Summitar the star...

[mauro scacco]

Leica IIc - summitar 50
Taggia (Italy-Liguria)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/2963554329_145b7a43a2_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3229/2964395374_767d97d42f_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2964437366_d92b94355b_o.jpg

[robin a]

Very Nice,I like them............Robin

[sleepyhead]

The old lens combined with black and white film and the subjects - looks like it could have been shot by HCB 60 years ago, but I assume these are fairly recent pictures.

Nice!

[pipal]

summitar is a very good lens. I love mine, which is, I believe from 1948. It can do as good images as this one taken last month:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2923058580_f58bd86fd8.jpg

[like2fiddle]

Ok, now you've done it! I am going to NYC for the weekend and couldn't decide what lens to take, but now I think I must take the Summitar;)

[Mr_Flibble]

Yours look great Mauro & Pipal,

I still need to get to grips with mine from 1939, I was not overly impressed what it could do with color film (kodak VR plus) in my IIIc when I was in Ypres a week ago. Though I already like it better then my Summar.

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/YP081027.jpg

I guess it's time to try B/W film.

[helenhill]

Just Outstanding, the Italian Mystique in those photos - Mauro

Pipel & Rick....Wonderful shots

The summitar is Timeless....

Best-H

[Dektol Dan]

Is breathtaking.... Old Most Excellent glass with the new negative color films is a new world to be explored.

Leica M4, Porta, 1949 Coated Summitar.

[harry01562]

I love the shots, both B&W and night color. The Summitar is a lovely little fun lens to use. Mine is from 1946, and coated, and I also sometimes use a 1935 Summar with B&W for a dreamier effect. Fortunately, both of my lenses have very good glass.

Harry

[peterm1]

I toyed with the idea of getting a Summar at one stage but I then realised that I already have a Summitar which is better while sharing the Sumamrs characteristic rendering. So I decided to use my Summitar more. I have a great deal of affection for this lens.

[raydm6]

Nice photos guys. I love this lens' signature. I've been using mine (1949 coated) without the barndoor lens hood and a lot of my photos lack that deep contrast which is to be expected.

This one came out rather nice however while at my sister's house this summer. IIIf RD w/5cm Summitar Kodak 400UC film developed/scanned to CD at CVS:

http://www.raydicecca.com/photography/misc/59020016sm.JPG


- Ray

[oscroft]

Those are great photos - I love the middle one, especially.

It really should inspire me - I have an early uncoated Summitar that I've only shot a couple of test rolls with, and I got great results with it.

So, I resolve to use my Summitar during the winter :D

[adji_jo]

ooo Myyy God! did the spirit of HCB posses you??? it's an awesome lens and it seems like that type of lens that, no matter how suck you are at photography, it will still come out divine. I'm wondering what the equivalent lens of the summitar is nowadays?

great photos guys...

[like2fiddle]

Mauro,
I forgot to ask what film and developer you are using. You have certainly hit on an old fashioned look.

[Todd.Hanz]

it's a cool-old-school-retro look for sure with color film...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2963445467_0bcf0098f1.jpg

Todd

[helenhill]

it's a cool-old-school-retro look for sure with color film...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2963445467_0bcf0098f1.jpg

Todd
YES, Indeed
Well Done....
best-h

[bcostin]

I'm always impressed by the results from this lens, especially in contrasty B&W. Though these color shots are also impressive.

[mauro scacco]

Mauro,
I forgot to ask what film and developer you are using. You have certainly hit on an old fashioned look.
Thx all!
The old lenses (and old cameras) have a special charm for me...
My actual formula is agfa apx 100 in rodinal 1/120 (semistand) but also fp4 or trix
Mauro

[Dfin]

Mr. Flibble,is that a photo of the Menin Gate? I`ve just finished Somme Mud, a semi -autobiographical novel,about Australian W.W.1 diggers in Belgium & France. I like the mutted colours rendered by this lens, i`ve just had my summarit F/1.5 cleaned but have yet to run some film past it.

[Mr_Flibble]

Yes, it's the Menin Gate in Ypres, I walked around town for an hour or two with a friend taking turns using his tripod for low-light photographs. This one was the nicest I managed with the IIIc.

[35photo]

I have a summitar I believe from 1949 that I use on my M6. I actually had it serviced at Golden Touch and Sherry told that it was her opinion that this lens was Leica's most underrated and sharpest 50mm. When is lens is stopped down boy its damn sharp, but when you open it up the magic starts happening esp with B&W film. Yeah, the lens has a great signature to it that's for sure as by the images shown so far.

Marko

[TMLee]

I am new to the Summitar 50/2 . This is from my first roll with it. Shot at f2@1/500 +1/3stop . Kodak BW400CN.

I notice the corners of the image are kind of (how do you say it?) 'blurred' ? Also, its almost noticeable that there is a central circle where things are pretty sharp, beyond which the blurry effect is seen.

Is this the unique signature of this lens that has been oft spoken about ?

[TMLee]

On the same roll of film, here is the same pic taken with the ZM50/2 Planar.
Shot at f2@1/500 +1/3stop as well.

At first glance, this 2nd shot has blacker blacks.

The previous shot above by the Summitar is not as black and is more grey, which is what I want actually. Greater tonality as some have described ?

[john341]

I just returned from Germanyy where I took lots of pix with my IIIa with summitar. The results always surprise me for such an old lens

[sanmich]

I have a summitar I believe from 1949 that I use on my M6. I actually had it serviced at Golden Touch and Sherry told that it was her opinion that this lens was Leica's most underrated and sharpest 50mm. When is lens is stopped down boy its damn sharp, but when you open it up the magic starts happening esp with B&W film. Yeah, the lens has a great signature to it that's for sure as by the images shown so far.

Marko
I'm quite surprised about the opinion of Sherry on the Summitar.
One of the most underrated, probably, but one of the sharpest lenses... I don't know.
At larger apertures, my summitar resole slightly less than my coll cron, espescially in the corners. Is there a reason to think that stopping it down turns it into a "super-sharpness machine" :confused:

[raydm6]

I was at the Griffin Museum of Photography (http://www.griffinmuseum.org/) in Winchester, Massachusetts Sunday and brought along my IIIf. I shot the outside of the museum wanting to see how the Summitar did at smaller apertures (I was shooting it mostly wide open in the past). This one is at f/11 (and I was using the SOOPD lens hood). Not razor sharp, but a pleasant sharpness that is pleasing to my eyes. I was using Fujifilm Superia X-tra (ASA400). Again, scanned at the local Rx :cool:. Just to stay retro, I was using an old (c. 1946) beautifully black wrinkle finished GE selenium cell meter (http://www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/meters/ge_dw58.html) which I just noticed needs calibration :D:

http://www.raydicecca.com/photography/misc/09880004web1.jpg


- Ray

[johne]

I got a Summitar as a body cap with a Leica III F. Sherry Krauter transformed it into a pleasing bit of glass. See my gallery site here for recent shots.
johne

[David Murphy]

Yes you know I really think the Summitar is really sort of a break point historically where Leica started to catch up to Zeiss optically. The later coated versions are very modern in character, sharp with true color rendition. It's built like a tank too - tremendous value as a used LTM lens

Here's a sample with a 40's era Summitar I used to own mounted on a Leica M2 using Agfa Vista 400 color print film:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t161/wanchaiboy/rff/im0017red.jpg

[David Hughes]

Yes you know I really think the Summitar is really sort of a break point historically where Leica started to catch up to Zeiss optically. The later coated versions are very modern in character, sharp with true color rendition. It's built like a tank too - tremendous value as a used LTM lens

Here's a sample with a 40's era Summitar I used to own mounted on a Leica M2 using Agfa Vista 400 color print film:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t161/wanchaiboy/rff/im0017red.jpg
I'll second that; after the Summitar the improvements seem, well, gradual rather than rapid. It's a great lens and dirt cheap; provided we keep quiet about it.

With hindsight, I should have bought one secondhand when I started out many years ago and then never bother to up-grade until the M6 arrived...

Regards, David

PS I don't like the style and prices of the Summitar lens hood but the cheapo (cast iron and crackle finish) Summarit l/hood will fit if shimmed with a strip of plastic from a black cable tie. Cable ties are like this in cross section "[" and a sharp knife, keen eye and a steel ruler will make it simple to trim to "L" in cross section. Then cut to length and line the l/hood. The "flange" means the bit of plastic sits properly. It gives the period look some of us like, although the modern M hoods would be nicer to use but I've not taken a knife to one yet...

[John Lawrence]

Just as a PPS to David's comments above, I use the Leitz 12585 vented hood with my summitar.

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I had to look that one up and found it at £3-14/6 plus 13/4 purchase tax in 1966. The silly part is that I've one on the M2 but didn't recognise it as as 12585. And we can't do all the NOOKY jokes with numbers...

Regards, David

[Ronald M]

Proves you don`t need a bag full of lenses to take great pics.

[tooffy]

Oh wow! all very nice guys. Can't wait for mine to arrive:)

[sircarl]

The Summitar is one of my favorite lenses. This taken in London a couple of days ago, by Westminster Bridge, with my IIIf:




http://sircarl.smugmug.com/photos/429534881_3tout-L.jpg

[Mr_Flibble]

Great shots Melvin & Carl,

I haven't really had much chance to use any of my Leicas for a couple of weeks. Next in a week I'm going to the Ardennes again (for the Bastogne Historical Walk). It sounds like a good opportunity to use my Summitar once more.
Though last year I did not have so much luck with my cameras in the cold. My Kodak35 tore up the film pretty badly.

[Mr_Flibble]

Two shots from taken with my IIIc and Summitar. The cold did some weird things to the shutter. It didn't sound consistent. Some pictures have what looks like a lightleak or a curtain-hangup. It appears to be running fine at room temperature though.

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/BH081209.jpg

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/bh081212.jpg

[helenhill]

Wow Mr. Flibble
those Shots are Soooo Cool
have that Cinematography FEEL
Love it !1

BTW had to send back that summitar I purchased
way too soft ...something off ... Sadly I have not tred to purchase another but your shots give me that LUST Factor

Best to You - H :)

[benmacphoto]

Mr_Flibble, Those are fantastic images.

[TMLee]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/3115104914_9694453941.jpg?v=0

ZI + Summitar.
f2 @ 1/15 Kodak Gold 200

[raydm6]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/3115104914_9694453941.jpg?v=0

ZI + Summitar.
f2 @ 1/15 Kodak Gold 200

Wow! That is very sharp TMLee!! Wide open and at 1/15 even :eek:. Like the diagonal orientation.

- Ray

[TMLee]

Tks Ray,
I had help from the bar counter.
Plus the friendly bartender and almost no one else around , contributed to the opportunity.
The point of focus was the white bottle front row 'ABsolut Pears' ...

[mauro scacco]

Some news from "Summitar the star" and leica III black
Thx Mauro

1http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/4359694249_31df5d0e24_b.jpg


2http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4364684539_069ec611e5_b.jpg


3http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4365414972_8f68bff6e3_b.jpg


4http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4365483386_4803be58ed_b.jpg


5http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2722/4359585049_a583d92386_b.jpg


6http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4340913046_c791516987_b.jpg


7http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4340913074_1e9ab2cd5d_b.jpg


8http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2727/4341126740_9a67d78ac0_b.jpg


9http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4360172450_800e639f57_b.jpg


10http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4362025573_16ac2c38d2_b.jpg

[raydm6]

Lovely shots above Mauro!

I was out strolling meter-less with my IIIf and Summitar yesterday and was guessing exposures. This was 1/100 @f/8 Ektar 100 (color curves adjusted a bit to bring out the red).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2731/4376473179_e2ec3b8848_o.jpg

[jbielikowski]

let's bring some life to this thread, Summitar on non-working-range-finder M3 @ f/8 with Acros 100 in Rodinal 1:100.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3243/img468x.jpg

[FPjohn]

Excellent! Especially #1 and #5.

yours
FPJ

[photo4ls]

Mauro
Amazing talent for B/W. You just have the
knack for getting the most out your gear.
Really nice images.
Nelson

[Oh Two]

I think it's important to understand that the early post war lenses are not consistent in quality, while most are very good some are f***ing damn good! M4, 1949 Summitar

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7663238@N04/2060618170/
http://flickr.com/photos/7663238@N04/1021176072/
http://flickr.com/photos/7663238@N04/2060620060/

[Mr_Flibble]

Put a roll of Ektar 100 through my Leica IIIC with Summitar last Sunday at Fort Vechten

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/FV100220.jpg

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/FV100225.jpg

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/FV100227.jpg

[jbielikowski]

Mr Flibble, they look soooo vintage, great!

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/687/img480l.jpg

[raydm6]

IIIf | Summitar | Ektar 100

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4410084959_ea9f37d781_o.jpg

Skylight Detail - Leominster Public Library

[setyotomo]

Canon7 + Summitar 50/2 + Fuji Xtra400 , scanned at Lab with Noritsu
1
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4422463130_4343b768c4_b.jpg

2
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2752/4422464666_c7ca4a9678_b.jpg

3
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4422475278_0b12798888_b.jpg

Leica IIIf + Summitar 50/2 + LegacyPro 400
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2719/4421839651_1363166341_b.jpg

this is my first leica lens, and i like the result, how it renders color and black !

[Disaster_Area]

The Summitar is my first Leica lens as well... picked it up for a song, although it doesn't extend smoothly the optics are great. It really seems to be the best of all the Leica worlds with a great price point. At large apertures you get the dreamy Summar like rendering and by f4 you start seeing Summicron like crispness. Flair is a problem but a decent lens hood does wonders.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4286527489_d9487bf63e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbhildebrand/4286527489/)

[Leigh Youdale]

I was about to sell my Summitar until I reviewed the shots in this thread. I might have to reconsider!

[Uwe_Nds]

I'm not going to sell mine, either.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/data/500/L1003470_Summitar.jpg

Cheers,
Uwe

[LeicaFoReVer]

I sold mine :( but I loved that lens, beautiful colors and swirly bokeh produced...

[jbielikowski]

@ f/8 it's deadly sharp.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8921/img482.jpg

[Mr_Flibble]

I agree


Summitar cheating with an Epson R-D1 at the Royal Engineer Museum in Vught (NL)

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/GM090427.jpg

http://www.flibweb.nl/flibweb/cpg143/albums/userpics/10001/GM090401.jpg

[fotomeow]

Glad this thread was bumped, love the images. I had spoken to Sherry K. about this lens: she loves this lens for its 3D rendering. She stated this is one of the early Leica lenses that really put "Liker" on the map of fotog equipment.
Again, I love the images presented here, but Im not able to see any more of a 3D rendering than any other Leica lens. Am I missing something?

[rodt16s]

I don't mind keeping the military theme going.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2628/3992519596_ac4dc7af5f.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/redspecial/3992519596/sizes/l/in/set-72157613388302418/
Well stopped down it's pretty sharp.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2448/4034339601_7170e625f5.jpg

Have Two Summitar's now, I liked the first so much.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/redspecial/3992519596/sizes/l/in/set-72157613388302418/