Fontenelle archives 82 : Black Summarex SOOCX

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The Summarex, formally introduced to the market in 1949, is especially interesting within the Leitz lenses' history in being the first systematically coated from the beginning, and also the first being engraved with the international, instead of the European aperture scale.

Its history starts as early as 1941, when he was called - and engraved (like the Nº 541056 in a French collection) - "Summar 9cm/f1,5". After the "prototypes", a first batch of 90 has reportedly been produced in 1943, starting with serial 593001. The very first Summarex were all-black paint and with a one-piece, not-knurled rear mount. Later, they had a chromed focusing scale ring and a two-pieces knurled rear part.

It is generally said that 276 black lenses were delivered, out of a total production of 4,342 (ended in 1960).

We had four black Summarex in our Fontenelle Collection : 593065, 085, 126 and 149. The lowest serial number we saw illustrated is 593012 (Westlicht auction), the highest 593253 (Lager):

None of ours is engraved Germany, what is surprising if they date 1949. Our guess is that they were produced before the end of the war, and marketed later. But one of the two clamp-screw-and-bayonet black hoods we had (replacement ?) was engraved "Germany".

All show the red dots in between the figures of the international aperture scale, indicating the old indexes of the "European" one.

Our Nº 593149 is misengraved 1:15 instead of 1:1,5, but the most interesting one is nº 592126 : next to the (normal) chrome focusing ring, it shows a very curious "ivory" metal helicoïdal ramp with depth-of-field indexes engraving, and a chromed knurled base with black tripod foot and black coupling cam fastenig external screws. When investigating at Wetzlar in 1982, I was told that the lens had been overhauled twice, once immediately after 1945 to replace the helicoïdal mount with an "ersatz" alloy at test at the moment, and later to replace the base with a current chromed part.

I already published some photos in a reply to Summi Cron's thread "Summarex 8,5cm/9cm" of 30-04-2010, but here are more relevant illustrations :

 

First the "normal" black Summarex Nº 593065 :

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Then, two photos of the - also "normal" - Nº 593149 :

 

And a nice set, the black SOOCX Summarex Nº593085 with its original box and its special front cap with notches for the two pins securing the bayonet of the hood :

 

The black "clamp-screw and bayonet" hood ORQPO. Note the absence of "Germany" engraving :

 

And finally, two photos of the "three-finish" Summarex Nº 593126, the first with the black tripod shoe on the new chrome base, and the last one clearly showing the ivory alloy part, and the black coupling cam fastening screws on the chrome base :

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