A Question Framed

[lars_bergquist]

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I wonder if any of you could enlighten me on a subject that the specialist books seem all to evade. The 35mm Summaron 1:3.5 was a lens that covered the period of transition from the classical, Barnack-type thread mount camera, to the now equally classical M3–M2 bayonet mount cameras.

 

So it was manufactured in the following permutations:

 

(1) Rotary old-style LTM mount, A36 filter size. Code: SOONC. 1948–1954.

 

(2) Non-rotary LTM mount, E39 filters. Code: SOONC? 1954–1960.

 

(3) Similar-style mount for M bayonet. Code: SOONC–M? 1954–1960.

 

(4) As 3, but with ocular attachment ('goggles') for the M3. Code SOONC-MW / SOMWO. 1956–1960.

 

Now the question is, which frames did the versions 2 – 3 bring up? The M3 does not have any 35mm finder frame, and a modern 35mm lens brings up the 135mm frame alone (with the 50mm, as always). The only sensible finder configuration for a M3 would have been the plain, ubiquitous 50mm one, and I have seen pictures of pro photogs using 35mm lenses with the SBLOO 35mm finder. It seems to me that the first batches of the Summaron 3.5 (1954–1956) should therefore key in the 50mm frame with a modern body.

 

The goggled version did not appear until 1956. This one, obviously, should also bring up the 50mm frame alone. But in 1958, the M2 arrived, and this did have a 35mm frame with the lever position of the 135. This should have changed the scenario. Did post-M2 Summaron lenses (including the 1958 Summaron 1:2.8) bring up the 35mm frame (135 with the M3) unless they had the goggles – in which case they should of course continue as before.

 

So, do there exist both 35mm Summaron 1:3.5 lenses in the new-style E39 mount that bring up the 50mm and those that give the 35+135mm frames? Are my conjectures correct? The existence of a SOONC–M lens to key in the 35mm frame with the M2 seems logical; but was Ernst Leitz Wetzlar always perfectly logical? A collector with the hardware at hand should be able to give at least some of the answers.

 

The old man who was there, but has forgotten (if he even did know …)

[sabears]

You are correct.

Before M2 camera all the 3,5cm Summaron 1:3,5 sold show the 50mm frame (and so you have to use an external finder): later ones, by far less common, were correctly adapted by Leitz for the M2, however... the earlier, modified lenses do exist, even if they were reworked in a second time by request of the owner.

Obviously in the LTM variant of the lens it depends by the adapter ring.

 

Cheers.

[doubice]

The modification to activate the 35mm instead of the 50mm frame was actually quite simple and many handy M2 owners could have performed it themselves. To modify, one had to file off a smidgen (a technical term for less than 1mm) of the frame actuating lug.

 

To complicate matters, many have attempted to modify the goggled 3.5/35mm Summaron, only to find out that it was impossible. Once the goggles were removed from the lens, a spring-loaded switch would disengage the focusing action of the lens, thus making it impossible to use for any distance, except infinity.

 

Some hammer-fisted do-it-yourselfers managed to disconnect this switch, only to find out that the focusing cam was cut differently to allow for the goggle’s negative magnification - the linearity of the lens movement vs the focusing cam was different between the goggled and non-goggled lenses. The lens would thus be rendered useless for use on both - M2 and M3….

 

From my bottomless pit of useless trivia.

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Lars,

 

The 1954 SOONC-M (11105) brought up the 50mm frame.

 

The later 1958 SOONC-MT (11305) brought up the 35 on the M2 & the 35 & 135 on later M's.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[lars_bergquist]

Thanks all for the esoteric info.

 

Michael, was SOONC-MT an official factory designation?

 

I agree that home modifications were easy and complicate the picture. The goggled versions did of course use the 50mm frame for composing a more 'minified' finder image – the frame was the camera frame, not added by the goggles which just changed the finder magnification.

 

The old man who was there (though not as an old man, admittedly)

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Lars,

 

Yes.

 

btw: the "goggled" version was: SOONC-MW (11107).

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[luigi bertolotti]

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The Summaron 35 3,5 for M2 is also different in several little details from the previous versions (goggled and ungoggled), and is far to be common... probably, is the only Summaron f 3,5 that enjoys a specific "add-on value" as a collectible.

[maxberek]

Interesting question.

My (ex) Summaron 35/3,5 No.1175843 belonging to a batch of 2500 pieces (mostly rigid Summicron 50) of 1954, appears to have been one of the first made in M mount (so SOONC-M), but arming the 35mm frames on M2 "natively", because there were no signs of changes on the bayonet "handcrafted".

Provided that has not been changed in the factory, with the substitution of the original hoof.

 

Best regards.

[luigi bertolotti]

Interesting question.

My (ex) Summaron 35/3,5 No.1175843 belonging to a batch of 2500 pieces (mostly rigid Summicron 50) of 1954, appears to have been one of the first made in M mount (so SOONC-M), but arming the 35mm frames on M2 "natively", because there were no signs of changes on the bayonet "handcrafted".

Provided that has not been changed in the factory, with the substitution of the original hoof.

 

Best regards.

 

It seems to me uneven that a lens from 1954 would activate the 35mm frame... it didn't yet exist at those times : a factory modification (maybe changing the whole bayonet) is imho rather probable.