Summitar on the CL, collapsing a no-go?

[Toni Nikkanen]

I was thinking of taking a technological quantum leap, trading my beautiful but slightly arcane IIIf to CL, but I figured that if I can't use my lovely Summitar lens (with collapsing) on it, the trade-in won't be much of a win for me. So am I right in assuming it's not safe to collapse the Summitar on the CL?

 

[Rob-F]

You are right! Collapsing the Summitar, or just about any lens, is a recipe for converting a CL to a meterless camera. It will damage the metering stalk.

 

[Toni Nikkanen]

What if I found one really cheap, with a dead meter, is it easy to remove the metering stalk?

 

[Toni Nikkanen]

And if I did, would the Summitar then collapse nicely or would it just hit something else instead of the metering stalk?

 

[sykotec]

I've wondered this as well - it'd be easy to check if I had an LTM adapter ring, as I've got both Summitar and CL. If you click the shutter but don't wind, the meter stalk is out of the way to check for other clearances.

That said, I don't think it will fully collapse even without the meter stalk in the way. Sadly as well, the collapsed Summitar is barely smaller than the Summicron-C 40, though it IS a very different lens of course.

 

[wlewisiii]

I used to have a CL & a Summicron. I wrapped a hair binder (the elastic kind) around the barrel of the lens and it allowed about 85-90% of the normal amount of collapse but kept it far enough out to avoid damage to the camera. It's also non-permanent so that you can remove it at any time.

Good luck with your decision.