and niche) vintage Canon lens from the 50s/60s to use on my modern APSC Leica CL. This would in theory give me a similarly compact and vintage vibe body/lens combination.

Truthfully, but also somewhat fortunately, this plan failed. I loved this lens and its rendering so much on the Leica that I couldn't help but drool over the thought of using it on an Epson RD1.

While the Leica photos are also quite nice, the lens has basically spent 98% of its time with me mounted on my Epson RD1s