Summitar 59mm f2 collapsible on M10?

[LikesLife]

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Hello. I want to kindly ask wheter it is possible to collapse the LTM summitar 50mm on a digital Leica body (e.g. M10). Would attach it in uncollapsed state but want to collapse it due to portability. Would be great whether someone of you have some experience on this lens (I know the discussion on the Elmar lenses).

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[UliWer]

At the end of the Summitar‘s tube there are often edges which add to the tube’s diameter. Both my Summitars - prewar and postwar - hit the little wheel which activates the rangefinder. Though this is no speciality for the M10, they also hit the wheel of a Leica II or a IIIf - cameras which were regularly used with collapsible lenses.

So if you think that Barnack and Berek were wrong to put the wheel for the rangefinder at the place where it sits since it was introduced in 1932 and designed collapsible lenses which might hit this wheel at the same time - you shouldn‘t collapse your Summitar - on no Leica body, which has a coupled rangefinder.

If you think that they knew better and there was no reason to worry, you can collapse it as hundred of thousands Leica users did before you.

Edited November 21, 2018 by UliWer

[Pyrogallol]

I recently made a little note with my 50mm collapsible Summicron not to collapse it on my early bodies, as I had felt a resistance on a Leica 2 body.

[UliWer]

The resistance you feel is exactly the little wheel to activate the rangefinder. Though this wheel isn‘t fixed and will move backwards and in the end gives room for the lense‘s tube to pass. 

When the rangefinder coupling with the little wheel was introduced, there was no Internet. So Barnack and Berek didn‘t fear a shitstorm against their design of the camera and its proper lenses.

Though it is good to know what happens if one collapses a lens and can decide how to deal with it. 

Edited November 21, 2018 by UliWer