Summilux 35mm Pre-ASPH V2 close focus mod

[danielcai]

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Summilux 35mm f/1.4 Pre-ASPH V2 close focus mod

In terms of minimum focus distance only, as far as I know, the Summilux came in two variations.

• Non-goggled versions going to about 1.0m
• Goggled versions going to about 0.65m

I've always found it kinda ironic that the goggled version intended for the M3 has a close focus range that can't be used by unmodded M3s (no coupling between 1m and 0.65m). I've seen at least one goggled steel rim with the goggles machined off, I assume by someone wanting to use the close focus range on a post-M3 camera.

I'd previously borrowed a Summilux V2 from my boss and quite enjoyed the "two lenses in one", flipping between f1.4 and f1.8, but the 1 metre minimum focus was quite annoying on a 35mm lens. So I ended up with the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 VM II for a while. I got my hands on a cheap Summilux V2 recently and I figured I would try this close focus mod.

---

Disclaimer: this is not really a tutorial, more just documenting what I did in my case. I'm sure there are better way to do things. Happy to elaborate and answer questions, but if you try this it is at your own risk. There are many tiny grub screws which are easily stripped/rounded. I had to drill out a few screws ruined by the previous owner and cut new threads for my own 1.6mm replacement screws. Please use the correct size of screwdriver and don't force things.

---

IMGUR ALBUM HERE: https://imgur.com/a/Qkf4Sfh

There's a few ways to go about performing this modification, with varying difficulty, risk, structural compromise, and minimum focus distance. I tried the following in order.

1. ~0.72m min. focus with no hard stop

• This involved removing the close focus hard stop (the one screwed in to the left of the "Lens Made in Canada") and filing the rear element shroud.
• You need to unthread the optical block from the focusing mech and remove the focus ring to expose the hard stops.
• In lieu of the hard stop, the rangefinder cam helicoid instead interferes with the focus helicoid key to stop focus at about 0.72m.
• The brass key is *probably* sturdy enough to be used like this as there is little leverage and is a small tensile stress, but obviously don't slam into the close focus stop too often.
• The cutout part of the rear element shroud needs to be filed down, otherwise it will stick out further than the rangefinder cam and throw off your rangefinder coupling.
• The only benefit I see is that it leaves the lens' exterior intact.

2. ~0.75m min. focus with hard stop (this one I didn't try but you can imagine what the results are like)

• All the same as #1 but you reposition the close focus hard stop to stop focusing just before the rangefinder cam touches the focus helicoid key.
• This involves drilling a 1.5mm hole and a 2.0mm countersink for the screw.
• This obviously is a permanent change to your lens' exterior but the benefit is that there are no internal parts interfering.
• I'd recommend doing this level of the mod if you want to try it.

3. ~0.68m min. focus with no hard stop

• All the same as #1 but the focus helicoid key is filed a tiny bit to allow closer focus.
• I wanted to reach 0.65m like the goggled version but I wasn't sure if all M cameras can couple down to 0.65m, so I stopped at 0.68m.
• Don't recommend this. Turn around, go back hahaha

4. ~0.70m min. focus with hard stop

• All the same as #3 but with hard stop relocated to just before the rangefinder cam helicoid touches the focus helicoid key.
• This is where I ended up at.

---

Did it work? Yes. Was it worth it? For me it was. Should you try it? Depends how willing you are to pull apart and permanently modify a Summilux. 1m close focus or a Voigtlander might be good enough for you.

Thank you for reading!

---

Next on my mod list is an E39 threaded front ring replacement part for the Summilux V2. Simple replacement with 3 grub screws. Compatible with original clip on hoods. Currently in the works, along with an alternative steel rim esque front ring that has a larger filter thread.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited March 3, 2023 by danielcai
Typo

[andybarton]

Don't try this at home, kids.

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[grahamc]

17 hours ago, danielcai said:

Summilux 35mm f/1.4 Pre-ASPH V2 close focus mod

In terms of minimum focus distance only, as far as I know, the Summilux came in two variations.

• Non-goggled versions going to about 1.0m
• Goggled versions going to about 0.65m

I've always found it kinda ironic that the goggled version intended for the M3 has a close focus range that can't be used by unmodded M3s (no coupling between 1m and 0.65m). I've seen at least one goggled steel rim with the goggles machined off, I assume by someone wanting to use the close focus range on a post-M3 camera.

I'd previously borrowed a Summilux V2 from my boss and quite enjoyed the "two lenses in one", flipping between f1.4 and f1.8, but the 1 metre minimum focus was quite annoying on a 35mm lens. So I ended up with the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 VM II for a while. I got my hands on a cheap Summilux V2 recently and I figured I would try this close focus mod.

---

Disclaimer: this is not really a tutorial, more just documenting what I did in my case. I'm sure there are better way to do things. Happy to elaborate and answer questions, but if you try this it is at your own risk. There are many tiny grub screws which are easily stripped/rounded. I had to drill out a few screws ruined by the previous owner and cut new threads for my own 1.6mm replacement screws. Please use the correct size of screwdriver and don't force things.

---

IMGUR ALBUM HERE: https://imgur.com/a/Qkf4Sfh

There's a few ways to go about performing this modification, with varying difficulty, risk, structural compromise, and minimum focus distance. I tried the following in order.

1. ~0.72m min. focus with no hard stop

• This involved removing the close focus hard stop (the one screwed in to the left of the "Lens Made in Canada") and filing the rear element shroud.
• You need to unthread the optical block from the focusing mech and remove the focus ring to expose the hard stops.
• In lieu of the hard stop, the rangefinder cam helicoid instead interferes with the focus helicoid key to stop focus at about 0.72m.
• The brass key is *probably* sturdy enough to be used like this as there is little leverage and is a small tensile stress, but obviously don't slam into the close focus stop too often.
• The cutout part of the rear element shroud needs to be filed down, otherwise it will stick out further than the rangefinder cam and throw off your rangefinder coupling.
• The only benefit I see is that it leaves the lens' exterior intact.

2. ~0.75m min. focus with hard stop (this one I didn't try but you can imagine what the results are like)

• All the same as #1 but you reposition the close focus hard stop to stop focusing just before the rangefinder cam touches the focus helicoid key.
• This involves drilling a 1.5mm hole and a 2.0mm countersink for the screw.
• This obviously is a permanent change to your lens' exterior but the benefit is that there are no internal parts interfering.
• I'd recommend doing this level of the mod if you want to try it.

3. ~0.68m min. focus with no hard stop

• All the same as #1 but the focus helicoid key is filed a tiny bit to allow closer focus.
• I wanted to reach 0.65m like the goggled version but I wasn't sure if all M cameras can couple down to 0.65m, so I stopped at 0.68m.
• Don't recommend this. Turn around, go back hahaha

4. ~0.70m min. focus with hard stop

• All the same as #3 but with hard stop relocated to just before the rangefinder cam helicoid touches the focus helicoid key.
• This is where I ended up at.

---

Did it work? Yes. Was it worth it? For me it was. Should you try it? Depends how willing you are to pull apart and permanently modify a Summilux. 1m close focus or a Voigtlander might be good enough for you.

Thank you for reading!

---

Next on my mod list is an E39 threaded front ring replacement part for the Summilux V2. Simple replacement with 3 grub screws. Compatible with original clip on hoods. Currently in the works, along with an alternative steel rim esque front ring that has a larger filter thread.

 

Interesting, thanks .  I have a late Germany copy of this lens that focuses to 0.75 but doesn't differ cosmetically in any way from other copies.

What do you think is the most likely explanation for what 'may' have happened to this lens ?  The lens itself appears in almost brand new condition so it seems unlikely someone has modified it (it just doesn't seem to have had enough use for someone to go to that trouble but I guess we never know).  

Could it be possible some left the factory like that 🤔

Comparing side by side at every aperture with another German copy I can't see any IQ differences at any aperture.  It's a Lens I won't be parting with for a while 

 

 

 

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Edited March 4, 2023 by grahamc

[danielcai]

7 hours ago, grahamc said:

Interesting, thanks .  I have a late Germany copy of this lens that focuses to 0.75 but doesn't differ cosmetically in any way from other copies.

What do you think is the most likely explanation for what 'may' have happened to this lens ?  The lens itself appears in almost brand new condition so it seems unlikely someone has modified it (it just doesn't seem to have had enough use for someone to go to that trouble but I guess we never know).  

Could it be possible some left the factory like that 🤔

Oh wow, very interesting. A few questions/ideas:

1. Could you send some photos of the other side? Mainly where the 0.75m distance marking is and where the Lens Made In Germany marking is, showing the screw position near it.

2. Could you send photos of the rangefinder cam area when it is focused to infinity and when it is focused to minimum.

3. There's no apparent machining work done to the mount part, which I assume means either it was a non-goggled lens originally or had its mount swapped with a non-goggled lens.

What a unique specimen to own, first I've heard of this variant. I'd love to see more angles of it. Have you tried asking Leica about it or asking on forums?

Cheers and thank you for sharing!

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[grahamc]

15 minutes ago, danielcai said:

Oh wow, very interesting. A few questions/ideas:

1. Could you send some photos of the other side? Mainly where the 0.75m distance marking is and where the Lens Made In Germany marking is, showing the screw position near it.

2. Could you send photos of the rangefinder cam area when it is focused to infinity and when it is focused to minimum.

3. There's no apparent machining work done to the mount part, which I assume means either it was a non-goggled lens originally or had its mount swapped with a non-goggled lens.

What a unique specimen to own, first I've heard of this variant. I'd love to see more angles of it. Have you tried asking Leica about it or asking on forums?

Cheers and thank you for sharing!

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Hello. Thanks for the help. Sure, I’ll send these photo angles tomorrow .  Certainly not an ex-goggled as it’s from 1992  

I haven’t asked Leica or had it looked at by any tech, but it has been discussed here on the forum in the 35/1.4 pre-asph thread. It’s quite a late serial number so I was curious as to whether the final of the German v2’s might be 0.75 MFD.  But in that thread a member here reported they own a serial number after mine, which focuses to the normal MFD.  I have a titanium version from the same year, and previously owned a black German from 1 year prior, that both were standard MFD. 

So quite strange. 

I will post photos tomorrow it will be interesting to get your opinion.  Thanks ! 

Edited March 4, 2023 by grahamc

[Andy_Shields]

1 hour ago, grahamc said:

Hello. Thanks for the help. Sure, I’ll send these photo angles tomorrow .  Certainly not an ex-goggled as it’s from 1992  

I haven’t asked Leica or had it looked at by any tech, but it has been discussed here on the forum in the 35/1.4 pre-asph thread. It’s quite a late serial number so I was curious as to whether the final of the German v2’s might be 0.75 MFD.  But in that thread a member here reported they own a serial number after mine, which focuses to the normal MFD.  I have a titanium version from the same year, and previously owned a black German from 1 year prior, that both were standard MFD. 

So quite strange. 

I will post photos tomorrow it will be interesting to get your opinion.  Thanks ! 

Is your V2 marked 0.75 or is the nearest engraving 3ft and focus hard stops to the left of that 3ft marking? Thanks, 🙂.

[RMF]

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Thanks for showing the modification steps. I have an early one that focuses closer than 1m as well (to about ..75-.80”ish range). It’s unmodified and was not a goggled version. The one is a very early Canadian v1/v2 transition in the 21667* serial range (1966). Photo shows where it hard stops.  As @grahamc mentioned, there was discussion about this in the 35mm pre-asph thread and there were a few outlier samples that had an MFD under 1m, and I believe they spawned the era of manufacture.

 

 

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Edited March 4, 2023 by RMF

[grahamc]

4 hours ago, Andy_Shields said:

Is your V2 marked 0.75 or is the nearest engraving 3ft and focus hard stops to the left of that 3ft marking? Thanks, 🙂.

Hi Andy

It is the normal 3ft marking, but the hard stop of MFD is farther beyond the 3ft mark than other copies 

[grahamc]

Hi @danielcai

Do these photos help at all ?  Cheers ! 

The MFD is exactly 0.75 , and hard stops at that distance.  The 2 photos of the underside are at MFD and Infinity

 

 

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Edited March 4, 2023 by grahamc

[Andy_Shields]

18 hours ago, grahamc said:

Hi Andy

It is the normal 3ft marking, but the hard stop of MFD is farther beyond the 3ft mark than other copies 

Wow, I saw the photos and you're not kidding. That's wild. Congratulations! I had sourced a 360xxxx German copy for a friend a few years ago and I checked the photos of it showing the 3ft minimum mark. I'll have to reach out and ask him to physically focus it to the minimum and send a photo. Thanks for sharing the info!

[grahamc]

4 hours ago, Andy_Shields said:

Wow, I saw the photos and you're not kidding. That's wild. Congratulations! I had sourced a 360xxxx German copy for a friend a few years ago and I checked the photos of it showing the 3ft minimum mark. I'll have to reach out and ask him to physically focus it to the minimum and send a photo. Thanks for sharing the info!

Thankyou ! Yes that would be really interesting.  My Titan is also 360 xxxx (if I remember correctly the serial numbers are less than 50 apart) but focuses to the regular MFD.   so this one is a bit of a mystery at this point !
 

 

[Andy_Shields]

1 hour ago, grahamc said:

Thankyou ! Yes that would be really interesting.  My Titan is also 360 xxxx (if I remember correctly the serial numbers are less than 50 apart) but focuses to the regular MFD.   so this one is a bit of a mystery at this point !
 

 

I just received a photo of the German 3602095 and like yours, the meters / feet scale is flipped but his also stops right where my 313xxxx does, a mm or so past 3ft. It's very interesting that yous and OP's stop at exactly the same spot with his being modified.

[grahamc]

1 hour ago, Andy_Shields said:

I just received a photo of the German 3602095 and like yours, the meters / feet scale is flipped but his also stops right where my 313xxxx does, a mm or so past 3ft. It's very interesting that yous and OP's stop at exactly the same spot with his being modified.

Thanks Andy. Yes it interesting.  If mine was more well-used I'd be more inclined to think it's been modified, but it doesn't seem to have seen much (or any) use since 1992.  What small signs of use are on this lens were done by myself in the time I've had it .

It's not impossible that someone modified I guess - but it has none of the external signs of that work that OP mentioned.  

@danielcai It would be great to get your thoughts on the images sent of the lens.  Cheers ! 

Edited March 5, 2023 by grahamc

[grahamc]

By the way the other thing worth noting is the arrow for indicating distance, does not line up exactly vertically with the aperture dot. 

I've done side by side with a standard 0.9 MFD copy and can't see any performance differences at all, they appear identical at each aperture.  But for that comparison both shot on a. tripod at the MFD of the longer MFD.

Also in practical photography I had never noticed any performance issue shooting at MFD ...  this is my main lens I shoot with and have always been happy with it at MFD even wide open.   (I only noticed the shorter MFD when testing something else with a few lenses!). 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by grahamc

[danielcai]

15 hours ago, grahamc said:

It's not impossible that someone modified I guess - but it has none of the external signs of that work that OP mentioned.  

Yeah, honestly to me it looks like a factory job. I was looking for more potential signs of a DIY job but the lack of a second screw hole on the rear puts that theory to bed. I thought maybe it could have been a differently shaped focus stop inside with the same screw position, but the screw hole is in a completely different spot to typical examples.

 

15 hours ago, grahamc said:

By the way the other thing worth noting is the arrow for indicating distance, does not line up exactly vertically with the aperture dot. 

I don't think that's too out of the ordinary. There's a certain amount of leeway in how tightly the optical block is screwed onto the focusing body, which leads to some misalignment. If you want you could probably twist it into position carefully. Anything more extreme would warrant loosening and repositioning the aperture scale and front ring to realign the arrow, the 1.4 marking, and the dot.

[danielcai]

On 3/5/2023 at 6:30 AM, RMF said:

Thanks for showing the modification steps. I have an early one that focuses closer than 1m as well (to about ..75-.80”ish range). It’s unmodified and was not a goggled version. The one is a very early Canadian v1/v2 transition in the 21667* serial range (1966). Photo shows where it hard stops.  As @grahamc mentioned, there was discussion about this in the 35mm pre-asph thread and there were a few outlier samples that had an MFD under 1m, and I believe they spawned the era of manufacture.

Do you reckon you could send a photo of the other side of the lens where the Lens Made In Canada engraving is? Just wanna check out the screw hole position. Cheers

[grahamc]

5 hours ago, danielcai said:

Yeah, honestly to me it looks like a factory job. I was looking for more potential signs of a DIY job but the lack of a second screw hole on the rear puts that theory to bed. I thought maybe it could have been a differently shaped focus stop inside with the same screw position, but the screw hole is in a completely different spot to typical examples.

 

I don't think that's too out of the ordinary. There's a certain amount of leeway in how tightly the optical block is screwed onto the focusing body, which leads to some misalignment. If you want you could probably twist it into position carefully. Anything more extreme would warrant loosening and repositioning the aperture scale and front ring to realign the arrow, the 1.4 marking, and the dot.

Wow how interesting. Ok ! Maybe someone on the production line was a 35:1.4 v2 fan and this was their copy 😂

Thankyou for sharing your thoughts on this as  for sure these are technical things I wouldn’t have known about the modification process.

[RMF]

7 hours ago, danielcai said:

Do you reckon you could send a photo of the other side of the lens where the Lens Made In Canada engraving is? Just wanna check out the screw hole position. Cheers

@danielcaiSure, here is my Canadian one at its MFD.  As mentioned this one dates pretty early (Leica wiki lists it as a version 1), it’s double Canada marked and it doesn’t have ‘35” marking.  Love all the Leica mysteries to these lenses 🙂. It certainly could have been modified sometime in its past 56 year life but the screws and markings placement are identical to this one https://www.fotopia.com.hk/#!product/showAjax/4246/Leica Summilux-M 35mm F1.4 - Black / Pre-ASPH / Infinity Lock

Thanks.

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Edited March 6, 2023 by RMF

[danielcai]

16 hours ago, RMF said:

@danielcaiSure, here is my Canadian one at its MFD.  As mentioned this one dates pretty early (Leica wiki lists it as a version 1), it’s double Canada marked and it doesn’t have ‘35” marking.  Love all the Leica mysteries to these lenses 🙂. It certainly could have been modified sometime in its past 56 year life but the screws and markings placement are identical to this one https://www.fotopia.com.hk/#!product/showAjax/4246/Leica Summilux-M 35mm F1.4 - Black / Pre-ASPH / Infinity Lock

Thanks.

I can't seem to see a screw in your lens (to the left of the "LENS" engraving) like the Fotopia copy. Is that a hole that's been plugged or something?

If it is indeed not a screw but a plugged hole, that would explain your closer focus: someone may have removed the ~0.9m close focus stop.

Would you say that your close focus stop feels a bit "mushy" compared to the infinity stop? As if it's wedging/jamming into something. Don't force it, of course.

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[RMF]

It might be a plug or screw although I need to take a much closer look at it to confirm. The focus throw from it’s MFD to Infinity is very consistent with the same smoothness, no mushiness whatsoever.

.

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by RMF