Aspheric v non-aspheric

[stevegaskin]

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I’m looking to replace a vintage Summaron 3.5 with a pre-owned Summicron (35mm). In the UK, the price difference between Aspheric V1 and the later non-aspheric is around £300-£400.  Is the Aspheric worth it and is the silver variant made from brass worth a premium?  I would also prefer 6-bit coding which I believe only later Aspheric V1’s have.

 

Thanks

[Pyrogallol]

Keep the vintage Summaron and buy a Summicron as well, any Summicron will be good.

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Edited May 24, 2020 by Pyrogallol

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[jankap]

The term Aspheric is useful for marketing. It simply is a method to achieve a better correction. Older developments can show onion structures in the bokeh. Today nothing special any more.

[farnz]

36 minutes ago, stevegaskin said:

I’m looking to replace a vintage Summaron 3.5 with a pre-owned Summicron (35mm). In the UK, the price difference between Aspheric V1 and the later non-aspheric is around £300-£400.  Is the Aspheric worth it and is the silver variant made from brass worth a premium?  I would also prefer 6-bit coding which I believe only later Aspheric V1’s have.

 

Thanks

Hi Steve,

It's not clear why you're looking to replace your Summaron, for example, whether it's at the end of it's life, or you'd like a different rendering from the pictures you get from the Summaron, or perhaps you want an extra stop and a half of speed.

Whether the additional money for the aspherical Summicron is worth it is, of course, a subjective question that only you will have the answer to.  I had the version 1 35/2 Summicron asph for a few years and it's an excellent lens but my taste changed over time and I ended up preferring a gentler, 'more classic' look so I swapped it for a 35/2 Summicron (pre-asph) version 4, which I have enjoyed.

In general the asph version produces pictures with a sharper, more corrected, more modern look but the pre-asph version 1 (8-element) would produce a look that's more similar to pictures from your Summaron.

I hope this helps,

Pete.

[stevegaskin]

6 minutes ago, farnz said:

Hi Steve,

It's not clear why you're looking to replace your Summaron, for example, whether it's at the end of it's life, or you'd like a different rendering from the pictures you get from the Summaron, or perhaps you want an extra stop and a half of speed.

Whether the additional money for the aspherical Summicron is worth it is, of course, a subjective question that only you will have the answer to.  I had the version 1 35/2 Summicron asph for a few years and it's an excellent lens but my taste changed over time and I ended up preferring a gentler, 'more classic' look so I swapped it for a 35/2 Summicron (pre-asph) version 4, which I have enjoyed.

In general the asph version produces pictures with a sharper, more corrected, more modern look but the pre-asph version 1 (8-element) would produce a look that's more similar to pictures from your Summaron.

I hope this helps,

Pete.

 

[luigi bertolotti]

I have an asph V1 in chrome, and it's probably my most used lens on M240 :surely the best of my various 35mm, and there is another detail to consder in your comparision : mechanical quality : the chrome/brass Summicron asph is in my opinion one of the best built "modern" Leica lenses ; the last non asph is the famous V4 ("king of bokeh"... 😉) and apart its optical rendering (I have no personal experience...haven't it) its mechanical built, from several post read in the forum, is not so top-quality... and this means that buiyng a used can deserve some surprise... and maybe the need of some fixing.

Anyway... don't throw out the Summaron if you can... 😉 

Edited May 24, 2020 by luigi bertolotti

[jankap]

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An interesting interview is this (look for the Summilux):

https://phillipreeve.net/blog/the-man-behind-the-lens-mr-li-laowa-15mm-2-0-zero-d-fe/

The Summilux is a development of 1996 (?). An easy win for Laowa!

Edited May 24, 2020 by jankap

[stevegaskin]

Just now, stevegaskin said:

 

Thanks Pete, food for thought.  I will mainly using it for street photography but sometimes I shoot indoors and the extra stops would be useful.  Interesting comment the older versions are similar to the Summaron which I like but sometimes feel is a touch soft.   Perhaps as Pyrogallol suggest I should consider keeping the Summaron, then perhaps an Aspheric would be complimentary rather than a replacement.

[farnz]

1 minute ago, luigi bertolotti said:

its mechanical built, from several post read in the forum, is not so top-quality... and this means that buiyng a used can deserve some surprise... and maybe the need of some fixing.

It's true that some of the lenses made in Canada have a polymer part connecting the two halves and that this can break with time and cause the lens to fall into two halves.  I think I'm right in saying that all of the German-made lenses have the same part in metal so they do not have this problem.

I recall that there is a thread on the forum that includes details of serial numbers and whether the lens part was polymer or metal.

Pete.

[a.noctilux]

Thread to read before choosing Summicron 35mm of any type

Summicron IV 35mm is a good lens and better yet if we can find the "Germany" made (155g),

the "Canada" type, 20g lighter can have some fragile synthetic components.

The color of the ring (as I have the two types, C. and G.) can be good indication of choice.

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[stevegaskin]

5 hours ago, farnz said:

Hi Steve,

It's not clear why you're looking to replace your Summaron, for example, whether it's at the end of it's life, or you'd like a different rendering from the pictures you get from the Summaron, or perhaps you want an extra stop and a half of speed.

Whether the additional money for the aspherical Summicron is worth it is, of course, a subjective question that only you will have the answer to.  I had the version 1 35/2 Summicron asph for a few years and it's an excellent lens but my taste changed over time and I ended up preferring a gentler, 'more classic' look so I swapped it for a 35/2 Summicron (pre-asph) version 4, which I have enjoyed.

In general the asph version produces pictures with a sharper, more corrected, more modern look but the pre-asph version 1 (8-element) would produce a look that's more similar to pictures from your Summaron.

I hope this helps,

Pete.

 

Hi Pete, thought I would carry out a test to illustrate the 'softness' of the Summaron; this is compared to a 50mm Summarit. All images were taken on my M-P240 on a tripod.  The first two are at F8, the second two at F4.  No PP other than conversion to jpeg and the Summaron images cropped to match the image size of the 50mm.   I'd be expecting any Summicron to be sharper than this Summaron.

50mm Summarit - F8

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35mm Summaron - F8 Crop.

 

50mm Summarit - F4

35mm Summaron - F4 Crop.

Edited May 24, 2020 by stevegaskin

[farnz]

Hi Steve,

I note that the shots through your Summaron are lacking in contrast so I would suspect that your Summaron might have some haze.  If it has and you get that cleaned up I would expect the pictures to be almost indistinguishable from the Summarit pictures at the same aperture.

Pete.

[lct]

Indeed some but not all 35/2 asph v1 are 6-bit coded but it can be done by Leica if needed. 6-bit coding can be done by Leica for the 35/2 v4 too. The latter is probably the one i would choose if i were a Summaron lover. I would take a German version though for the reasons stated above and you will find that it can be rather expensive then. For sharper results the Summicron 35/2 asph v1 can be warmly recommended too. It is less compact that the 35/2 v4 though and you will find it probably clinical compared to your Summaron.

[pippy]

4 hours ago, stevegaskin said:

35mm Summaron - F4 Crop.

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Either your or your lens' focussing is out. The rear-edge of the table is sharp as a tack.

Philip.

Edited May 24, 2020 by pippy