New Summarit lens question

[clicker]

I am wondering if any of RF members have actual experience with the 35 or 50mm new version Summarit.I realize they are slower than the Summicron or Summilux however I like the small size.First hand experience would be experience . BTW this is for a film camera.
Thanks

 

[calexg]

Roger Hicks wrote a nice review of the Summarit-M lenses. http://tinyurl.com/b5qnd6

I haven't had any personal experience with them but I'd love to give them a try!

 

[sircarl]

I own the 35 Summarit and it's the lens I use most on my ZI. A lovely, gentle, "clean" quality to the images. Handling and size, build quality are excellent. The one thing I don't like about it is the fair amount of barrel distortion, but I tend to be fussy about this. Others may not care.

Yes, Roger Hicks's review is very good. I gather Sean Reid has reviewed it too, but I haven't seen that.

The big stumbling block is the price, and many would argue that for that amount of money, or less, you can get equivalent or better Leica glass (used) or equivalent CV or Zeiss 35 lenses. I suppose that's right. I bought mine used!

 

[tom_uk]

I have both the 35mm and 50mm Summarits. I like both of them, but I have to admit that I have no standards of comparison. They have that 'Leica heft' in the hand, they're very smooth once mounted on the camera, and they're pretty small. Have a look a this entry in blog:
http://tomtotley.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/a-new-lens/
for a few examples: the mono pictures were taken with the 35mm, the colour ones with the 50mm.

As regards price, when I bought the 50mm (early last year) the price wasn't that much more than for a s/h 50mm Summicron and of course this was for a new lens. I bought the 35mm just before Christmas at a time when Leica UK were running a 15% rebate programme, so although this was more than for some s/h lenses it was less expensive than it might have been. I happen to like buying new things if I can afford it, and in the case of the Summarits I could. (In the case of the camera I bought, I couldn't afford a new Leica, hence the purchase of a s/h M6TTL.)

As I say, I'm happy with them.