Strangely modified Summar 50/??

[landsknechte]

Here's a strange one... At a local antique store, there was a IIIa with 50/2 Summar perched on it. I was a little perplexed whilst fiddling with it, as the aperture adjustment didn't seem to work. Come to find out, someone had removed the aperture blades in [I presume] an attempt to eek out a bit more low light performance, at the expense of being able to ever change it.

Does anyone know what the max aperture of a lens modified in this fashion might be?

 

[colyn]

I suspect it was a botched cleaning/repair job. Blades are somewhat difficult to replace once they have been removed.

Removing the blades from a Summar won't give it anymore speed

 

[landsknechte]

I suspect it was a botched cleaning/repair job. Blades are somewhat difficult to replace once they have been removed.

Removing the blades from a Summar won't give it anymore speed

It seemed like a strange choice for an intentional modification, but I'm enough of a Leica newbie I wasn't sure.

Thanks,
--Chris

 

[laptoprob]

The Summar blades are curved, not in a flat surface. That will probably make it even more difficult. I have a Summar wreck with lens separation that I am looking into, just because of curiosity.