Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar Review: Petite Perfect for Street Photography

By Keith Wee on April 1, 2025

A shout-out to Riceball Photography, the authorized dealer for Voigtlander in Singapore who provided this review copy. The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is currently available in limited quantities.

Introduction

Announced by Cosina on February 14, 2025, the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is unabashedly tiny for a full-frame Leica M mount lens, tipping the scales at 99 grams. Let us look deeper at this one of the smallest lenses for Leica M-mount.

That's the entire lens, including the hood on the Leica M10-R

tl:dr

"Ridiculously small" might be an appropriate way to describe the size of the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar. However, this is a delightful lens from Cosina that easily punches well above its weight class.

The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar utilises a (according to Cosina) simple optical design that takes advantage of one double-sided aspherical lens and three anomalous partial dispersion glass elements to give a pleasing modern rendering. I can readily recommend this fine release from Cosina to the street photographer.

Technicalities

Leica M-mount, manual focus
Focal length of 35mm, full frame
Aperture range of ƒ3.5 to ƒ22.
6 elements in 4 groups with a ten-aperture blade design
⌀52mm X 14mm (maximum diameter and length) with a 34 mm filter size at 99 grams
Minimum focusing distance of 0.7 meters and 61.6 degrees angle of view
Included accessories: UV filter with accompanying metal lens cap and metal hood with a metal cap.
Available in black paint and silver chrome versions, both with a solid brass construction

One thing I love about the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is that Cosina has included a complete set of accessories you will ever need: a UV filter with its accompanying metal lens cap and also a metal hood with its own metal cap in the same finishing as the lens.

Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar on Leica M10-R

Build, handling and performance

The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is very well built with a brass construction, and one will definitely appreciate the precision in this compact build with the smooth mechanics commendable.

The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is 14mm in length, while the Voigtlander supplied back lens cap is 18mm thick.

And approximately 27mm in length with the hood on, the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar easily holds the crown for one of the 'thinnest' 35mm lenses for Leica M-mount, if not the smallest.

If one is curious, this lens is 4mm smaller than the famed Leica 28mm ƒ5.6 Summaron. Precision construction allows the aperture clicks to feel confident despite the petite size, offering a tactile and precise adjustment.

The design is such that the aperture ring is mechanically connected to the focusing ring, which requires setting the aperture first before adjusting the focus. For what I do, I prefer to change the aperture ring with the lens locked in the infinity position first versus trying to pinch the thin aperture ring.

The lens has a reasonably prominent focusing lever to adjust focus easily. As with typical Voigtlander, the lens features an all-metal helicoid unit for precise focus control, and I have no complaints about build quality.

Also, a practical way to adjust aperture is to simply hold onto the screw-on hood and turn.

Also, as mentioned, Cosina has included a matching UV filter for the lens, one thin enough to the point where I believe most will struggle to purchase anything similar.

According to Cosina, this filter has a specially made thin frame with a thickness of only 1.1 mm from the lens filter thread.

Yes, that is the lens with the UV filter mounted on the Leica M10-R. My review copy is the black paint version, and there is also a silver chrome version.

Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar on Leica M10-R

With a 10-bladed aperture design, I am sure this lens will also give pleasant sunstars.

Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar on Leica M10-R

On the Leica M10-R's 40 mega-pixels sensor, the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar holds up well, delivering a good amount of sharpness and details across the frame; I hardly noticed any field curvature and generally used an aperture range of ƒ3.5 to ƒ8 for this review.

Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar on Leica M10-R

The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is a snap-shot intent lens as described by Cosina and not likely to be a lens where one will be bothered much about 'bokeh'; however, these two shots at ƒ3.5 are close to minimum focusing distance gives an idea of what can be achieved.

There is some wide open vignetting, which goes away around ƒ8, which is expected of a lens of this size.

Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar on Leica M10-R

The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar also holds up well flare-resistant-wise. This was not something I expected and a pleasant surprise.

Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar on Leica M10-R

Conclusions

Cosina has really impressed me here with the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar, in that how they have managed to achieve so much in a lens of this size and price, and at the same time, managing an excellent build and most important of all, a decent ƒ3.5 maximum aperture and really good optical quality across the frame.

The market segment for this lens is totally different from the one that would splurge for a fast lens, say like the Leica Summilux 35mm ƒ1.4 FLE II or the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ1.5 II (my reviews are linked) and true to its design intent, the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar makes an excellent snap-shot non-obtrusive lens for the street photographer.

Thank you for reading.

A shout-out to Riceball Photography, the authorized dealer for Voigtlander in Singapore, who provided this review copy. The Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar is currently available in limited quantities.

Disclaimers.

All product photos and samples here were photographed by me. I believe any reviewer with pride should produce their own product photos.

2. All images were shot with the Leica M10-R and the Voigtlander 35mm ƒ3.5 Color-Skopar. The raw files were edited in LR CC Classic to my preferences.

3. This review is not sponsored; the lens is a review loan set Riceball Photography and will be returned.

4. I do not do affiliate purchase links to keep myself neutral. I write as a passion and a hobby, and I appreciate that photography brands are kind enough to respect and work with me.

5. The best way to support me is to share the review, or you can always help support me by contributing to my fees to WordPress for the domain using the Paypal button at the bottom of the page.