Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:41 PM 3/19/2000 +1100, Alastair Firkin wrote: >Mine is probably a later lens 940002. And >Why buy the Summarex? This lens is flawed. Leica was prepared to axe it >even when it had no replacement. It was not a great performer at full >aperture, was expensive, heavy, and blocked a lot of the viewfinder on the >M3/4. Leica finally released a fast short telephoto 20 years after the King >was discontinued. > >Until the release of the f1.4 Summilux, the Leica rangefinder user had to >make to with the 90 Elmarit and later Tele-elmarit, both of f2.8 speed. First, your lens dates from 1951, approximately 1/3 of the way through production (approximately 1550 were made by the end of 1951, out of 4342 total production). Second, Leitz specifically stated that their reason for taking the 1.5/8.5cm Summarex out of production was the advent of a much improved replacement, the 2/9cm Summicron, in 1957. The new lens was substantially lighter (680g versus 800g), much better optically, and was produced in both LTM and M mount from the get-go. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!