Leica LTM Summitar the star...

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
On the Monochrome

On the Monochrome

Okay, this isn't the best representation, there will be more later.

Leica MM, 1949 Summitar:

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Another Mono with Summitar

Another Mono with Summitar

Just a dog pic, but good example of f2. I think the Summitar is made for the Monochrome.

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Funny this thread popped up. I owned one several years ago and unfortunately sold it. Just a couple of weeks ago I bought a super nice one with perfect glass from a forum member.

Don't get me wrong because I like crisp clean images but I just got tired of no character pixel perfect images and started selling my new aspheric glass and buying 50's and 60's glass. I've got to say I love the classic rendering of this older glass. I've been shooting Leicas since the 60's and went back and studied my favorite images that I've shot over the decades. I found the look that I liked best were from my first M glass in the 60's. I'm now acquiring nice samples of these lenses again.

I hadn't owned a summitar till 5 or 6 years ago and when I got my first one I fell in love with the images it produced. For some reason I some it but found a much nicer one and have started enjoying the beautiful rendering again. The Summitar is a very under appreciated lens and I'm glad because prices are still a bargain.
 
I'm sold on old glass too. The trick is finding a good example; if you do it's gold. The other option is Zeiss which remakes their best from the past with modern materials and coatings. I just bought a new Distagon which was a Hasselblad hit in 1952. It's great! Old glass is usually smaller, and if f2 is fast enough (sure it is, so is f2.8!) one finds that high contrast lenses leave a feller cold. It's easy to jack up contrast in Photoshop, but not so easy to make a new lens have the wonderful value range of the old.
 
Me too. I had a nice postwar coated Summitar and mistakenly sold it during a fit of lens thinning. I subsequently bought an uncoated pre-war version, with pristine glass, from a member here, and it's a keeper. I should use it more. They tend to flare easily, but the images they produce are lovely and they're beautifully made.
 
More Porta

More Porta

Mine is a '49 coated. I bought two before I found this one.
M6, Summitar, Porta 160 VC.....Killer no?! VC? Jeesh 2007!
I miss that stuff!

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Thank you, Yaron. My local Costco stopped scanning film, so I'm doing the scans myself now, and finding that this brings out the desaturated, vintage look in color.
 
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