Quick question re chrome / silver lenses

[Big John]

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Hi all,

 

Don't worry, this is not going to be a 'should I get chrome or black lens, which is harder wearing, which shows finger prints......'. Am deciding between silver/chrome and black 35mm lens, initially to use with SL but will probably get an M10 later in the year.

 

Question is whether the colour of the silver/chromes is standard across Leica - i.e. do the silver/chrome lenses match the chrome M10?

 

Thanks.

[luigi bertolotti]

By personal experience, modern (*) silver M lenses do match fine my silver M240... don't think that for M10 is different...

 

(*) in the sense that things are a bit different for some of my old lenses.... but some are really OLD...  , as an example, my Summilux 50 of 1961 matches fine... so as the Tele Elmarit 90 of 1964... Summaron 35 (1958), Elmar 50 RS (1953) are a bit more on the "gray" side... 

[mdg1371]

The chrome on brass match fine, I have no experience with the anodized ones, but I would be highly surprised if they didn't..

[Paulus]

Hi all,

 

Don't worry, this is not going to be a 'should I get chrome or black lens, which is harder wearing, which shows finger prints......'. Am deciding between silver/chrome and black 35mm lens, initially to use with SL but will probably get an M10 later in the year.

 

Question is whether the colour of the silver/chromes is standard across Leica - i.e. do the silver/chrome lenses match the chrome M10?

 

Thanks.

 

No , there are differences. New lenses and new bodies are different from the old.

[Jeff S]

Bodies differ; the silver on my M10 is lighter/brighter than on my M8.2. I stick with black lenses, but have had black and silver M bodies over the years.

 

Jeff

[michaelwj]

Hi all,

 

Question is whether the colour of the silver/chromes is standard across Leica - i.e. do the silver/chrome lenses match the chrome M10?

 

Thanks.

 

 

On the other hand, the black lenses are not the same black as the bodies...

[M11 for me]

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Be aware that the silver/chrom are heavier than the black ones. 

 

I have a 50mm Lux in silver and it is exactly the same colour than the M10 in silver.

[gpwhite]

I think this is why Leica offered the Lenny Kravitz set.

Nothing matched anything

[Big John]

Thanks all. Looking at 35mm cron and black and silver chrome are same weight.

[luigi bertolotti]

Thanks all. Looking at 35mm cron and black and silver chrome are same weight.

 

Official Leica doc declares 255g for the black and 340g for the chrome.

 

And 335g/460g for same variants of the Summilux 50 asph ... I  like a lot chrome lenses... but as for my  Elmarit M 90 I confess that I should have thought better on the weight factor before taking it (in chrome) : 560g vs. 410g isn't a little difference...    .

 

The problem of weight arises not from the surface finishing in itself, but from the underlying metal : aluminium for black, brass for chromes.  This is not true for all Leica lenses : some silver finished lenses have the same weight of the black counterparts , being made with the same metal base (Summarits, for instance, and the Summicron 28, too)

[Budfox]

The Chromes are definitely heavier, though I have seen some Leica specs that don't report the difference.

[michaelwj]

Newer chrome ones aren't brass and so weigh the same. They're silver anodised aluminium.

[Budfox]

The only way to know is either:

 

- buy both, weigh and home, return the heavier one; or

- scrap off a piece of metal from an inconspicuous part of a store sample lens and send to a metallurgist for testing.

[luigi bertolotti]

The only way to know is either:

 

- buy both, weigh and home, return the heavier one; or

- scrap off a piece of metal from an inconspicuous part of a store sample lens and send to a metallurgist for testing.

THAT'S THE WAY !!!

[luigi bertolotti]

Newer chrome ones aren't brass and so weigh the same. They're silver anodised aluminium.

... Jokes apart... it's exactly like this : I think that the last-introduced standard-listed chrome lenses  made with brass have been the Summilux asph (still made like this) and the Macro Elmar 90 1st version (no more made)

[Stein K S]

Hi

 

I have a number of silver lenses (6 to be exact) all produced between 1996 and 2008). And one clear observation is that they differ quite a bit in the way they "shine". However, in comparison my M6 from 1998 is by far the most shiny looking piece of chrome.

 

That said; they all fit soooo nice still

 

PS: the new M10 seems to be in the " matte" end of chrome variants and more simular to my never chrome lenses...