35 lux FLE filter question

[jmr237]

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Am I correct that you can't use a filter and the screw-on hood at the same time on the 35mm summmilux FLE?

[wattsy]

No, that's not true. There are reports suggesting that the hood provided with early editions of this lens in 2010 didn't provide sufficient clearance for non-Leica filters but this has not been the case since 2011. I have owned two copies of this lens in that time and the supplied hoods with both have been fine when using filters. I frequently use filters from B+W and Heliopan and haven't had any problems fitting the hood with the filters in place.

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[richfx]

I could not use a B+W 007 clear filter originally (I bought my 35 Summilux FLE three years ago) - the fit with the Leica lens shade was too tight, and I didn't want to damage anything, so I purchased a Leica 010 UV filter for front element protection.

Apparently, Leica changed the lens shade's design to accommodate other filters after a number of users complained.

As an experiment, I recently installed a B+W 007 filter, then screwed on the original lens shade. It was tight getting the shade on, but it worked.

Rich

[jmr237]

I frequently use filters from B+W and Heliopan and haven't had any problems fitting the hood with the filters in place.

 

Good to know, thanks. I leave a B+W yellow filter permanently on each lens as I shoot black and white film.

[indergaard]

Some of the earliest models of the FLE had this problem.

It is fixed in the later versions.

 

I can easily fit any B+W 46mm filter under the hood of my 35 FLE, be it a regular MRC or XS-Pro Nano-MRC, doesn't matter.

 

It seems to be a design flaw in the first batches of the included lens hood, and nothing to do with the lens itself.

[pfhrased]

The B+W filters, and Leica UV-a filters fit under the hood just fine, but some of the other brand filters are too wide.

[MarkP]

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This is from an old post of mine on this topic:

 

This is my understanding of the situation regarding the hood having just had my original hood replaced with a new one by Leica Australia to fix the problem.

 

My 1.4/35 Summilux ASPH (code 11663, sn 4101xxx) was bought new in Australia in mid-2010. The hood code number (12465) has not changed since this lens went into production. The lens did indeed also come with a screw-on ring for use without the hood - this of course does work with all filters.

 

Until recently I had never used any filter but a Leica E46UVa (13004) which lived on the lens and fit perfectly. I then tried to use 46mm orange and ND filters on the lens with my Monochrom. These were B+W F-Pro filters but none would fit under the hood and I had a few of each type but no luck.

 

My 3.4/21 SEM has the same hood (12465) but this lens is much newer, bought maybe 18 months ago. The same filters fit under the 21 SEM hood whether on the 21mm or 35mm lenses - so it was clearly the original 35mm hood which had the problem.

 

I raised this issue with Leica Australia who thought I was nuts and assured me that the B+W F-Pro series filters would fit under the 12465 hood. I politely disagreed and sent them the lens. They were very surprised to see that I was indeed correct and they kindly supplied me with a new hood whch works perfectly. They could not access any information for Leica Germany regarding an production modification to the hood.

 

This has been raised before on this forum in a thread mentioned above. At the time I'd not discussed this with Leica.

 

I suspect that either there was either a faulty initial production run, or there was a subtle production modification made between sometime between the production dates of my 35 and 21mm lenses hoods.