Leica LTM Keep the Summarit as a soft image lens or repair?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses

Keep the Summarit as a soft image lens or repair?

  • Yes

    Votes: 21 52.5%

  • No

    Votes: 19 47.5%
  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .
summarit hood

summarit hood

the hood i suggested is on the cameraquest site, under "for sale", then "various", then "leica and leica mount rangefinders", towards the bottom of the page. here's the text so you'll recognize it:

41 Screw in metal Hood, black or chrome, fits among others Leica 50/1.5 Summarit, 35/1.4 Summilux non Aspheric, 60/3.5 Visoflex Elmar, optional push on Voigtlander cap

good luck

rick
 
i have to agree with austerby. the summarit is not a universal 50mm for all purposes (what is?), but it is not just a soft glowy lens. it maintains its characteristic look but gets quite usably sharp as you stop down.

rick

"I have a good Summarit and used it quite a bit recently during a week in the Cyclades. I even used my penultimate roll of Kodachrome in it - despite eminent forumites suggesting it would be wasteful. It is a lovely lens, much more capable than dismissive comments would suggest. They're worth keeping in good condition, so I say repair it![/quote]"
 
Why on earth would you change a lens that gives amazing results...only to get a clean lens that gives less than amazing results?

Buy a Summarit that is already cleaned and that way you have BOTH! I am not going to have mine cleaned....
 
BTW, a Summarit on a D2X is quite interesting for "macro" shots like this:

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Hi, Raid....

My lens is soft, but it is softer and more pronounced with lens flare (no lens shade yet). I actually am trying to use flare to provide a softer image intentionally for certain effects:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=74425&stc=1&d=1256765889

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http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=74426&stc=1&d=1256765889

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But, it is capable of sharper images without flare:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=74427&stc=1&d=1256765889

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Lately, I shot a couple of rolls at around f8 and f11 while in the mountains for the fall colors and when I get them back, I will post the results. I expect they will be sharper than above.

dave
 

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Oh, btw, I forgot about the macro shot...all I did was tape the Summarit to the D2X and used a lot of flare for the shot. I haven't quite figured how to get it to work on the digital without moving the camera in close enough to just get something in focus and shoot it. It just turned out that it worked at a close distance with a super shallow DOF. The flare was intentional for effect.

dave
 

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rickp said:
i have to agree with austerby. the summarit is not a universal 50mm for all purposes (what is?), but it is not just a soft glowy lens.
Click to expand...

From what I gather from the Leica catalogs of the 1930's, the 1.5 Xenon ( later became Summarit ) was introduced to be a "fast lens for low-light situations".... remembering that ASA 50 was a "fast" film at the time...

I think it probably gave photogs an option to shoot hand-held at all in dim situations, as the 1,5 Zenon/Summarit is 3 times as fast ( ? ) as the 3,5 Elmar.

I've always read / been told that " no lens is sharp wide-open ", and that most achieve peak resolution stopped half-way down... probably an over generalization, but I've been trying to keep that thought in mind while shooting my LTM , keeping the aperture between f: 6,3 and f:12,6 ( yes, my user kit is that old ;) ), and it gives me a nice level of sharpness.

Raid, I think if I were in your place, I'd leave this Summarit as-is, and look for a Thambar or another Summarit.

Regards,

LF
 
As other people have said the low contrast is pretty common for this lens wide open. I had one and loved it for portraits. Use it wide open in contrasty light.
 
Hi, Frank...

It has been awhile but as I recall, I was about 10' from the nose of the hood. With the other shots, the images have almost a 3D quality that is noticeable when enlarged to fit the monitor screen. Not sure why that happens but the Summarit at f11 and f16 is really quite sharp.

I have to pick up my latest developed roll from the lab in the morning and hope to have some decent scans to show landscapes, etc. at f11.
 
>2) Brian posted a DIY front element repair on a badly damaged collapsible Summicron using
> a 3M polishig cloth and an eyeglass repair kit (where did you get that cloth and kit from,
>Brian?). Maybe you could attempt this.

Just saw this! The eyeglass recoating kit was from the "as seen on TV" store. The polishing cloth- I have seen kits on Ebay. I work in an optics lab, and keep the stuff sitting around....
 
Sherry Krauter can fix the coating on the edges of the glass very inexpensively so the light doesn't bounce around and this will help with the flare a bit. This is what she did for me while cleaning my Summarit.
It still flares, but I'll never get rid of it!!!

Correction: it still flares like hel...
 
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I own a 50-2.8 Elmar with the same problem. Leica Portugal told me I could send it to Luton for repair. Actually I never sent it. And I don't dislike its rendering on certain subjects. My gallery here has some examples.
Meanwhile I bought another clean Elmar, but they are both now for sale since I prefer the rendering of my Summarit.
 
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