my summar has a lot of leica glow

[lapiduza]

Hello! I have 2 summars. And i like them more than summicrons.
One of them has a lot of leica glow.
Tried lighter fluid, ammonia and hydrogen peroxide. But no way. Seems that i need to polish the front lens.
Advices?

 

[Erik van Straten]

You can polish the front lens, but that won't help you: the front lens of the Summar is very soft. Polishing the lens will change it's focal length so there will be no sharpness anymore. The best thing you can do is to search for an unscratched Summar, the coated ones are usually the best. Usually the front lenses of the Summar can be interchanged, but often, when you find a Summar with a clean front lens, the complete lens will be in good condition. Good luck.

Erik.

 

[lapiduza]

Hello! Thanks for your answer!
I have another perfect sharp summar with good contrast.
But my first ugly summar is very different by construction. He is like "tropen" summar, but not "tropen", of course. So i want to clean or polish it anyway.

 

[Dralowid]

In principle I agree with Erik but with a front element like that I'd argue that there is really nothing to lose. I would try a very light polish and see what happens. I would try to polish evenly and gently across the whole surface with fine jeweller's rouge or similar, a little at a time. If the surface shows signs of improving stop and try the lens.

A little bit at a a time and keep checking.

 

[raydm6]

Here is an old pnet thread suggesting use of either 180 proof ethyl alcohol or Pond's Cold Creme. Perhaps try before polishing?
https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/cleansing-a-50mm-summar.362197/

 

[Vince Lupo]

I’ve had good luck with a non-abrasive chrome polish cream - such as Blue Magic or Simichrome - and a microfiber lens cloth. Put a very tiny amount of the cream on the cloth and gently rub in a circular motion. It may take a few applications to see a difference, but it’s worked for me on a number of different lenses including a Summar.

 

[Nitroplait]

Sometimes haze is seemingly etched into surfaces of old lenses and will not come off without a very light polish.

I cannot help with advise on how to go about doing that yourself, but I know it can be done in hand and does not necessarily require special machinery - I think it is possible if you understand how to disassemble and reassemble the lens correctly and generally know your way around the inside of a lens.
But you will need to know the polishing material and procedure - which I don't know, I'm afraid.

I had it done on a couple of old lenses, among them a Summar and it came back in much better state than before.

Somebody is probably more knowledgeable than me and can hopefully chime in with useable details.

[EDIT: I see Vince provided an answer while I was composing my response 🙂 ]

 

[lapiduza]

Thanks for answers. Summar is very simple lense and of course i am not affraid to do it by myself. I am going to buy polish cream. Will post any results later.

 

[Erik van Straten]

But my first ugly summar is very different by construction.

Interesting, I've never seen a difference in construction between Summars.

Erik.

 

[raid]

Old Leica lenses can be fascinating! This is interesting. My Summar does fine as it is, and I will not try to clean it up.

 

[Nitroplait]

Interesting, I've never seen a difference in construction between Summars.

Erik.

There are some:
https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/257977-summar-5cm-variations/

 

[raid]

Thanks. This link has so much information on the different Summar variants!

 

[Erik van Straten]

I see differences, but no differences in construction, except of course the rigid.

Erik.

 

[Nitroplait]

I see differences, but no differences in construction, except of course the rigid.

Erik.

Aperture construction.

 

[lapiduza]

Hello! I removed dirt or fungus with GOI paste (74 parts of chromium oxide, 10 — stearin, 10 — fat, 1.8 — silica gel, 2 — kerosene, 0.2 —baking soda) and a piece of suede. Will polish it later with felt. The current result is very good for me.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Aperture construction.

Yes, that's true! The aperture setting rings are sometimes different. I've never studied those in detail.

Erik.

 

[lapiduza]

Aperture construction.

There is the difference. See stops of the aperture..

 

[Nitroplait]

I meant construction of aperture blades. Some have hexagon some have more blades resulting in a more rounded aperture.

 

[Dustfinder]

You can polish the front lens, but that won't help you: the front lens of the Summar is very soft. Polishing the lens will change it's focal length so there will be no sharpness anymore. The best thing you can do is to search for an unscratched Summar, the coated ones are usually the best. Usually the front lenses of the Summar can be interchanged, but often, when you find a Summar with a clean front lens, the complete lens will be in good condition. Good luck.

Erik.

Hi Erik,

Could you elaborate a bit more on this? I'm asking because I sent a Skopar LTM to be "haze cleaned" and the repairman did just that, but also removed some very slight scratches from the front element, that I had not asked him to do. I may be a little paranoid, but the lens doesn't seem to be as sharp as before. Could there be a relation between those things?

Regards,

 

[Erik van Straten]

Hi Erik,

Could you elaborate a bit more on this? I'm asking because I sent a Skopar LTM to be "haze cleaned" and the repairman did just that, but also removed some very slight scratches from the front element, that I had not asked him to do. I may be a little paranoid, but the lens doesn't seem to be as sharp as before. Could there be a relation between those things?

Regards,

Uncoated lenses that have a soft glass front lens, such as the old Summars, can scratch easily. Also coated Summars can scratch easily, because the coating used to be very soft. It is also easy to scratch lenses that are coated, but are made of a soft glass type.

It seems unwise and almost impossible to polish a modern, coated Skopar with scratches on the front lens. The coating is so hard that it cannot be polished. It is then better to order a new front element from the factory, if possible, or to live with the scratches.

Erik.