Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/17

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: I like small lenses
From: Jeremy Kime <jeremy.kime@bbc.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 17:35:03 -0000

Ray, Ken,

The historical research suggests that the Leitz Summaron was the Xenogon
design, originally masked down to f3.5 and then later modified to re-open it
to f2.8. 
The lens seemed to come out of nowhere in the war years, though the Xenogon
preceded it and Leitz had already demonstrated their willingness to buy in
other company's designs, e.g. the Schneider/TTH Xenon.
There was an extensive article in either the LHS or LHSA magazine about
this.

The 35/2.8 Summaron is a fine lens by my standards (though falls short of
current 35 ASPH quality obviously) it is not anywhere near the
dissapointment of the early 35 Elmar and I beleive was a distinct
improvement on the 3.5 Summaron too. I have a great series of fairground
photos, available light @ 1600 ASA, wide open, 1/30 second, providing all I
needed in terms of sharpness, bokeh and tonality.

Jem

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Ken Wilcox [SMTP:wilcox@tir.com]
> Ray:
> 
> How about a 28 Summaron with M adapter. It is so tiny it nearly disappears
> into the camera body.
> 
	  ==== 

> >Here is my dream lens: a recomputed 35/3.5 Elmar or better yet something
> >like the Schneider 35/2.8 Xenogon but with modern glass in M mount.
> ----
> Ken Wilcox