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Summicron 40/2


GarethC

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I have a summicron-c 40/2 and I am very happy with it.

It is very sharp - slightly better than my zeiss planar 50 in the center and handles beautifully.

I modified it to bring up the 35 mm frame which seem accurate at a distance but you need to leave a (very) slight margin close up.

However it does not focus in a plane, especially at long distances so the corners can appear quite soft on some subjects. Not suitable if you want an edge to edge sharp horizon at wide apertures. When set to infinity, that is where it focuses in the center but the edges are focused at about 12m.

It improves at closer distances and at 1m it's quite flat.

Aside from that it has a sloping (rotating) cam and there have been some warnings that it may not focus correctly on M cameras where the cam-follower may not be centered.

It works very well on my M8 being accurate at short distances at full opening with a very slight back focus stopped down and a slight front focus from about 5m wide open, correct

from f4.

This may sound off-putting but after careful '2mm hexing' all my lenses have some areas where I need to be aware of deviations and I am trying to learn and remember them.

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It might be sample variability, but the 40mm F2 is the sharpest Leica lens of the non-ASPH generation, in our opinion. Since it generates 52mm fov, is is the ideal lens to replace the full frame 50mm.

Our M8 now focuses accurately at all distances, so we are not experiencing bf or ff issues with any lens!!! including the Nocti. We all love the 40mm. Get one.

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A very fine and compact lens; and cheap too... and even its 90 f4 brother stands up well towards the TE 90. Only problem : FILTER : the original "5,5" filters where unthreaded and held in position by the lens shade... supposed you want at least the UV/IR yuo have to arrange some do-it yourself solution... there have been posts on this, with pictures of different solutions that typically require CUTTING the glass of available UVIR filters... not a so nice work to do. Personally, I at the moment abandoned the idea to have a filter for my Cron C, even if I have an original UV for the lens, that can serve as the basis for the self-made UVIR...

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