Is there any reason, technical or otherwise, that there is no Summilux 28mm?

[UliWer]

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Adan's recollection of 28mm-lenses in the Leica history shows that experiences from the past may give an answer to "modern" questions.

 

Leitz made 28mm-lenses rather early - but both the f/6.3 Hektor and the f/ 5.6 Summaron are rare lenses, which indicates that the demand for them was rather low.

 

There are obvious reasons for this: those old lenses were very slow, 28mm didn't give so much advantage over 35mm. On the other hand the optical design for 28mm caused much more problems than a 35mm. For Leitz/Leica this meant: high costs and low revenue.

 

They could better integrate the 21mm in their range of lenses - as they were able not to design but to "buy" Schneider's Super-Angulon, which opened up a new angle of view for photography with the M - less costs, higher demand because of the novelty, no concurring product in the own stable, better revenue.

 

Today the optical problems for fast wide angle lenses seem to be solved for Leica, and demand for the 28 Summicron and Elmarit doesn't seem to be low any longer.

 

On the other hand some of the original problems stay unchanged: 28mm are still close to 35mm and to 24mm. Even if we have 28mm-framelines now, they are at the border of what fits into the M-finder. It would still cause considerable additional costs to have an additional optical design with it's own mechanics for a 1.4/28mm which would cost about 4000,-€. Sales for this lens would cannibalize those for the existant 35mm, 24 Summiluxes and the 28mm Summicron as well. This means limited revenue only at the costs of other already existant products.

 

I think these are sufficient reasons for not exspecting a 28mm Summilux in the near future.