Yes, I like my Summar. Like the Summitar, it's a variable contrast lens. More contrast as you stop it down, of course.
Mine is uncoated, and just absolutely water clear when you look through it. I've redone the black paint on the edge of the inner group of the front lens cell, but haven't pulled the rear lens cell to do the same. So missing paint is causing some flare.
It has not been at all flare-prone. I'm quite surprised by that. Of course, there are only 4 groups in the lens.
Mine has rather heavy wear to the chrome plating. Someone used this lens a lot, and wore off the plating with their hands. But, bless their hearts, they didn't clean the front element to death. It came with the ring from a Gelbfilter 2 (Yellow filter 2) on it, but no glass in it. It was stuck on firmly. Perhaps it spent the majority of its life with that filter on, protecting the front glass.
Folks speculate that camera gear with lots of cosmetic wear gets that way because it was a top-notch specimen, that someone was really happy with. Maybe this is a better than average Summar.
I don't think that there were any significant changes in the Summar's optical design. The mechanics changed quite a few times in the rather short production span, especially the iris ring.
I'd like to have a proper hood for it. But I will mostly use it on a Canon IV-SB2, and the different viewfinder arrangement on this doesn't really match the perforated Leica hoods for the Summar and Summitar. So, I may make my own, with different angles. But to do that, I need the dimensions of the Summar hood. Anyone have one they would like to measure for me?
