M lens name suffix

[lct]

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M lens name suffix
Do you remember when Leica M lenses have acquired the suffix "M" in their name? For instance when Summicron 50/2 became Summicron-M 50/2. I hesitate between 1976 and 1980.

[jdlaing]

2 hours ago, lct said:

M lens name suffix
Do you remember when Leica M lenses have acquired the suffix "M" in their name? For instance when Summicron 50/2 became Summicron-M 50/2. I hesitate between 1976 and 1980.

If memory serves 1979ish with the version IV’s

[adan]

Pretty much with the "1979-80" generation of new Canadian M lenses, as jdlaing says. Simultaneous with the big yellow focal-length value (e.g.    90     ) near the lens mount

21 Elmarit-M, 28mm Elmarit-M (v.3,) 35mm Summicron-M (v.4,) 50mm Summicron-M (v.4,) 75mm Summilux-M, 90mm Summicron-M (v.3).

One can find 90mm Tele-Elmarit v2s labelled both ways, since it ran 1974-1990. Also 135 Elmarits and 35/50 Summiluxes and 50mm f/1 Noctiluxes.

Once Leitz decided not to just kill the M system altogether, they did decide the SLR and RF lenses needed to be distinguished in some way, for the future.

The idea of a distinguishing suffix appeared in 1973, with the 90 Elmar-C and 40 Summicron-C for the film CL.

And appears to have been adopted for R lenses at least by the time Minolta got into that act also (1974, 16/24/zoom lenses for R). But Leica would sometimes "drift" into such changes, without a firm date of introduction.

[UliWer]

In his „Großes Fabrikationsbuch Leica-Objektive“ Thiele gives the following dates for first batches of lenses with the -M suffix (though these dates have proved to be not very reliable in other cases):

1:3.4/21mm Super-Angulon - never (last batch from 1979 ???)

1:2.8/21mm Elmarit - 1979 (i.e. all lenses are Elmarit-M)

1:2.8/28mm Elmarit - 1977

1:2/35mm Summicron - 1974 (???) -  (batch 2711.351 - 2.750.7509 , next batch from 1979)

1:1.4/35mm Summilux - 1978

1:2/50mm Summicron - 1978

1:1.4/50mm Summilux - 1979

1:1/50mm Noctilux - 1975 (???) (batch 2.749.631 - 2.750.630, next batch from 1977)

1:2/90mm Summicron - 1973 (???) (batch 2.659.451 -  2.660.450, next batch from 1977)

1:2.8/90 Tele-Elmarit - 1977

1:2.8/135mm Elmarit - 1976

1:4/135mm Tele-Elmar - 1978

The „Gesamtkatalog“ from September 1978 lists all lenses for the M with the -M suffix - even the 21mm Super-Angulon, which was still in the catalogue besides the Elmarit-M as well as the separate lenshead of the 1:2.8/90mm Elmarit to be used with the Visoflex and called „Elmarit-M“. This doesn‘t mean necessarily that all lenses were really engraved with the suffix at this time though the nomenclature was established. The catalogue from Oktober 1976 has no -M suffixes (I havn‘t got one between those mentioned).

So I`d assume the the suffix wasn‘t used as an engraving earlier than 1977, more probably 1978. The earlier dates given for some lenses by thiele may result from numbers assigned much earlier than their production - which was not rare for many lens types.

Edited June 6, 2024 by UliWer

[lct]

5 hours ago, adan said:

One can find 90mm Tele-Elmarit v2s labelled both ways, since it ran 1974-1990. Also 135 Elmarits and 35/50 Summiluxes and 50mm f/1 Noctiluxes.

Also Tele-Elmar v1s 135/4.

[lct]

Thank you for sharing folks 🙂

[adan]

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3 hours ago, UliWer said:

The earlier dates given for some lenses by thiele may result from numbers assigned much earlier than their production - which was not rare for many lens types.

Always a complicating factor in "divining" details of Leica history. 🤪 (image linked from wikimedia)

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