Old Summicron

I used to have a 1955 Summicron 50mm collapsible screw-mount lens. Here's a shot I took. This was an overcast day, so the lens couldn't flare, as it often did. Notice the subtle gradations in the highlights and the bokeh. I sure wish I hadn't sold the lens. My latest-version Summi doesn't do as well in the highlights.

Yeah, that's nice.

I used to have one from 1954 and, after several years this century of little use, I foolishly sold it. Boy do I miss it...like yours, it offered wonderful rendering. Thanks for sharing your shot.

Great...It's so refreshing to get away from the harshness of modern lenses, now and then. That's subtle and expressive, typical of the results I strive for with lenses from that era. Thanks for showing us.

Rick has nailed it ! Modern lenses are built like Hubble. I am enjoying the simple results of my FSU Fed's with their Leica copied lenses, which were never Leica lenses. My "soft" Industar I-26 is wonderful for portraits like Royall's. The Jupiter-8 (a Sonnar copy, which does rival a Leica glass sometimes) can be put on for "sharpness". Bill

Just as an aside, maybe of interest, the Soviet-made double Gauss lenses like the Helios 103 are superb. It is said that that lens is a Summicron copy, but I think the relationship to the Zeiss Biotar (im Westen, Planar) lens may be more direct.

 

 

The Helios is unbelievably inexpensive up to now.

Hi JDM

 

I thought the Helios-44 is a direct copy of Biotar 58/2 in your photo.

 

Back to OP, I also really like the collapsible Summicron 50/2 rendering.

Helios-44 is a direct copy of Biotar 58/2

 

Quite true, but the question is whether the later 103 version was a Soviet development of the 44 or simply a copy of the Leica lens (which could be considered to owe something to the pre- and post-war Zeiss Biotar/Planar)

Just as an aside, maybe of interest, the Soviet-made double Gauss lenses like the Helios 103 are superb. It is said that that lens is a Summicron copy, but I think the relationship to the Zeiss Biotar (im Westen, Planar) lens may be more direct.

 

 

[ATTACH=full]1215380[/ATTACH]

The Helios is unbelievably inexpensive up to now.

It's often cheaper when it is attached to a camera!

Ken, what cameras at present? I have an itch to scratch.

The collapsable Summicron I use on my Leica IIIf is VERY sharp; I've read that later six element versions are better than the original seven element one, but I find that hard to imagine. THe only lens I have that seems to equal it is the f1.5 Jupiter 3 (A Sonnar copy) I use on my Kiev 4a; I also have an f2 Jupiter 8 for that camera, but IMO its not quite as good.

Here is the Helios 103 on a Zeiss Contax IIa

 

and here is a 100% crop of the same

 

 

Not bad for a lens that cost under $30 including shipping from Ukraine, I think.

Performance / cost it is very hard to beat the Helios-103.