Leica Summarex 85mm f 1.5

[BlackPaint]

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Anyone parting with an excellent copy of a Summarex?  

[luigi bertolotti]

Not so many around at the usual dealers (1 only at Leicashop Wien - and not excellent) plus 4 or 5 on ebay : imho Summarex is a lens to see, inspect and handle before acquiring...

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[wlaidlaw]

I think you should also factor in a clean, lubricate and adjust when buying a Summarex. This needs to be done by someone who REALLY knows what they are doing. The diaphragm is particularly complicated. Having mine CLA'd reduced the flare and increased contrast to a noticeable degree. Alan Starkie of Cameraworks-UK did the work, to his usual high standard. Also try to buy a lens complete with the correct original bayonet fixing lens hood, as this is essential to keep flare under control. If you have to buy the hood separately, they are difficult to find and expensive when you do find one. If the hood is slightly out of round (dropped lens?) this can be corrected when the CLA is done. 

I think that these are amazing lenses, especially given that they were manually computed by a group of ladies, working with Brunsviga or similar hand crank calculators in the late 1930's. Have a look at the sectioned photo on this site's wiki and you will see that this is a complicated lens with large heavily curved glass elements, so computing the light paths must have been difficult and lengthy. There is a thought that the German military may have paid for the development of this lens and certainly nearly all the black examples made in the early 1940's, went to the military, with only the later chrome models being sold to the public from the late 1940's onwards up until 1960. 

Max Berek denied that this lens was called after his dog Rex and said it was called Summarex because it was: "The king of lenses". 

Below is a picture taken with my Summarex on an M240. I also attach an English translation of an interesting wartime letter about the Summarex. 

Wilson

 

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Summarex Wartime Letter 101542.docx

[luigi bertolotti]

Interesting, the letter... 100 Sumarexes ordered by military !!  1942... Were they delivered, actually ? This batch of 500 is reported : 

593001

593500

Summarex 8.5 cm 1:1.5 (black+chrom)

1943

500

[wlaidlaw]

Luigi, 

Allocated serial numbers can often be misleading. For example there are over 1000 serial numbers allocated to the 1999 LTM Special Edition 50/1.4 Summilux IIISE e46 lenses but my Japanese source says that he believes only about 350 were sold and he added that even that was surprising, given their very high price. My purchase of one of these from a Japanese estate auction some years ago at just £1350 is now looking a very good buy, especially as it is now my favourite 50mm lens. 

Wilson