Schneider Xenon f2 50mm for Leica SM

[joeswe]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

This rather uncommon lens in what appears to be very nice condition got sold on German Ebay yesterday. From the coatings and the serial number this is not one of the pre-war Schneider lenses for LTM that sometimes surface, it rather must have been built in the early 1950s. It would be interesting to compare this lens to the contemporary Summicron.

I was involved with a very modest bid, but got outbid (as I had expected). I think the seller could have achieved an even better price with a better listing (the crucial word "Xenon" is missing from the headline) and not restricting shipping destinations to Germany. But he probably wasn't even aware of the collectibility of the item.

[luigi bertolotti]

Indeed is an interesting item, mostly for historical reasons related to its age : it ought to be a lens of 1954 (Schneider says : 3.000.000 May 1952, 4.000.000 October 1954),

so exactly the year of the intro of the M3 with its Summicron 50 f2 (even if the Summicron, in itself, was announced previously) : it would be interesting to know what was the price of the Xenon compared to the Summicron... Xenon was a famous and respected name... btw, used by Leitz too on its 50 1,5... but Summicron caught at once the attention of the public, and even if the brand name "Summicron" was new, the Leitz brand was also very respected... a nice match...

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama