Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/01/29

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Summicron 50mm question
From: CharlesW99@aol.com
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 16:12:28 EST

Marc Small wrote:
>Well, for starters, they have different lengths and thus MUST be a
different formula.  Harold Merklinger, a Canadian optical scientist, has
written on this -- see his web page for details:
http://fox.nstn.ca/~hmmerk/HMbook15.html

For another, the COLLECTORS CHECKLIST TO LEICA CAMERAS lists a different UK
patent number for the rigid from the collapsible.  My copy is not at hand,
nor have I ever compared the two.

Marc<

I have both lenses for my M3. These are in roughly the same condition. The
rigid one I have was made in 1957 and the collapsible was made in 1955. I was
curious about any performance difference and a few years ago I tested them on
an optical target. At f 2.0 and f 5.6 (the two apertures I tested) the
performance was nearly the same. The rigid seemed marginally better at the
edges at 5.6, but this could just be a normal variation in the testing.

So I guess the important point is that I'd feel comfortable using either lens.

Charlie