Now that the Elmar 50/2.8 is discontinued..

[kdemas]

With the discontinuation of the current 50mm Elmar Leica is without a collapsible lens for the first time in a while I believe. I recently picked up a VC Heliar 50/3.5 which is absurdly sharp and it got me to thinking a bit.

With high ISO shooting getting more prominent with digital, at least for me, I would love to see Leica produce one of my favorite lenses in M-Mount, the 50/3.5 Anistigmat found on the O-Series. Similar to the Elmar but with a much different personality I think this lens would be really nice addition to the lineup, even if as a special run. It is beautifully made and finished in the O and I would encourage that a similar finish be used if moved to the M.

Just an idea. I know the thought of a slow collapsible 50 won't thrill some people but having used the lens I really think it would be a great addition for many shooters.

Kent

[Neil Macmillan]

Please be aware that the Elmar M 90 Macro f/4 is a collapsible design; available in black or silver (I have the silver). Perhaps you just intended to confine your remarks to the 50 mm focal length.

[wizard]

Originally Posted by kdemas

I would love to see Leica produce one of my favorite lenses in M-Mount, the 50/3.5 Anistigmat found on the O-Series.

Actually, I would love to see Leica producing a special run of this lens in SCREW mount, as a sort of modern red scale Elmar 50. With an adpter ring it would be usable on M-mount cameras as well.

Andy

[luigi bertolotti]

Originally Posted by wizard

Actually, I would love to see Leica producing a special run of this lens in SCREW mount, as a sort of modern red scale Elmar 50. With an adpter ring it would be usable on M-mount cameras as well.

Andy

Would it be WORTH for Leica ? Imho, or they design a new lens, collapsible, which gives a "modern" rendering, and price it accordingly to the investiment it needs (but such a lens did exist, and they dicontinued it)... or, for people who likes "old-style-rendering"... well, market abounds of good and cheap SM Elmar 50s.

[wizard]

Originally Posted by luigi bertolotti

Would it be WORTH for Leica ?

Luigi,

there would be no need to design a completely new lens. Leica could use (and should use) the optical cell of the Anastigmat 3.5/50, which they developed for the replica 0-series. Many mechanical parts of this already existing lens could be used, too. The only new parts would be related to the interchangeable mount (which the 0-series did not have), but those would be relatively few parts. I would think that a run of, say, 1000 lenses could be financially feasible, and I have no doubts that such a lens, if produced as a sort of replica Elmar 3.5/50 - arguably THE most famous Leica lens ever (chrome, of course) - would be swallowed by collectors all over the world.

Regards,

Andreas

[thrid]

Originally Posted by luigi bertolotti

Would it be WORTH for Leica ? Imho, or they design a new lens, collapsible, which gives a "modern" rendering, and price it accordingly to the investiment it needs (but such a lens did exist, and they dicontinued it)... or, for people who likes "old-style-rendering"... well, market abounds of good and cheap SM Elmar 50s.

This came up a few years ago on the LUG, I think. People looked in to getting Leica to make a LTM version of the 2.8/50 Elmar-M. Apparently Leica wanted an order for 200 lenses, with a deposit to do this.

[kdemas]

I think I would have to take mine and get it refinished in the same "blued Black" of the O-series, love the finish. To your point I think much of the lens could be used as designed, obviously the mount would need changing and it would need to be rangefinder coupled (the O is not).

I wonder if the "front of lens" aperture selection would be kept of a more traditional ring used? For convenience the ring would be nice but I think I would opt for the front selector (though this would cause issues with using IR filters on the M8). By keeping it in front the lens maintains a bit more "slight" appearance which I think really works for this lens.

Kent

Originally Posted by wizard

Luigi,

there would be no need to design a completely new lens. Leica could use (and should use) the optical cell of the Anastigmat 3.5/50, which they developed for the replica 0-series. Many mechanical parts of this already existing lens could be used, too. The only new parts would be related to the interchangeable mount (which the 0-series did not have), but those would be relatively few parts. I would think that a run of, say, 1000 lenses could be financially feasible, and I have no doubts that such a lens, if produced as a sort of replica Elmar 3.5/50 - arguably THE most famous Leica lens ever (chrome, of course) - would be swallowed by collectors all over the world.

Regards,

Andreas