Leica LTM Leica 5cm Lenses: Which would you recommend?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses

Leica 5cm Lenses: Which would you recommend?

  • Elmar 5cm 3.5

    Votes: 122 32.1%

  • Summar

    Votes: 65 17.1%

  • Summarit

    Votes: 68 17.9%

  • Summitar

    Votes: 120 31.6%

  • Collapsible Summicron

    Votes: 100 26.3%

  • Rigid Summicron

    Votes: 88 23.2%

  • Summicron DR

    Votes: 80 21.1%

  • Other [old] Leica 5cm lens

    Votes: 54 14.2%
  • Total voters
    380
  • Poll closed .
I voted for the first four, and shall never sell them.

The others are nice lenses, but i don`t have them in LTM.

My fav is the rigid, but the optics are the same as DR and I don`t like the DR handling nearly as well.
 
There's obviously some fun involved with trying out various lenses to see how they handle flare, perhaps what their bokeh looks like, and so on. You could devote your life to doing just that. That's not the reason I make photographs. I prefer using a lens that I don't dislike, if you know what I mean, something that doesn't call attention to itself too much, and I don't have bunches of lenses to choose from, not even an example of every focal length.
 
collapsible all the Way....Moi
3975255123_28426f4d17_o.jpg
 
I have had the Elmar, the Summarit, the DR Cron...
Crisp & Sharp...ALL Lovely
BUT the Collapsible Stole my Heart...:D
 
Hello,

I have had an Elmar f3,5, a Summar, a Summitar and a collapsible Summicron. I kept the Elmar because of his large scale of greys, his sharpness and because it fits very well on my IIIc. Even with its aperture, I find it very interesting. It is a very nice lens at full aperture, with a good definition at f5,6.

I did not like the Summar, too soft for me and with a low definition...

I did not find any difference between my Summitar and my Summicron. If it should buy a fastest lens, I will go for a Summitar for his bokeh, its sharpness, its very good definition at f5,6 or f8 and his really good price !

I gonna test a Sonnar on a Contax II.
 
PAN F said:
Hello Raid,
This is a very interesting thread and I understand from your postings that you regard the classic Leica screw mount lenses, and in particular the 50mm's, as the finest lenses made for the screw mount Leica.
Could you tell me, if this is so, why your profile states :-

"In Sonnar lenses we trust. Other lenses are suspect. "

I don't think that Leitz produced a "Sonnar" type lens,all the Leitz lenses were based on the Gauss (modified) design.
Click to expand...

I have stated many times that I started out with Zeiss lenses when I was using only SLR cameras and lenses. Then I added the Rolleiflex TLR as my MF cameras,and again, they sported Zeiss lenses.

I like Zeiss and also Leica lenses that I can afford. Both have great lenses in their stalls. I take what I can get.

I am not sure that Leica has the finest lenses for all type of lenses.
 
In Statistics, there is a well known saying by someone ...

"In God we trust. All others must bring data"

I was inspired by this statement.

I have been leaning towards the Sonnar lenses since a year ago. Maybe next year I will prefer other lens designs.
This thread is about Leica 5cm lenses, and I do not recall stating anywhere that I favor Leica 5cm lenses over other 5cm lenses.
 
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Thank YOU Raid, Love Ya Mon Amie....

Now My INTEREST in the Summar & Summitar
has GREATLY SOARED
I want to try one...
 
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Helen,
Both are inexpensive. The Summar is hard to get in very clean condition. The Summitar may be easier to find in very clean condition.
 
Raid is noted for his lens test here on RFF. It was his 50mm lens test he did a couple years back that made me go hunting for a J-3. I now can say I have a good example of one. Raid is also known for his love of sonner lenses, but nothing wrong with a thread on the ltm Leitz made lenses. This thread has reminded me that my 1945 50/3.5 Elmar has been neglected. Time to break it out and burn a few rolls with it. I was wondering & asked on a thread I started on coated & uncoated lenses when did they start coating elmar's & are the early post WWII lenses multi or single coated?
 
I am very late in coming to this thread but there's no doubt in my mind that the DR Summicron is my favourite all-round classic Leica lens. One of my all-time favourite lenses bar none. I had a beautiful copy and sold it...yet happily I just bought another beautiful copy with its goggles; if it proves to be as good as my first copy, I will never make the same mistake again :)
 
Hi Raid,

I generally use my 50 mm DR Sumicron because of its close focusing capability. I also have a rigid Sumicron and a non-Leica 50 mm f1.4 which I use when I need the extra f stop.

Cheeers,

JustPlainBill
 
'it was a Dark & Stormy Night and the Sonnar Ruled'

Once upon a time, a boy named Sonnar met a girl named Planar.
It was a relationship that did not last.

Sonnar went his way to create beautiful portraits while Planar better defined the corners.

The beauty of it all is that we have alternatives that can be to our advantage. I may carry a Leica 35mm lens and a Zeiss Sonnar 50mm lens ... etc.
 
...Sonnar was swept off his toes by a beautiful Russian girl in which they boarded a Sputnik & flew off to the planet Jupiter.;)
 
Any Jupiter lens babies born between 1952-1954 seem to have German eyes and Soviet bodies. It is a nice blend of lens genes.
 
And some of us technocrat types can't resist messing with nature, and have created in our labs lenses with Soviet eyes and German bodies. But the images still look Sonnar.

EPSN7136-vi.jpg
 
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