Question for forum members owning serial numbers books... (Summaron 35 3.5)

Juan Valdenebro

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Hi,
The subject is a Summaron 35 3.5, and its serial number is 1283815.
Looks like it's from 1955, from an M3 use batch. I understood -until now- some Summarons 35 3.5 were made in screwmount, and some in M-mount with spectacles (gogles), being the later made for M3 use, precisely those to be aware of if the plan is using them on other bodies than M3 because they're unable to focus properly when separated from gogles...
Well, I just read on the net some M3 use Summarons were possibly made without spectacles, and some of them were even screwmount, so now I got totally lost because I don't understand the reasons... Can anybody explain, please? Surely I'm wrongly assuming part of the story...
Is it possible that this serial number, even belonging to an M3 use batch, is from a lens that a) is screwmount, b) never had gogles, and c) can focus properly on all M bodies?
Thanks!
 
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Hi Juan, the first Summarons with M-fitting were made without goggles. They were ment to be used with the SBLOO. The same model was also made with screw mount. It is a bit confusing, because there are different models of the early Summaron with M-fitting. Simply look them up in Lager or Leica-Wiki.
The first goggled Summaron 35mm f/3.5 appeared in 1956. These goggles could be removed, wich was a quite useless feature.

Of course these early M-fitting Summarons can be used on other M's too, but they will bring up the 50mm frame. They are easily modified however to bring up the 35mm frame.

Erik.
 
There are screw mount 35/3.5, which was in production til 1946.

That serial is too high to be a screw mount.

They made M mount with and without the accessory viewfinder, this will focus properly on all M bodies. Of course, the one WITH the viewfinder will focus on all M bodies, too (but won't focus properly if the viewfinder is removed.)

The one without viewfinder is rare...
 
Hi Juan, the first Summarons with M-fitting were made without goggles. They were ment to be used with the SBLOO. The same model was also made with screw mount. It is a bit confusing, because there are different models of the early Summaron with M-fitting. Simply look them up in Lager or Leica-Wiki.
The first goggled Summaron 35mm f/3.5 appeared in 1956. These goggles could be removed, wich was a quite useless feature.

Of course these early M-fitting Summarons can be used on other M's too, but they will bring up the 50mm frame. They are easily modified however to bring up the 35mm frame.

Erik.

OK Erik, I think I got most of the story, thanks a lot!
So now I understand first M3 batches had no gogles, and were made both in M-mount and screwmount... As this number is from 1955, it looks like the lens never had gogles, so it will focus on any body...
Yet I don't understand why they were called "made for M3 use" (M3 on the table instead or S or M)... But more important: here
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/Summaron_f=_3.5_cm_1:3.5
if I read data correctly, it seems serial number 1283815 belongs to an M-mount batch... Doesn't the M mean that?
A seller sent me the number, telling me it's a screwmount lens, not an M-mount lens... Can the list be wrong, maybe? Or am I wrong? Yet I have no image to check by myself visually...
Cheers,
Juan
 
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Found an error in the Sartorius "Identifying Leica Lenses" book...the screw mount began production in '46 (in one place the book says it ended in '46, in another it says production was '46-'60.)

So, it could indeed be a screw mount as the seller indicates.

To my knowledge, not all lens serial number lists are inclusive...
 
Found an error in the Sartorius "Identifying Leica Lenses" book...the screw mount began production in '46 (in one place the book says it ended in '46, in another it says production was '46-'60.)

So, it could indeed be a screw mount as the seller indicates.

To my knowledge, not all lens serial number lists are inclusive...

Thanks!
Screwmount ones were made in 1954, 1955 and 1957, so maybe the list is not precise, and some of that M3 batch were indeed screwmount...
I'l be able to talk to the seller tomorrow...
Or maybe any other kind forum member can find screwmount ones from that batch in a more detailed list/book...
Yet if there were S, M, and M3 ones, and M3 ones were both S and M with and without gogles, I don't see the reasoning, but I guess it exists...
Cheers,
Juan
 
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The 35mm f/3.5 Summaron appeared in screw mount in 1946. It was the first post war designed Leica lens. The mount looks a bit like the old Elmar 35mm f/3.5, but it is a far better lens.

When the M3 was introduced in 1954 the Summaron was the wide angle lens for it in an M mount that accepted the standard M filters, hoods and lenscaps. Later this mount was also made in screw mount. The exact numbers of the batches can not be found AFAIK.

The Summaron is a very good lens, but they are often found hazy. They can be cleaned however and then you have a great 35, only a bit slow.

Leica MP, Summaron 35mm f/3.5 screwmount and adapter, Tmax400.

Erik.

9628753793_6701587036_c.jpg
 
Thanks a lot, Erik, for sharing your knowledge always, and for such a huge collection of great and natural images! You expose, compose, print and scan beautifully, as lots of other forum members have commented previously.
Cheers,
Juan
 
And a minor point, the screw mount cameras were still being made into the 60's and so both mounts (or all three versions) would be turned out by the factory until demand dropped to a trickle (or the parts were used up).

Most people thought the M3 (?1954) meant the end of the screw mount bodies but they soldiered on and even a new model screw mount was introduced; the IIIG.

Regards, David
 
And, years before the M3, and during the first five years the M3 was alive, the best 35mm lens was the Summaron 3.5: there was no Summaron 2.8, and no Summicron.
To put it in a more historic way: in 1956, Leica Fotografie Magazine #1 had 2 main articles, Cartier-Bresson's exhibithion at Louvre, and Summaron 35 3.5...
Cheers,
Juan
 
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