Leica LTM Always use a hood with Summar?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses

Always use a hood with Summar?


  • Total voters
    27


My favorite shot with a Summar, also had perfect glass.



On film.

The first set that I put up- show some of the gotcha's with this lens. I touched up some edge spots on the interior glass- and will try again.

On a Zeiss 8.5cm Triotar, had similar problems and tracked it down to an internal reflection from the M-Mount adapter.

I was loaned the Cooke Amotal to shoot with- agree that it is very much like the Summar, but hard coated.

I picked up the Canon 5cm F2, uncommon- late 1940s, 1-2-2-1 configuration like the Summar. Hard coated. This lens needed a good cleaning, and was missing the infinity release. I had a spare, and am good at giving a CLA. $60.

Sully Plantation by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Signature- much like the Summar, swirlies, lower contrast, muted color- but less flare and reflections.

Sully Plantation by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Sully Plantation by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

These used to be cheap- apparently not any longer. The much more common 50/1.9 gives much the same rendering, also a 1-2-2-1 and hard coated.
 
Helen has deleted her photos in this thread. I would be very sorry if this was in response to the course of the discussion. I already miss her gorgeous, very personal photos.


Erik.


Me too, they were excellent. And miss Helen of course.
 
Thank you, Hans, I've never tried the Fison on my Summar! Are you sure that there is no vignetting?


Erik.

Erik I suspect there is some vignetting when lens near wide open. Summar shots below I took in 1959, forgot most details. Panatomic-X at that time. Today I use HP5+ so likely f8.0 or thereabouts and no vignetting.

img232 by hans p berkhout, on Flickr

img234 by hans p berkhout, on Flickr

img233 by hans p berkhout, on Flickr

apologies for non-spotting.......
 
Great that you have an Amotal on loan, Brian. They are not very common. Yes, the Cooke Amotal has practically no flare and an even nicer bokeh than the Summar, but I regret not being able to use my copy on an LTM. So there is always something ...
Stopped down the Amotal rivals the Summicron.

Fantastic, Hans, these old pictures of Greece.

gelatin silver print (cooke amotal 50mm f2) leica mp

Erik.

48015845147_f491b64841_b.jpg
 
Erik I suspect there is some vignetting when lens near wide open. Summar shots below I took in 1959, forgot most details. Panatomic-X at that time. Today I use HP5+ so likely f8.0 or thereabouts and no vignetting.

img232 by hans p berkhout, on Flickr

img234 by hans p berkhout, on Flickr

img233 by hans p berkhout, on Flickr

apologies for non-spotting.......

Great pictures Hans. The second one is the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and the third one is the Temple of Apollo in Corinth. Not sure where the first picture was taken.
 
As a result of this thread- I took my Summar apart, and reapplied the paint on the exposed portion of the doublet in front of the aperture. There were a couple of spots where the paint had flaked off, and the rim of the glass was exposed. I am going to suppose that the "flair" shown in my pictures was a result of stray light hitting the image plane directly. I've had this happen before, solved with baffling on some lenses and paint on others.



Dumb test shot- but this would have been washed out before.

Another test shot- Sunny day, 5pm.

No Hood, wide-open at F2, Y2 filter.
V


With the Walz 34mm screw in hood.
v


All at F2. No adjustments, straight LR6 exports from DNG.

Another- close-up, reapplying the paint made a huge difference.





There was not much missing, did not think it was worthwhile repainting when I cleaned the lens. The missing paint on the edge of the glass made a big difference for stray light corrupting the image.
 
I set the aperture to F2 and always keep the lens upright. I just needed to unscrew the front section of the barrel, check the surfaces (were clean) and repaint the exposed edges of the front doublet. This is my third Summar, don't want to mess with the blades. No need to. On the Sonnars- I remove the glass and flood clean oily blades in place. With the Leica lenses- I've not had oil on the blades.
 
If it's not too stupid a question, what do you use to paint the edges with, Brian? I remember trying to repaint the edge of the rear element of a Jupiter 12 many years ago with a fine-tipped Posca paint pen and getting absolutely nowhere.
 
If anything, that photo demonstrate that also a coated Summar would benefit from a hood :)

Maybe this better illustrates my point:

Relatively clean uncoated Summar with hood and sun just outside the frame:
50765484351_f2b1d8ddd1_c.jpg

walk with a cane

Very clean and coated Summar without hood and slightly clouded sun just outside the frame:
51450261481_55b068f73a_c.jpg

Boat lines

My freshly coated Summar may benefit a bit from having the hood in place, but even without a hood, it has greatly improved flare resistance.

After coating and cleaning it has great sharpness and contrast even at larger apertures, while keeping the nice Summar painterly quality.

51461512228_8c34ccc77f_c.jpg
 
No Hood.



Hood.



Sun just outside of the frame.

I tend to use a hood most of the time, cuts down on the number of times that stray light hits the lens and gets into the shot. With an SLR or Mirrorless, it's not a surprise- as you can see it. With an RF, can be a factor in the shot that you did not want.
 
Thank you Erik: "Fantastic, Hans, these old pictures of Greece".

Thank you Pan: "Great pictures Hans. The second one is the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and the third one is the Temple of Apollo in Corinth. Not sure where the first picture was taken."

This was a bike trip around the Gulph of Corinth in '59, I was 17. Many unpaved roads, many flat tires every day. IIIa with Summar 50/2.0 Adox KB17 film.
 
No Hood.



Hood.



Sun just outside of the frame.

I tend to use a hood most of the time, cuts down on the number of times that stray light hits the lens and gets into the shot. With an SLR or Mirrorless, it's not a surprise- as you can see it. With an RF, can be a factor in the shot that you did not want.

That flare is pretty wild looking with all the lines. are these two shots also with your monochrome?
 
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