The Joys of Summar...

[ZivcoPhoto]

Summar at the Nature Preserve

Summar at the Nature Preserve

[/url]Leica SUMMAR lens at Nature Preserve by Atwood90, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Godfrey]

Lovely photos, Helen!
Leica had a reputation for lenses for good reason. 🙂

G

 

[sanmich]

I had the front element of my 1936 nickel summar repolished and it makes a world of difference.
very sharp and pleasant lens.

 

[maddoc]

A nice lens, it replaced both my Summarit 50/1.5 and Elmar 50/3.5.

201502-06-M4P-RXP400-SUMMAR-90ELMAR-35ELMAR-13 copy by Gabor Samjeske, on Flickr

201408-14-IIIb-APX100-SUMMAR-27 copy by Gabor Samjeske, on Flickr

201408-12-M3-HP5-SUMMAR-32 copy by Gabor Samjeske, on Flickr

 

[Michael I.]

have an early uncoated one which is the only 50 I use on my M leica's anymore.

 

[Erik van Straten]

I have several Summars, one is coated. That one I like the best.

Leica IIIc, Summar 50mm f/2, Tmax400.

Erik.

 

[Bingley]

I've gone the Summitar route when it comes to vintage, moderately fast Leica lenses, but I really admire the Summar photos here.

 

[Vincent.G]

What kind of hood/shade do you guys recommend?

 

[Erik van Straten]

What kind of hood/shade do you guys recommend?

The FLQOO is the best, then the FOOKH and the FISON. Unfortunately these shades are very expensive at the moment.

I do not recommend the FIKUS. It is top heavy and wil not fit well, keeps falling off all the time.

Erik.

 

[kermaier]

The FLQOO is the best, then the FOOKH and the FISON. Unfortunately these shades are very expensive at the moment.

I do not recommend the FIKUS. It is top heavy and wil not fit well, keeps falling off all the time.

Erik.

There's also a screw-in Walz (Japan) "for Summar" hood, which isn't nearly as neat as the FOOKH or FLQOO, but much cheaper and does the job:

::Ari

 

[kermaier]

The FLQOO is the best, then the FOOKH and the FISON. Unfortunately these shades are very expensive at the moment.

I do not recommend the FIKUS. It is top heavy and wil not fit well, keeps falling off all the time.

Erik.

Or, if you feel like getting your Rube Goldberg on, you can use a SOOGZ and a 12585 (or other A42 clip-on hood, like ITOOY, ITDOO or IROOA):

 

[Erik van Straten]

There's also a screw-in Walz (Japan) "for Summar" hood, which isn't nearly as neat as the FOOKH or FLQOO, but much cheaper and does the job:

::Ari

This looks really sweet. I've never seen this shade before. Are they hard to get?

Erik.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

That's a pretty sweet looking hood.
I have a few screw-in filter sets by Walz (For the Argus C-3 but they work great on the Elmars too)

 

[Monochrom]

The summar is an amazing lens...i used a fikus hood between 50 and 90mm setting and sometimes i did even used it on 90 alone!
It suffers too much from flare
You must look for a perect glass sample if not you won´t be able to realise how good it is.

Maicol 2-Summar by Enzo Betinyani, on Flickr

Maicol 3-Summar by Enzo Betinyani, on Flickr

Maicol-Summar by Enzo Betinyani, on Flickr

 

[Dralowid]

I've lost the little hood for a Summar that I got from an Ebay seller called something like 'Jack the Hat'. Has anyone got his details? It was an excellent and cheap solution.

Kit that I have lost so far this year includes said lens hood, the Leica 1.25 magnifier for my M, an eyesight correction lens and a shutter release ring from a III. It is still only July...

 

[Erik van Straten]

You must look for a perect glass sample if not you won´t be able to realise how good it is.

Yes, in fact all haze must be removed from the elements.
This is true for all the old lenses. And then a shade is still neccessary.

Erik.

 

[Monochrom]

Also and very important aspect of the summar is the fact it has focus shift.

It is optimized for f2, so my shots at f6.3 show backfocusing, on an m9 it´s evident, on film and at long range it deosn´t matter.

Lot´s of times softness is confused with focus shift.

 

[kermaier]

This looks really sweet. I've never seen this shade before. Are they hard to get?

Erik.

I don't know -- I stumbled across it years ago on eBay and bought just because it looked interesting and was cheap enough (as I recall dimly) to grab on a whim. I've never come across another, but I've never looked for one either. Have to imagine it's not rare, but a quick eBay search just turned up nothing.
::Ari

 

[kermaier]

The FLQOO is the best, then the FOOKH and the FISON. Unfortunately these shades are very expensive at the moment.

I do not recommend the FIKUS. It is top heavy and wil not fit well, keeps falling off all the time.

Erik.

And, of course, there's the SOOMP, which seems to be made of cast iron, and weighs more than a IIIc -- but that's the real Summar hood! 😉

 

[Vincent.G]

Being a M user for so long, I cannot get use to the old aperture scale f2 f2,2 f3,2 f4,5 etc. My handheld meters use the newer aperture scale f2 f2.8 f4 etc so how should i match both aperture values?

And I still need to get use to the "new-to-me old" shutter speed interval of 1/1000 1/500 1/200 1/100 etc on my IIIF.