It has been gray and rainy weather in Sweden for the last month or so. I have been working from my home most days for a long time now. I try and get out for a walk between Skype meetings, to get some fresh air. My poor camera has been left at home during the walks. I have not exactly been in “shooting mode”. Not until today. The sun has been shining all day – but unfortunately this is the week of the year that has the shortest days here in Sweden. Where we live, the sun rises over the horizon at a quarter to nine in the morning and sets at five past three. In the very northern parts of Sweden the sun will not rise until next year…so we are lucky down here…

We went for a long walk in the neighborhood, to make the most of it. My Leica M was of course on my shoulder, together with the Summicron 2/35 ASPH. I have had this lens for about a month – but this is the first real test outside in good weather. It performed well – as expected – even if there is a small green flare in the picture above. Then again – the picture was taken directly in to the sun…

I must say that the Summicron 2/35 ASPH is a joy to use. The Leica quality is all over it. The focus is very smooth and I love the focus tab. My Zeiss lenses doesn’t have the focus tab – which is a little unfortunate. I can feel that it gives me a little more control over the focussing. The Summicron 2/35 ASPH is not weather/dust sealed – as my Zeiss lenses are, so that is something to take in to account.

I have used the Zeiss Biogon 2,8/35 as my 35mm lens for the last four years on my Leicas and I can´t tell that much of a difference in picture quality. Not yet anyway. I must use the lens more – but the initial feeling is that the difference mainly is in the build quality and handling. The Summicron is of course one stop faster, and I will try it wide open a little bit more in the coming weeks around Christmas. Perhaps I will do some comparison shots with the two lenses. The Biogon is now mostly mounted on my M4. 35mm has turned out to be the focal length I like the most, so I felt I had to have two of them…

Last; I have never taken a picture by intention on the ground by my feet on a gravel road – but today I could not resist. The small stones were leaving really long shadows – even in the middle of the day. That tells you something about how high the sun rises over the horizon…