Does 50 Summarit f1.5 make a good portrait lens

[algrove]

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Had a dealer suggest that perhaps the 50 Summarit f1.5 would make a nice softish lens for female portraits on the M240.

 

Any thoughts and experiences with this old silver lens?

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[AndyMc]

I would suggest environmental yes. Close up portraits require more compression from a longer focal lengh. 80mm upwards generally.

 

Having said that you can always break the rules and use the lenses you have :-)

 

Andy

 

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[jaapv]

A wonderful lens with swirly bokeh.

[Ecar]

Soft, funky bokeh, very flare prone (use of hood is mandatory).

In a nutshell: not an easy lens to master.

[jaapv]

No, but it has a beautiful classic rendering. The softness and the flare are usually caused by haze. If you get a clean example it is close to the Summilux 1. Mine is as sharp as a Summicron of the period when stopped down to f 4.0

[paulsydaus]

Just a question, doesn't Summarit refer to the f/2.5 speed?

[jdlaing]

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Just a question, doesn't Summarit refer to the f/2.5 speed?

 

In the modern version yes.

It was a screw mount in 1949.

[algrove]

Just a question, doesn't Summarit refer to the f/2.5 speed?

 

Take a look at the lens listed in WIKI here on LUF.

[jip]

I used it on the M8 once, liked it, can't seem to find the images now though... maybe later.

[rirakuma]

Hey Algrove, here's some samples taken with the 5cm 1.5 Summarit. I initially bought this lens because I wanted a classic rendering and it sure did perform as I expected. Some big downfalls for this lens is its generally very low contrast when wide open and it doesn't seem to have pop like the modern lens have. I find the swirly bokeh quite beautiful and there's a lot of glow in these lenses. It preserves highlights beautifully but it can take a bit of work to add contrast back into the picture. It cleans up extremely well stopped down, probably better than the Noctilux but the colours I personally think are not as good. Sorry for the bad samples they were mostly test shots, hope they help though .

 

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[plewislambert]

My Summarit f1.5 produced a very sharp close-up image on an M9 of a primula pot plant at f11 (tripod, available light). In a Xmas market in London on a film M4-P it produced nice images of a butcher's pheasant counter etc., handheld, stopped down to f2 for a little more depth of field. Never used it at f1.5 so I am unsure how usable it would be. On the M9 I prefer to put up the ISO to 640 and stop down a little.

As to lenshoods, the filter thread is an odd size so instead of a hood I found a Raynox tubular adapter intended for a modern lens that exactly fits the filter thread and opens out to take a 52mm filter+cap at the front.

I read that it was a Taylor Hobson design licenced to J Schneider as a Xenon and marketed by Leitz as Summarit.

Philip:)

[250swb]

You either need a Leica 'SOOEY' filter adapter, for Summitar and the Summarit, so it can take 39mm filters or hoods, or one of the cheap SOOEY copies from Ebay which are just as efficient.

 

Steve