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APO Summicron 50/2 ASPH: Central veiling flare / fogging


pajamies

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Indeed, but they based their assessment of whether the camera needed fixing on sale date, not serial no. At no point did they mention serial no ranges which suggests they did not know the affected ranges of serial nos.

 

This is anyway off topic and so far as the lens is concerned, we can only be certain that new restarted production will be clear. Existing lenses may exhibit the problem.

 

You can do what you want, mine is going back to Solms. If Leica deem that no repair is required, that's fine, but at least the lens will then have been evaluated by Leica, not me. If you think your lens evaluation skills exceed those of Leica, you will want to perform your own assessment and act accordingly.

 

OK, Mark, but you were the one who was striking a parallel between the M240 and the APO50 as far as recalls. I do not consider my expertise better than anyone's, but just want to make sure there is a lasting fix that makes others happy with the repaired results before I do same. That's all.

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ZAWoPZo.jpg

 

Been using the 50 APO for a few weeks, have only noticed the flaring on a handful of occasions. Here's an example of the veiling flare, on the left, there's a very bright light right outside the frame. It's really only been a problem once or twice. One time when shooting a heavily backlit subject the whole image was washed out with a very bright flare. I'm not even sure if it's big enough a problem to send back.

 

This pic was just me and buddy goofing around at his studio.

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Well they have said the lenses have to go back to Germany - Leica NJ presumably do not have the skills - so I can understand your reluctance given the additional hassles of shipping out of country.

 

Leica NJ tells me that all APO lenses (R's included) go back to Solms for just about anything, except for the APO 135/3.4 M to have the 6 bit coding lens mount ring installed.

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Puts' latest commentary on flare, with 50mm lens comparisons, here.

 

Jeff

 

Exactly:

"The built-in lens shade of the ASC 50 and SX 50 is ineffective when used to reduce flare. They are only useful as a mechanical protection for the front lens surface". It's a pity that Puts did not tell whether he used the Zeiss with or without shade

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Seems to me that Puts keeps missing the point. I don't think anyone's saying that the 50AA (or any other lens) should be 100% flare-free. There are proven issues with some 50AA lenses because of out-of-spec coatings.

 

Thank you; since lens elements are coated in batches, it might be, for example, that just one batch was faulty and Leica cannot unfortunately tell us which serial number lenses that batch was used in.

 

Puts might have achieved good results from his copy of the lens but we are not speaking of a design defect here, instead a manufacturing defect which means that certain copies of the lens as produced do not conform to the design. Therefore Put's results give us no guidance as to whether there are issues with our individual copies.

 

I do not have the skills to fully evaluate my lens, still less the willingness to spend the time doing it, so the lens is going back to Leica for them to do it. My assumption is that they have the equipment to tell if my lens has the correct coatings.

 

To be fair to Leica, it's very rare for lens manufacturing issues to surface.

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I have this lens since several months and I never had any flare problem even when trying to induce it in extreme conditions (after the rumors).

Nevertheless after reading the interview of Mr. Schopf I contacted Leica and they replied that the issue affects same sample only so that if I do not see any problem there is no need to send my lens for checking.

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