The Summarit: Dreamy Photos or Haze?

[raid]

I have received back my first roll of film taken with a Canon P and the Summarit 50mm/1.5 lens. I used Fujicolor 200 film, and I had the film developed and scanned commercially. I have posted all 25 photos that were on the roll. The photos were taken at F 5.6. Compared to photos you seen that were taken with the Summitar, doesmy lens need a CLA or are these photos what you expect to get with the Summarit? I see people praising the Summitar and a few also liking the Summar but I still have not seenany thread with praises on the Summarit.

Here is a link: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=634956

 

[David Murphy]

You can tell if there's haze by just holding it up to light. If the lens was uncoated I'd say these are typical for color film and a complex uncoated lens. I had an uncoated CJZ Sonnar (for Contax) that performed about the same with color: acceptable, interesting, but not in the same league as any modern serious lens. I also had a 45mm Minolta Rokkor in LTM that was really "dreamy"- made about 1952 and probably lacking any serious optical coatings and designed under difficult circumstances. Advances in coatings and computer based optical design (optimization) have really sharpened up the modern lens.

I would suggest that if the lens was used with BW film with a color filter (e.g. red, yellow, or green) you will see snappier images. This will reduce chromatic abberations and enhance contrast on certain subjects.

 

[xayraa33]

that is a typical look with the Summarit with colour film.
it is really extreme at full opening.
some people like it very much, I still cannot make up my mind if I like that look or not.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I'd look at the lens and see if it's haze. But this looks to me more like the work of the very common "front element scratches" that most of their previous owners so graciously bestowed on them.

This is pretty good, Raid, considering it's a Summarit. The Summarit is an acquired taste.

 

[raid]

I am testing this lens, and so far I feel like this could be the Summarit look. The previous owner did not try this lens before selling it so I took my chances. Maybe I got lucky.

Raid

 

[OldNick]

Raid, your results are similar to what I recall when I owned a Summarit many years ago. It was fine for soft portraits of my son, who was a baby at the time, but was never satisfactory as a general-purpose lens. I sold it and got a Summitar.

Jim N.

 

[BrianShaw]

Wouldn't it be better for portraits of older people, especially women? Babies and small children are usually already soft.

No offense intended, Raid, but I don't think I like this effect. Maybe better success in B&W??

 

[MCTuomey]

I don't have any color scans with the summarit i owned for awhile, but here's a B&W sample shot wide open:

I wished I had the funds to have kept the lens - my wife especially liked the look it gave. She described it as "post-war parisian."

 

[MinorTones]

For some purposes I think the hazy effect could be good, but if it were my lens I bet it would sit on the shelf.

I might take it out for portraits, but I'd have another lens with me.

-Mitch

 

[wamjam]

this is really the character of the summarit. very soft. i like a more contrasty effect...but this is just my preference.

 

[FrankS]

Here's a Summarit portrait wide open, in b+w. Focus is off, shutter speed was slow, so it could have been clearer.

 

[payasam]

f/5.6 is small enough to cut out any wide-open effects. Did you use a hood? Like the Summitar, or more so, the Summarit cannot live without one. I had one for 17 years but could not use it because of haze, flare and more of those two. A fine if rusty Serenar 50/1.8 served me well.
[EDIT] Good picture, Frank, despite the imperfections you list.

 

[leica M2 fan]

I like it Frank

I like it Frank

Here's a Summarit portrait wide open, in b+w. Focus is off, shutter speed was slow, so it could have been clearer.

Focus is off but not by much, the effect is still quite good.Still it is a very effective portrait.

 

[FrankS]

Thank you. Now that I've got a scanner capable of film, I'll be able to do some evaluating of lenses without having to wet-print everything first.

 

[leica M2 fan]

No offense, Raid

No offense, Raid

I have received back my first roll of film taken with a Canon P and the Summarit 50mm/1.5 lens. I used Fujicolor 200 film, and I had the film developed and scanned commercially. I have posted all 25 photos that were on the roll. The photos were taken at F 5.6. Compared to photos you seen that were taken with the Summitar, doesmy lens need a CLA or are these photos what you expect to get with the Summarit? I see people praising the Summitar and a few also liking the Summar but I still have not seenany thread with praises on the Summarit.

Here is a link: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=634956

I studied and studied your pictures on the link and only found a couple that were passable in color. Compared to some of your other postings which were superb these were lacking. Perhaps in B&W they would be ok as in Frank's great B&W. Not a lens I would seek for my use.

 

[raid]

f/5.6 is small enough to cut out any wide-open effects. Did you use a hood? Like the Summitar, or more so, the Summarit cannot live without one. I had one for 17 years but could not use it because of haze, flare and more of those two. A fine if rusty Serenar 50/1.8 served me well.
[EDIT] Good picture, Frank, despite the imperfections you list.

No hood was used because I did not have a hood that fits the 41mm thread, but the photos were taken in front porch at shade.

Raid

 

[raid]

I will try a second roll with this Summarit, but I will use B&W film this time, and I will have [soon] a lens shade.

Raid

 

[Andrew3511]

I think your lens needs CLA. My Summarit (now sold) was nowhere near as dreamy and unsharp as this at f5.6, hardly even as bad at f1.5. Yes it will flare but not in the conditions you were using it in and the central resolution is not bad even at full aperture. This has all the hallmarks of something, either haze or bad scratches, giving considerable scatter of light within the lens

 

[FrankS]

I agree, perhaps an oily coating on the interior elements? Time for a cla.

 

[raid]

I think your lens needs CLA. My Summarit (now sold) was nowhere near as dreamy and unsharp as this at f5.6, hardly even as bad at f1.5. Yes it will flare but not in the conditions you were using it in and the central resolution is not bad even at full aperture. This has all the hallmarks of something, either haze or bad scratches, giving considerable scatter of light within the lens

Andrew: I am also suspecting this to be applicable to my lens.

Frank: I will ask my local cameraman.

Raid