Summilux Red Numbers

[Inspector Clouseau]

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Hello Friends. I am interested in purchasing a Version II Black Summilux 50mm ...... the one with the red numbers as shown in the photo. I have seen the Black Version II come in two styles .... with white and yellow numbers and then white and red numbers. Can someone tell me the reason or story for the Summilux that was issued with red numbers. I find it striking and mysterious. The spiked knurls make the lens. Thank you all in advance.

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[Scarlet]

Unless I am entirely mistaken that Summilux was issued together with the M6TTL black paint aka Millennium.

 

Leitz: M6 TTL .72 black paint ’Millenium’ Price Guide: estimate a camera value

 

A brief introduction on Leica M6 TTL Black Paint DRAGON Edition, 2000 - MIR Image Library

[luigi bertolotti]

I haven't idea of how many Lux 50 with red numbering were made (referring to the depicted version) ... as far as I remember , the combination of "old-style ring knurling + red feet scale" was used also on the LHSA edition (but it was an Asph, and of course not numbered as in the depicted item's range).

 

Btw, I think that the Millenium Edition above quoted had the accompanying Summilux 50 in the version with the then new barrel - hood incorporated.

[Scarlet]

Btw, I think that the Millenium Edition above quoted had the accompanying Summilux 50 in the version with the then new barrel - hood incorporated.

 

Yes you are right, it was the newer barrel. Sorry for the confusion.

 

The depicted lens seems to have been from a batch of 1,000 lenses made in 1964. I am wondering if the depicted lens is not the same as model 11113, see post 29 in this thread.

[Perceval]

Are there also variations in the density of colours in the lettering on lenses? I have been looking at two nearly-identical 35mm Summilux lenses - pre-asp versions separated by onle three years in date of manufacture - and, on one, the lettering on the distance scale is uniformly duller than on the other. It is the older of the two but is in better condition in every other respect.

[luigi bertolotti]

Yes you are right, it was the newer barrel. Sorry for the confusion.

 

The depicted lens seems to have been from a batch of 1,000 lenses made in 1964. I am wondering if the depicted lens is not the same as model 11113, see post 29 in this thread.

 

Yup, the item in that old thread is, I think, really rare, being a 1.7xxx.xxx, to say a Version 1 (optical unit "Summarit-like") which was made in relatively few numbers (and even less in black).

[jc_braconi]

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Are there also variations in the density of colours in the lettering on lenses? I have been looking at two nearly-identical 35mm Summilux lenses - pre-asp versions separated by onle three years in date of manufacture - and, on one, the lettering on the distance scale is uniformly duller than on the other. It is the older of the two but is in better condition in every other respect.

It can depends on what kind of skin from the previous owners, some can alterate the colour with acid sweating some are neutral and the environemental with of course how hardly they were used.

[farnz]

It can depends on what kind of skin from the previous owners, some can alterate the colour with acid sweating some are neutral and the environemental with of course how hardly they were used.

And whether the lens was used to primarily shoot colour or black and white.

 

Pete.

[Nuit]

I have one Summilux 50/1.4 version 1 in black color as some call "black paint", S/N is 164XXXX.