Polar-Solaron-M

[Ororaro]

All I have to say is: LOL.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Did I miss something here?🤔

 

[Ororaro]

Google “polar solaron-M”, another chinese copy in a long line of chinese copies.

Mister ding, thyphoc… what’s next, a Summibrosky? Big Ding?

😅

 

[yossi]

While I am not a fan of China-copycat lenses...it's interesting to see how the polar solaron-M compares with the original 7-element 35mm Summicron: Polar 7 Solaron vs Summicron v4 (from Leica Forum discussion).

Note: The comparisons are done by HK photog so are in traditional Chinese, but Google Translate can help.

 

[TenEleven]

Oh no the Chinese are copying my expensive toys making them available to a broader range of photographers.
How horrible.

In the comparisons it looks like a competent-enough facsimile. A tiny bit more spherical aberration which you will likely be able to completely be rid of by bumping up the print filter grade by 1/2. Good value for money if you are into that look, I think.

Personally I never really "got into" the rendering of the v4 and sold mine.

 

[Ororaro]

Oh no the Chinese are copying my expensive toys making them available to a broader range of photographers.
How horrible.

Making exactly what available to a broader range of photographers?

Please don’t tell me you’re that guy who thinks he’s in the Rolex club just by owning a fake Bus-Mariner…

 

[TenEleven]

Making exactly what available to a broader range of photographers?

Please don’t tell me you’re that guy who thinks he’s in the Rolex club just by owning a fake Bus-Mariner…

Apparently five sentences are too much to read. So let me restate: Thanks to the Chinese makers, people can try a decently close facsimile of the v4 Summicron (among other lenses that the Chinese cloned) at an affordable price...

Why would anyone want to be in any club purely by virtue of spending money, an activity which requires neither thought nor skill nor anything else.

 

[Ororaro]

Apparently five sentences are too much to read. So let me restate: Thanks to the Chinese makers, people can try a decently close facsimile of the v4 Summicron (among other lenses that the Chinese cloned) at an affordable price...

Why would anyone want to be in any club purely by virtue of spending money, an activity which requires neither thought nor skill nor anything else.

I get it; the apology and virtues of faking/copying disguised as a highly valued and welcomed practice, capitalizing on lust for the real thing by way of ricidulizing the real thing by accusing it of being an object of snobbism.

I get it, there is indeed something highly romantic in viewing the chinese copiers as the Robin Hoods of the mean Leica world.

However, I am not going to fake my mind into force-perceiving that there is any good in to this. Abd here’s propf why: if this summibrosky lens had any virtue other then being a copy it would sell on its own merit. For now, its only merit is its copycat shape… I prefer calling it a non-merit.

 

[TenEleven]

You understand that there is a functional difference between a luxury watch whose primary function is as a status symbol and a lens whose primary function is a photographic tool. Following your analogy through everyone who buys a cheap Casio to tell the time is a fool. I don't think this a workable argument.

 

[Ororaro]

You understand that there is a functional difference between a luxury watch whose primary function is as a status symbol and a lens whose primary function is a photographic tool. Following your analogy through everyone who buys a cheap Casio to tell the time is a fool. I don't think this a workable argument.

Are you chinese? Just asking.

 

[TenEleven]

Let's assume I were, even then the fact would not strengthen or weaken my argument in any way. What a strange digression.

 

[Ororaro]

Status symbol? So far I haven’t seen anyone bragging their summicron V3. Hence why the V3 variants won’t get copied.

And this proves it all.

 

[Ororaro]

Let's assume I were, even then the fact would not strengthen or weaken my argument in any way. What

Let's assume I were, even then the fact would not strengthen or weaken my argument in any way. What a strange digression.

You just sounded over-protective and over-apologetic of a very chinese reality of the copycat industry.

It’s all good.

 

[Ororaro]

Let's assume I were, even then the fact would not strengthen or weaken my argument in any way. What a strange digression.

You just sounded over-protective and over-apologetic of a very chinese reality of the copycat industry.

It’s all good

 

[sojournerphoto]

Ororaro, you appear to be a skilled and experienced photographer. Why do you bait people with this? They’re just lenses. Leica stopped making the Summicron 35mm v4 in or around 1999 and moved on to better things. No one who buys a Chinese lens, even a copy of an old Leica lens, thinks they’re buying Leica. They can judge for themselves if it is adequate from an operational and optical perspective.


Edited to add that I’m now walking up to the civic centre to collect a recycling bag and I will take my M4 and LTM 1.7/35 loaded with Foma 100 for the walk.

 

[TenEleven]

I have to wonder if people whinged as endlessly when the Japanese started out making mostly Zeiss and Leica copies as well. Yet many of these "copies" (LTM Nikkor, Canon 50/1.8 & 1.5, etc etc.) are now rightfully beloved by many as the great photographic tools they are.

I mean in the end we all know how that worked out for the German camera industry who could not keep up. Fuji, Nikon and Canon also repeatedly put Zeiss and Leitz in a bind by releasing lenses that were not only faster but just out right better than the ones they had originally copied. In the end this drove innovation until ultimately Germany by and large threw the towel.

 

[Ororaro]

It is not a bait but a soncere conversation on the state of the market.

I think we all appreciate what Voigtlander is doing with their own line of lenses; catering to the Leica crowd without going into copycat mode.

And I am also curious, as probably is the silent majority: what do peope actually think of all these Summibro and Noctibro lenses out there? Is there really a market besides a few blogs?

 

[Ororaro]

I have to wonder if people whinged as endlessly when the Japanese started out making mostly Zeiss and Leica copies as well. Yet many of these "copies" (LTM Nikkor, Canon 50/1.8 & 1.5, etc etc.) are now rightfully beloved by many as the great photographic tools they are.

I mean in the end we all know how that worked out for the German camera industry who could not keep up. Fuji, Nikon and Canon also repeatedly put Zeiss and Leitz in a bind by releasing lenses that were not only faster but just out right better than the ones they had originally copied. In the end this drove innovation until ultimately Germany by and large threw the towel.

Yes, those times were when the Japanese had a very bad reputation in the market.

 

[TenEleven]

Yes, those times were when the Japanese had a very bad reputation in the market.

Thanks for proving my point

 

[Out to Lunch]

I have to wonder if people whinged as endlessly when the Japanese started out

The endless moaning and groaning was not limited to cameras and lenses but extended to pens, watches, cars, motorbikes, etc... Until the traditional producers could no longer compete and their governments slapped tariffs and duties on Japanese merchandise. Sounds familiar?