35mm summilux from 1966 - any good?

[Xmas]

Well they are already collectors pieces, as the black m2, 50mm lux, 1.2, Hologon etc. have become, rather sad, if you want to take photos.
And people dont appreciate the 35mm lux performance to size ratio for the time. Leitz clearly wanted to compete with Canon and Nikon, bald headed, but missed the SLR bandwagon instead.
Mathsons '72 book mentions that the earleir 1.4 and later 1.4 did have a different formula, so there is a dispute among the web and paper 'authorities'. I'd not buy a chrome one readily, although I could/can tolerate the series 7 filter 1.4's performance, even on highlights. I can detect that the contax and Ru copies are different doing better on highlights behind people and faces.
Noel

 

[Harry Lime]

Hi, please excuse yet another newbie question:
I found a nice offer for a 1966 35mm summilux. Is it true that this lens was changed 1966? What would be a normal price for such a lens? Does anybody have any images to show?

Depends on what you are looking for.

In terms of sheer performance the 1.4/35 Summilux ASPH will eat the old Lux for breakfast. No contest there. Ich habe das ASPH model und das Objektive ist spitze!

BUT, many people are very fond of the optical fingerprint, the "look", that the old Summillux produces. It is soft wide open and needs to be stopped down about to f4 or 5.6 to really be equal with the newer lenses. The old Lux really 'glows' and can produce some gorgeous images.

The new ASPH Lux is razor sharp and quite flare resitant. It produces rich, modern looking images.

The old Lux produces a more classic, or romantic look.


Jim Marshall used the old Lux. Here's a pic of his M4.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/JemK/Pic-A-Week/marshall.htm

 

[Andrew3511]

Umm... having technical difficulties with scanning my slides. I end up with 70Mb files and I can't seem to reduce them easily to the 250Kb limit. I need to go and sort out my deficiencies with the technology before I can post anything meaningful about my lenses.

The 70Mb picture of the Salute in Venice is very good (Summilux 35mm pre-Asph) but I now realise why I am running out of hard disk space.

I'll be back.

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[Xmas]

An alternate if you dont want to collect leitz low volume items is the CV 40mm 1.4. It is so similar to the Leitz 35mm lux that it looks like a clone...

Thought about this for myself.

Noel

 

[3js]

I used the 35 summilux for many years and made some great images that would have been much more difficult with a slower lens. It performs OK by 1960's and 70's standards but it's not in the class with newer lenses. It flares badly, really badly, if there is a bright light source into the lens. It's OK wide open and the contrast and color are good. I considered buying another about a year ago and thought about the 35 asph summilux untill I found out about the CV Nokton 1.2 . I wound up buying the Nokton 35 and absolutely love it. It far exceeds the old summilux and from what I've seen has less flare than the new asph. Wide open performance is very good and it gets really good at f 2.8 and down. Some people complain about size and it is large relative to many M lenses but that's the price for 1.2 .

Look in my gallery and you'll find some 35 1.4 shots.

Here's one of a fire eater in a carnival the other shot of the kiddie train was to test the Nokton at 1.2. The lights were either 1000 watt or greater halogens into the lens. Very little flare and on enlargement it's very sharp with good contrast. The old summilux 35 would not have handled this so well and i'm not certain the new asph would have either.

Sorry, something is not right here in the first picture, taken at 1.2??? If the distance the subject is around 2 meters, then your DOF would be around 25 centimeters(one foot), which is not the case here, is it?

 

[x-ray]

Sorry, something is not right here in the first picture, taken at 1.2??? If the distance the subject is around 2 meters, then your DOF would be around 25 centimeters(one foot), which is not the case here, is it?

Sorry:

The fire eater was with the old version 35 summilux and I can't remember the f stop and the second is with the CV at 1.2 .

 

[sleepyhead]

I'm seeing quite a bit of halo-ing flare around those lights in the second shot (train).


35mm Summilux Pre-ASPH Fight back time!