Leitz Summar 2/50mm from 1937

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

This is pre-war lens in M39 mount, the first fast Leica lens. The lens is completely uncoated and has continuous aperture with a weird numbering sequence. I'm very impressed how smooth the focusing and aperture is: better than the average lens from 70-80. First some pictures of the lens.

And now the pictures that it takes. Aperture in these varies in f2.0-f3.2 range, #1 is shot through a thick glass.

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Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Lovely shoots, lack of coating makes it even more 'charmy'

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

Yes, it's a low contrast lens and you have to baby it due to lack of coating, but with a right light and a subject it really shines and provides a delicate rendering that more modern lenses don't give.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

DR.JUAN · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 661

All very nice and the last wowww

The shade will help something, I guess.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

DR.JUAN · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 661

Not only for the contrast, the low contrast image has something artistic.

The shade should be useful to avoid the parasit light, the flare, that affect the resolution power. Low contrast, yes. Details not clear because the flare, no.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Nice lens, I like uncoated lenses, especially for shooting BW film. This one doesn't draw like the contemporary Sonnar 2/50, quite different, so useful to have indeed.

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

It would be interesting indeed to compare it to uncoated Zeiss Sonnar. Summar is a classical 6 element/4groups double Gauss design v 3 groups for Sonnar, so I would think that without coatings Sonnar should be contrastier and by this virtue superior on film.

IMHO the lens such as Summar has a much better potential on digital, where it's easy to set the contrast exactly as you like it. That way the biggest downside vanishes, while the charming retro rendering is there to enjoy. IMHO Summar does not have a great reputation precisely because in the film era the low contrast was too much of a handicap to overcome.

Normally I don't use hoods, but here it might be a good idea. It's quite difficult to shield the poor thing from all home lights otherwise. Those Leica hoods are clunky, not to mention that sellers want $100-200 for them. Good luck with that Laughing

Has anyone seen collapsible rubber hoods with a small thread?

DR.JUAN · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 661

I think that in the past and now, the medium to low contrast lenses let us obtain the contrast needed for the image looked for.

In the film time, the different movements (for instance, dodging) whe we printed the picture, let us obtain the contrast needed.

Today, obviuosly, the pp does almost everything.

One thing they don�t obtain: the image or the detail where don't be one.

anscochrome · Joined: 23 Dec 2010 Posts: 115 Location: Omaha, NE

Coated copies of the 50mm F 2.0 Summar can be found, as Leitz offered a service after the war where customers could send in their lenses and have them coated (for a fee of course). Probably not a lot to find of the Summar with coating, but pre-war 50mm F 3.5 Elmars that have been coated after the war are not too scarce. Smile

The uncoated lens would have worked great with ASA 10 Kodachrome in the late 30's-the high contrast of the slide film, coupled with the low contrast of the lens would have canceled each other out:)

I would guess most owners of the 50mm F 2.0 Summar would have opted to upgrade to a 50mm F2.0 Summitar, which had coating from the beginning in the mid to late 1940's.

BTW, my avatar (the first time I have used one on this site), is a photo of me, anscochrome, taken on ASA 32 Anscochrome slide film in 1961. So it is anscochrome on Anscochrome:)

I am working on a project where Michael Gray and I are going to try to make a preset to simulate Anscochrome in Lightroom 4. I am in charge of scanning a bunch of old Anscochrome slides my brother had rescued a few days back. Now I am waiting for a new scanner to arrive tomorrow, as my 5 year old HP 8300 went bellyup just as I was starting the scanning:)

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

Probably coating Summars and Elmars made them more useful back then, but for me in this day and technology there is no point in tracking down one. I have plenty of optics with relatively recent coatings, I am sure that whatever coating Leitz had in 1949 will not match them. It's much more interesting to see what these lenses can do in their original form.

John Shriver · Joined: 24 Dec 2009 Posts: 193

That's hazier than mine, which is uncoated, but in perfect optical condition. Are there cleaning scratches on the front surface? Is there any haze inside? Is the black edge painting on the innermost elements intact? A little fault goes a long way in such a small lens.

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

The lens is far from perfect shape (see here for more http://forum.mflenses.com/a-fix-for-scratched-lenses-t57399.html ), however what I think you think is haze is just IS0 1000 on a noisy EPL-1 sensor Wink

. Only the last shot is ISO 200, and honestly, I don't see any technical issues with it. #4 and #5 are ISO 1000 and those do look hazy.

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3669 Location: Calgary

Looks like a great lens for overcast days, last pic is great, has a nice silky feel to it.

tromboads · Expire: 2015-10-01

that is pretty much pornographic!

What a lovely artifact! Smile

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

My love affair with this lens continues. It occurred to me that one of the reason why I keep coming back to it is that it forces me to respect the light. I don't mean it primitively as in avoiding to shoot into the sun and shielding the front element of impinging light. There is very little shadow detail, the shadows are blocked, so I must light the subject or there is no picture.

As an upside, it's very difficult to blow highlights with this lens, the highlight range is compressed due to low contrast, but all the information is there.

Anyway, here are the fresh pictures. I mostly use it for portraits and flowers, but even though I haven't got any great landscapes, it's not bad near infinity either.
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Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Lens has nice character indeed, I love this pre-war feeling. Great shoots also helps of course!

John Shriver · Joined: 24 Dec 2009 Posts: 193

Here's a torture test of my totally clean, scratch-free, and properly edge-blackened Summar. New York at night. Film is Portra 800, in a Leica IIIa.

Yeah, there are some reflections. But there still isn't really a lot of flare. The Summar's reputation is often based on bad samples, which is most of them by now.

etorix · Joined: 05 Oct 2014 Posts: 209 Location: London, England

StyxD · Joined: 18 Nov 2014 Posts: 79 Location: Italia

I can't see any pic, where are they uploaded ?

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4748 Location: Cheshire, England

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 2877

I will reupload them once I get internet access at home. UK is the first country in my life where 2 month is not enough for that Laughing

etorix · Joined: 05 Oct 2014 Posts: 209 Location: London, England