Leica 1a still working fine

[james_elwing]

Great; a coup. Hope the price is good.

Incidentally, returning to the original question, XP2 is great for this sort of lens. Drop off in contrast etc, if any, is hardly noticeable. These lenses were great. I bought a Dr Paul Wolf pre war photo book a few years ago, much of which was shot on water, into the sun, using 35 & 50 Elmars, with little visible flare.

[jean_marie_dederen]

Both the 5cm and 3,5cm elmars apparently show virtually no softening or image degrading past f6,3 even at the smallest apertures; uncoated glass, amazing. Hope to get a 3,5cm soon. On the other hand, I find that the printing quality of pre-1950's photo books hardly does justice to these lenses (with the exception of some high quality gravure prints). Wouldn't mind the reference to Wolf's book.

[james_elwing]

<p>Jean-Marie<br>

SONNE UBER SEE UND STRAND by DR PAUL WOLFF 1936<br>

A friend tells me the photos were mostly taken in Holland. Text is in German, including a bit about Oskar Barnack who had died that year. I don't understand German so...,<br>

but photo information is in German, English & French. </p>

[jean_marie_dederen]

Much obliged gov'nor! Googled the book: gravure prints, some sepia toned. Looks gorgeous. Not cheap to get, at least here. When seeing publications like this I wish I lived on the other side of the equator. You see, you buy, you get it delivered at your door the same week. Here you end up paying double the price and wait for 6-8 weeks; then hope the parcel doesn't get lost along the way...Looking at one of those other golden oldies, Herr Summar. Had two, gave them both away because the front element looked like it was cleaned with steel wool. The boxtype hood is more expensive than the lens. The quality of the glass looks always better on the website advert...

[anthony_brookes5]

The Paul Wolf book I like best is MY FIRST TEN YEARS WITH THE LEICA. It has sections on types of photography from Landscapes to People to Men in Workshops to Animals and Plants and People who Travel. Each photograph has all the camera and film details e.g At Tenerife Lens Elmar 50mm Aperture f4.5 filter Light Yellow Exposure 1/40th sec. Flilm Slow Ortho.

[james_elwing]

Paul Wolff was a smooth operator. Most of the data in my book says Elmar 5cm or 3.5cm, with most virtually no smaller aperture than f9 and most between f4.5 & f6.3. He recognised the quality of these relatively slow lenses for getting high resolution images.

 

On another issue, the internal condition of air to glass surfaces inside old Summars is often very good. Even the rear element is often very clean. It seems that the softness of the front element is more of an issue than mould or decementing. I suppose this may be because those problems make an instant paperweight.

If the front of these lenses are only lightly scratched all over, therefore suitable for polishing the front element, many will come up really clean by this treatment alone. The saddest thing is to see cleaning mark scratches on internal elements.

I am not very picky perhaps, but think I have been lucky with Summars. Most are in quite usable condition for black and white.

I only had the first one polished and it probably satisfied my curiosity, and I ended up giving it to my son along with a nice 3A on his 21st birthday.

[anthony_brookes5]

James - I also have a 1936 Summar that has never needed any form of polishing or cleaning. I bought it from the estate of a gentleman who was the original purchaser and it had always had caps fitted at each end. Ii has produced and still produces excellent images. It was lucky event for me as I bought all his gear including a Leica IIi in its original box.

[christopher_junker1]

<p>Leica made a big deal of the Summar lens in their initial advertising. To catch your attention the Leitz Summar brochure is printed in black and orange and is lavish with pictures and descriptions of the Summar's capabilities. The Summicron's grandfather sure initiated a fine family of f2 lenses.</p>

[jean_marie_dederen]

They even built a special version for use in 'the tropics', the savannah summar.

[james_elwing]

Go on, I'll bite, tell us about the Savannah Summar.

[jean_marie_dederen]

I was afraid you were... I cannot trace the original source; all I remember is that a limited number were built for scientific work in East Africa.<div></div>

[jean_marie_dederen]

Found another link: http://www.leica-historica.de/VIDOM_85.pdf. Before you accuse me of having had too many 'Savannahs' last night (local spirited apple cider): its correct name was 'Tropen Summar'. tropical summar. Not savannah summar as I wrongly remembered earlier on. Longer barrel than the normal type. One more front element (7 instead of 6 elements see drawing on previous page). Glass type unknown. Records indicate that several batches left for tropical destinations (Djakarta, Shanghai etc...). They were probably meant to gather data on the effect of tropical conditions (humidity, air pressure) on Leica objectives. The summitar soon replaced the summar and perhaps therefore little is known about the results of this experiment.

[james_elwing]

<p>I found that link later, and a picture including part of that article in English, but can't find the english version as a pdf. Had never heard of it before.<br>

Most 'tropical' cameras had components that resisted tropical heat and moisture, so while the layout looks the same, maybe the extra element was of harder and less reactive glass.<br>

It's a pity its not a Savannah, partly because that would make it a lens curiously suitable for use in grassland, partly because my daughter lives in Savannah GA, and partly because we could have made up a story about Ernst Leitz having a secret family in Savannah, like the designer Max Berek's dogs REX & HEKTOR contributing their names to various Leitz lenses, or perhaps Jesus' reputed visit to Glastonbury UK in his youth.<br>

Anyway, thanks</p>

[christopher_junker1]

<p>Looking at the block diagram, the usual single front objective is now a cemented doublet. With the heat and moisture of equatorial Africa and other like locations, durability issues regarding the glass to outside air and doublet cement could quickly arise. What is interesting about the Summar split front objective is Leitz appears to have confirmed the need to split the front objective for better color correction and reduction of vignetting in the corners. This effort may very well have confirmed they were on the right track which then resulted in the Summitar with an even larger split front objective and eventually the Summicron series. It would be very interesting to see the results of a very careful comparison of pristene 6 element , 7 element Summar lenses and an early good Summitar.</p>

[james_elwing]

That would be interesting. It is hard to know what lens designers had in mind when designing very low production volumes. If they just saw the extra glass as optically neutral lens protection, it probably would have reduced image quality.

Decementing of the canada balsam, apparently through environment is, in my experience however, much less common with Leica lenses than, for instance, those from a cheaper production number like Zeiss Contaflex; perhaps better quality control, but maybe Leitz just sealed and blackened the edges around the cemented areas better. The only decementing of Leitz lenses I have ever seen is through impact.

[jean_marie_dederen]

It would be equally interesting to see how one could get the 7000$ (2007 price) required to purchase a tropen summar for your comparative exercise! :)