Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/25

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Mo' Bettah: The 35mm Summicron
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:55:50 -0700

At 8:59 PM -0700 10/25/99, Alexey Merz wrote:

>>and that the lens is one heavy brute.
>
>Not so. In the black version the Summilux ASPH weighs
>5g *less* than the Summicron ASPH, i.e. the lenses
>have identical mass.

and

At 12:38 AM -0400 10/26/99, Bill Caldwell wrote:

>But the f/1.4 35mm Summilux ASPH-M (250g in black w/out the plastic lens
>hood 12588; 415g in chrome w/out the hood) is pure magic as a lens!  It
>(a black f/1.4 ASPH) is almost a permanent resident on my M6.  Yes, the
>bokeh may be different (subjective) depending upon the light source, but
>displeasing to me (in comparison to the pre-ASPH Summicrons) -- no.
>
>Oh as for weight (from the 1997 Handbook and the 1998 Handbook), the
>current f/2 Summicron ASPH-M (13131-32) weighs in at 255g in the black
>finish, and 340g in the chrome finish, w/out the plastic lens hood
>12526. The current black f/1 50mm Noctilux (11822 w/ built-in hood)
>weighs in at a tidy 630g.  IMHO, at 250g in black, it seems a stretch to
>call the f/1.4 35mm Summilux ASPH-M "one heavy brute."  Besides at 5g
>less the black f/2 Summicron ASPH-M (and 90g less than the chrome f/2
>35mm Summicron ASPH-M), the black f/1.4 35mm Summilux ASPH-M seems to be
>one light/middle weight shooting lens, with an usable f/1.4 stop that
>permits you to hand hold at 1/15.

I think you guys didn't follow the lines across when reading the weights;
the Summilux ASPH weights 310gms and the Summicron ASPH 255gm, both in
black. Not a big difference, but still a real difference. Volume is also
readily differentiable.

I use a Summilux ASPH and a Summicrom-M; the 'lux ASPH is sharper and the
pre-ASPH Summicron has better bokeh to my eye, and is a lot smaller and
lighter (160gm). It is also shorter (26mm) than the 'lux ASPH (46.2mm) and
the Summicron ASPH (34.5mm), all without hoods. Maybe a small difference,
but as percentages certainly noticeable when handling. All that being said,
I'm the guy that has gone on vacation with 3 Nikons and 9 lenses, and gone
hiking in the Himalayas with 2 Leicas, 5 lenses, a full Mamiya 6 outfit and
a 150 Noblex etc., so maybe I _should_ be paying attention to every gram!!
:-)

   *            Henning J. Wulff
  /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
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