summilux 50 asph coating variations

[summilux]

i have two summilux 50 asph now, and notice the coating is somewhat different. I heard that coating may vary depending on the glass used. any summilux 50 asph users there having the coating colour that is identical to the either one I have?

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

the right one looks normal, the left (yellowish) one is unusual

 

[dcsang]

Could it be that the left one needs to be recoated or perhaps the coating has gone "south" due to previous haze/fungus etc?

I'm no lens expert but that's just a guess.

Dave

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

what does your dealer say about this difference?

 

[summilux]

i don't think my dealer would know so finite a point, I have not tried the left one, the right one I have tried without any problem, the left has a earlier serial number, i also had (but sold) a black paint LHSA summilux asph, its coating is the same as the right one.

I am returning the body to Leica USA for repair, because there is a crack in the rangefinder focus patch mirror. maybe I should try out the lens too.

anyone out there (must be some) care to share the coating colour of his lens?

 

[shenkerian]

My LHSA one also has the right lens's colour.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Hmm, interesting. My "pre-asph" E46 Summilux has the same coating color as the one on the right.

I do recognize the coating color from the left one, though, and that's what the very early Summilux coatings looked like, to the best of my recollection.

 

[awilder]

The one on the left with the greenish yellow cast is very close to my black tabbed asph. 50 Summilux purchased over a year ago. Other pictures I have seen with the same style of asph. 50/1.4 also have the same greenish yellow color cast. Tilting the lens a bit while examining the coating tends to reveal a little more red cast to some of the elements.

 

[summilux]

the left one has an earlier serial number than the right one.

 

[awilder]

Since you have both lenses, why not compare the two simultaneously in terms of color redition by viewing a piece of evenly lit white paper through the lenses as if they were a color "filter". The one that alters the color of the paper the least is going to give you the best color rendition. I suspect both will look about the same but I've been surprised in the past at some of my older Leica or Nikon lenses having a slight to modest color cast. Even Leica acknowledges that there is a tolerance in color rendition. Some lenses like the 50/2 are color neutral while others may have a warmer or cooler cast depending on glass used in the design.

 

[dreamsandart]

Interesting, the one on the right seems to be the standard coating of modern Leica lenses. I'm almost wondering if they forgot to put additional coatings on the left one in the multi-coating process. Maybe best thing to do is write Solms about it and in the meantime do so comparison shots in various types of light and see if there is any difference.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I only suspect that they went "retro" with the coating type they used to reproduce the look of those on the first Summilux lenses, that's all, down to the 43mm filter size.

 

[dreamsandart]

While I'm thinking about it, I'd be interested in the 50 ASPH physical specifications as I can't find any published for this limited production lens; length, weight ( in grams and mm ). Thanks

 

[Turtle]

the one on the left appears odd. Could be a retro thing they tried out on early lenses but looks like both are LHSA Chrome models so I would have expected both to be the same - there are not that many out there and so would expect them to have been a single run of the same spec. For the yellower one to be faulty would shock me - how could that get thru Quality Control? It looks so obviously different.

 

[kinoglass]

I think the lens came out of the factory with deffective or incomplete coating process. Fastidiously perfect brings perfect catastrophies. We have heard this before (recently in fact)

kolossal katastrofe!

 

[Turtle]

I just got my BP MP3 set thru and my 50 1.4 lux lens has a purplish coating which is quite hard to see but much more like the second lens not the first.