57 yo Summarit 50mm 1.5 Winter Photos

[tester]

Because of limited samples for Summarit 50 1.5 available on Internet I would like to show you some shots taken by my "new" Summarit. Lens is 57 yo so I'm really suprised of performance.
Little foggy on f1.5 but event if this lens is considered as low contrast, stopped down to f2 shows perfect sharpeness, nice smooth contrast and beatifully bokeh.
Main disadvantages of this lens are sharpeness limited to center and I found the Summarit quite susceptible to flare
Anyway it's a good alternative for low budget photographers who cannot afford fast modern Leica lenses and limited to Voightlanger set. My Summarit cost ~650$ - very, very good condition, no cleaning marks (quite important becase most Summarit lenses on market are scratched and foggy - even stopped down).

@ f2

@f2

@ f2

@ f1.5

@ f1.5

 

[Keith]

Damn ... I have Summarit gas!

Beautiful pics. 🙂

 

[Ronald M]

The proper hood helps a lot and costs considerable. Mine came with a Leitz E41 UV filter so the elements were perfect.

Boleh can be swirly if there is much small detail.

The lens is sharp, but not super crisp like a modern 50 1.4 ASPH Lux even stopped down. It has a certain character that make people look really nice as your examples show.

 

[thejameskendall]

One downside of this lens is that it's so heavy. It stops me using it often. It's a lens I'm really looking forward to using on digital. I think the character will really work well there. Mine cost £200 I think. I have a late 50s Jupiter-3 which I need to shim and I'll probably use that more often due to it weighing about half as much as the Leica lens.

 

[goamules]

Nice shots.

 

[burancap]

Wonderful, natural color in those posts!

You often hear a lot about "this lens" or "that lens" having character.

If only one thing has to be said about the Summarit, it would be that it genuinely is full of character. It does things with OOF like no other lens. Oh, and yes ... a flarey, heavy little fellow!


N5-1 by burancap, on Flickr




N5-2 by burancap, on Flickr

 

[yossarian123]

This lens just defines "lens character". Mine has cleaning marks, a little touch of haze but it's still a beautiful lens, especially stopped down 1 stop.

I have the original hood (XOONS) and it does help (heavystar sells a 41mm screw in adapter but it really adds too much length to the lens). I also found an original summarit yellow filter and love using it for portraits.

 

[TR3B]

I love this lens as well. For me, no need for the hood.
I live in Portland, Oregon.
Cloudsville - USA

 

[peterm1]

This lens often changes character a lot between f1.5 and f2. It sharpens up and contrast lifts. Never the less when used selectively wide open it also produces interesting images at that setting. Your images at both f1.5 and f2 are very nice incidentally.

I love using mine for digital as the low contrast of the lens works will with this technology.

 

[lueej]

gorgeous snow photos, love the first and last especially. beautiful color rendition.

 

[noisycheese]

Simply mind blowing images - beautiful bokeh, individual hair shafts are rendered with sharp detail and resolution, nice color, very nice contrast. And all this from a 57 year old lens - WOW!! 😱 Unbelievable...