Early coated Summitar Questions...

[analoged]

Tom, going through this thread in the Leica screw mount camera sub forum http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124748
I have a Summitar #553406 that came with a IIIC Stepper #375719, reading your post #10 I will quote,

"The coating procedure started at Leitz as early as 1942, but these lenses sit in the #55xxxx to #57xxxx ranges and are also LISTED in the Factory dockets as such, (less than 2,000 lenses were coated during the war) and they are VERY RARE ITEMS"

At first I thought my Summitar was uncoated, only under light can you see the lavender, sometimes amber color. Just wanting your opinion if you think this is an early wartime coated Summitar.

Regards

 

[peterm1]

It looks to have a coating (the magenta hue).

But before jumping absolutely to conclusions, bear in mind that Leitz offered a service in the 1950s whereby it would take in older lenses and camera bodies and update them.

I personally owned a lovely little 111a with a pre war serial number that had been updated to the 111f spec for flash sync. This involved a new sync plug jack in the back of the rangefinder housing and a 111f collar around the shutter button (this adjusted the time at which the flash fired as unlike electronic flashes, different chemical flashes were not instantaneous and different flash bulbs took longer to ramp up to full light output).

The camera came with a beautiful Elmar 50mm f3.5 lens which dated to 1936 based on the lens serial number. I was definitely coated and to my mind quite certainly this was done some time in the 1950s, most likely at the time the camera was updated.

So personally I would find it difficult to say if your lens was coated during WW2 or later.

However if as you say your len's serial number falls into the range of Summitars that were coated in WW2 then this would appear to me to be fairly definitive that it is one of those original few that were treated. If someone had falsified the serial number on your lens before you bought it to make it emulate a more expensive rarer version it would seem unlikely that you would have gotten it at the price of a normal lens, which I presume is how you got it. Cheers.

 

[Ronald M]

Both of mine have a bluish color as does my mint 3.5 red scale.
One came on a 111f in a leather case virtually unused, the whole set, not just the case.

I had a blue/magenta cast on a collapsible summicron

 

[analoged]

One more showing the coatings at a different angle...

 

[analoged]

Oh, and thanks for the responses so far guys!