Guest henjenn Posted August 8, 2011 Share #1 Posted August 8, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hello friends, I am interested in purchasing this lens from a respectable dealer. He is a bit unsure why it has a chrome mount. The obvious is that the original was taken off and the lens was repaired with the chrome mount. But the man seems to think that possibly it was made this way cause the lens came from a man who worked for Leica his whole life. So its possible that maybe this Leica employee had a real rare lens. And its also possible that this man since he worked at Leitz possibly had access to any spare parts and he just used any old mount he wished. So we are all wondering if this was made like this. Even if the mount is not original it still seems to be very unusual due to the the early serial #1703896. I have never seen a black summilux with such a low serial number. And whats the deal with the red (feet) numbers? Truly a mystery through and through. Please any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 Hi Guest henjenn, Take a look here Weird and Early Summilux 50mm. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Pecole Posted August 8, 2011 Share #2 Posted August 8, 2011 Hello friends, I am interested in purchasing this lens from a respectable dealer. He is a bit unsure why it has a chrome mount. The obvious is that the original was taken off and the lens was repaired with the chrome mount. But the man seems to think that possibly it was made this way cause the lens came from a man who worked for Leica his whole life. So its possible that maybe this Leica employee had a real rare lens. And its also possible that this man since he worked at Leitz possibly had access to any spare parts and he just used any old mount he wished. So we are all wondering if this was made like this. Even if the mount is not original it still seems to be very unusual due to the the early serial #1703896. I have never seen a black summilux with such a low serial number. And whats the deal with the red (feet) numbers? Truly a mystery through and through. Please any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks Just to add to the mystery, here are some notes and pixes from my former Fontenelle Collection. The Summilux is generally said to have been introduced in 1959 as a bayonet-mount lens, and in 1960 with a screw mount. Your #1703896 is thus "normal", except for its black finish. But among the 13 Summiluxes 50 I had in my collection, one chrome BM had a 1958 serial number (1641412), and one screw-mount not only showed the 1959-vintage serial 1688542, but, like yours, was "bi-color". See the pixes hereunder. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest henjenn Posted August 8, 2011 Share #3 Posted August 8, 2011 Your #1703896 is thus "normal", except for its black finish. Wow Pecole .... thank you. So these Bi-color summiluxes were made in Wetzlar. Correct? Is it safe to say that a bi-color Summilux is extraordinary and considered a collectors peice? Im getting excited !!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc_braconi Posted August 8, 2011 Share #4 Posted August 8, 2011 Darwinian studies, some species evoluate slowly... take the Pandas for example.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted August 8, 2011 Share #5 Posted August 8, 2011 ... and we have seen here TWO steps of evolution... 2/4 black and 3/4 black... I wonder if there is an item with also the f stops ring in chrome---> 1/4 black..."the missing ring"... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest henjenn Posted August 9, 2011 Share #6 Posted August 9, 2011 I can buy a standard chrome Summilux 50mm 1.4 Version 1 for about 1600 usd. I’m trying to find out if this black/chrome Summilux has a higher value due to its oddities or does it have less value??? Can anyone help with this question? I am assuming due to its odd style, early serial # and red footage #'s ......that this lens is worth a ton more than an average Summilux version 1. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me. Thanks, Henry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted August 9, 2011 Share #7 Posted August 9, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Well... value depends only on the mood of the buyer... it is not a rare but standard item (like, for instance the Summilux 50 in screw mount), which has a sort of "mean market price", of course in itself depending on conditions, pluses lixe box hood case etc...: these are "oddities" which officialy never existed... they are probably original... but COULD even have been assembled by some private lab with spare parts or parts taken from damaged items... is very difficult to imagine a "right" value, for there is not a "history" of prices for such items... there are collectors who love "oddities" and they can be well disposed to pay a premium for; imho, just to stay on Summilux 50, I would pay more for a good "standard" screw mount than for one of these "half-finished". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pecole Posted August 9, 2011 Share #8 Posted August 9, 2011 Wow Pecole .... thank you. So these Bi-color summiluxes were made in Wetzlar. Correct? Is it safe to say that a bi-color Summilux is extraordinary and considered a collectors peice? Im getting excited !!!! Well, I never found evidence of the origin of the "bi-color" Summiluxes, but I also had a "bi-color" first model Summarex. Originally "factory Wetzlar" or "repaired" ? The fact remains that a 1.4/50 black head engraved with a serial below 17xxxxx is curious - at least! The idea by Jean-Claude Braconi of a Darwinian "panda-like" evolution could lead to a successful thesis to become graduated in Leicalogy... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted August 9, 2011 Share #9 Posted August 9, 2011 As a collector, I would not pay a premium price for a two tone 50 Summilux - unless it had some special documented provenance eg was used by a well known photographer. But as Luigi states, "value depends only on the mood of the buyer." Even Leica prototypes do not guarantee premium prices - I have seen them gathering dust because nobody will pay the inflated prices asked. Everything has a price - but whether a dealer gauges that price correctly is another matter. Sometimes dealers go way OTT in their descriptions of alleged 'rarities' offered for sale and thus price themselves out of the market. dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronan Posted August 10, 2011 Share #10 Posted August 10, 2011 Rule #2, Just because it's rare, doesn't mean it's valuable (monetary). Ask for a discount since it's so weird (Rule #1 Don't start collecting. If anyone wondered ) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.