Non-contrast and non-sharp 35 and 50 ltm lenses

Non-contrast and non-sharp 35 and 50 ltm lenses

 

I know this is annoying... But I'm just curious on which ones are non-contrasty and non-sharp for street. Here's what I have :

 

Summaron 35/3.5 - people say you can't beat it for street

Collapsible summicron 50/2 (radioactive) - such a special lens to me

 

Should I just stick with what I have? Thanks

Personally, yes, both are good lenses. If you want a really sharp 35 for street, it is hard to beat the Voigtlander 35/2.5 color-skopar. The Summarons were designed to be sharper in the center with sharpness fading as you move toward the edges; this double gauss design is an older version where overall sharpness at wide apertures wasn't the primary consideration; Leitz at the time considered the tradeoffs between resolution vs contrast, and chose a middle ground. It is just a fact that older lens designs (using the types of glass available at the time), generally often showed lower contrast until multiple coatings became more common, and tended to concentrate on center sharpness rather than the entire field.

which ones are non-contrasty and non-sharp for street ?" justin n.

5cm Summar f/2 and the similar era 3.5cm Elmar f/3.5 LTM's

Both of these have those two capabilities...

Yea, the summar is the softest. Not sure if the elmar is tho, my coated one was contrast (sold it). Should I get a summar? I feel bad about selling my cron tho.. I really do

Are you shooting B&W? The original Summicrons will have a yellow color cast unless you "bleach" the glass. I have one that went to focalpoint to be recoated, and it came back like new.

 

The Summar- most are soft due to scratches in the soft front element. It is prone to flare. One with a clean front element, with a good hood, and out of direct sun has high-resolving power.

 

The 5cm F1.5 Summarit is low-contrast/ softer images.

 

This is with a Summar, wide-open, on the M9.

 

Summar- Wide-open by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Yep b&w, thanks for the info btw :)

The Leitz Xenon 5cm F1.5 is reputed to be very soft, and low contrast.

 

Leica 5cm F1.5 Xenon by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

 

This is a test shot with my late, uncoated Xenon wide-open, with an Orange filter- After disassembling and cleaning the haze out. The front element, normally prone to getting scratches- is very clean on mine. The Xenon is optimized for F1.5, the Summarit is optimized for F2.8. The Summarit is coated. I optimized my Summarit for F1.5 be moving the rear elements out 0.2mm.

 

The Nikkor 3.5cm F3.5 is a good Tessar formula lens- also worth looking at as an alternative to your Summaron.

Yea the xenon is soft too, but the hood is just too damn expensive! Still can't decide if I should keep both of my lenses or not

Just to be clear, you actually want a low-contrast, soft lens? If so, have you considered adding (e.g.) a Zeiss Softar filter, and adjusting contrast at the printing or Photoshop stage? Otherwise, I'd probably try a Summar first. There are alternatives to the Xenon hood - e.g., get a 41-43mm or 41-46mm step-up ring (Heavystar on ebay sells both, as well as nice screw-in hoods). Various third party 41mm hoods also turn up on ebay, though it can be handy to use a stepping ring that gives you a common filter size.

Is there? I heard about them but never researched in them, thanks for reminding me :)

How about a vintage look? An elmar?

I have the 50/3.5. Nice lens, quite sharp stopped down, very compact and fully collapsible (making an LTM camera truly pocketable), fiddly to adjust the aperture. The later 50/2.8 is larger and has a normal aperture ring. Haven't tried the 35.

 

What I would suggest is to look at the various Flickr pools for these lenses and then see if you can pick out consistent differences between what you already have, and those you are interested in. You'll then be able to make a more informed choice.

True, thanks for your opinion :) But the problem is that I don't want to sell either of my lenses! Especially the cron since it's special to me

Any more opinions? What about the soft filter? I actually used a sheet of PVC food wrap before

There are various ways of getting a soft effect (cheap diffusion filter, nylon mesh, vaseline on a UV filter, etc.), but the Softar has a subtly different effect: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Softar%20II/

 

Not suggesting you sell your existing lens, but it may be that another lens of similar vintage won't give you anything much you don't already have. If you take a look at the Flickr pools, it's often difficult to tell which of the older Leica lenses was used for a specific shot. The bokeh of the Summitar shots tends to stand out, and quite a few of the Summar shots have the lower contrast / less sharp look you may want (though it's hard to say how much this is due to the condition of the easily scratched front element): Summar 50mm Lenses .If you want something different, you might be better off with a different focal length.

Yea that's true :) Thanks for the info! Gonna have a look at some cheap summars

I have often found it cheaper to buy an old Leica with Summar attached than to look for a Summar in isolation. I don't know if this is the case on-line.

Justin, see if you can find a copy of Erwin Puts Leica Lens Compendium. In it he gives detailed descriptions of the various Leica lenses the you would find helpful in making your lens decisions.

I think I heard of it somewhere :) N

This is a mirror of the text-only version Erwin Puts released for free on the web: http://125px.com/docs/manuals/lenses/35mm/rangefinder/leica/llcforweb.pdf . I think the book may be out of print, as copies on Amazon are pretty expensive: Leica Lens Compendium: Amazon.co.uk: Erwin Puts: 9781897802175: Books . You may be able to find the Leica Pocket Book for less - I think the 7th and 8th editions have lens reviews from Erwin Puts. Edited April 24, 2017 by Richard Williams

Leica Pocket Book: Leica: Pocket Book: Amazon.co.uk: Dennis Laney: 9781874707004: Books

Yea the xenon is soft too, but the hood is just too damn expensive! Still can't decide if I should keep both of my lenses or not

Look for a Tiffen #611 adapter ring- they go unnoticed on Ebay. Allows use of a Series VI filter and Vented Hood. This is what I use on the Summarit and Xenon.

 

As you cannot decide to keep both lenses, "KEEP THEM". Only two lenses? That was easy.

 

Now- if you want to try something inexpensive for your Leica, look at some of the older Russian lenses.

 

Industar-26m, CLA and Test

 

My "Keeper", made in 1957- like me.

 

Industar-26m #2, Earlier Fed, 1957

 

The I-26m is a good Tessar copy.

Oh I like tessars, never knew the i-26m is a copy of that! Thanks :) Edited April 26, 2017 by justin_ng|1

Eh, gonna stick with what I have. Gonna try developing for a bit shorter, hope it'll make the photos less contrasty, will it?

Eh, gonna stick with what I have. Gonna try developing for a bit shorter, hope it'll make the photos less contrasty, will it?

Justin, that gets into a whole new set of parameters to consider. You might want to take a digital stroll over to the film/development threads for that. Pushing mid-tones to achieve less density (gamma) is definitely doable with development, but it depends as well on your film, developer and conditions, as well as if you print or scan.

Best of luck with decisions you make on this.

Bert