In praise of the Mandler lenses

[adan]

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I love the lenses designed by Walter Mandler at E. Leitz Canada, and especially the M-lenses that I discuss below. I just want to bring them to the attention of all Leica shooters, because I think there is a place for their distinctive familial properties in the world of pricey ASPH and APO lenses (not that those are not equally distinctive in their own ways).

 

LCT, I believe, is working on an essay about Walter Mandler, so I'll just briefly describe his place in Leica lens design. Mandler was head of the Optics design bureau at E. Leitz Canada in Midland, Ontario from - very roughly - the late 50's until about 1980. His work included far more lenses than I discuss here - probably 30-40 designs for both M and R systems in total.

 

But these lenses capture some of the signature qualities that show up in many of his other designs - in particular:

 

1. An unusual balance of contrast and resolution, that gives a nice 3D roundness to face planes, eyes, fingers and the like, and defines edges very crisply, yet retains a long tonal range, with highlights that go on seemingly forever without ever quite hitting hard white. (Some call this "creaminess", in the 75 'lux and 90 'cron)

 

The emphasis is usually on sharpness in the middle of the frame, with the corners often noticebale softer at large apertures.

 

2. A cooler, greener color tint than the pinker lenses of today, that tends to hold skies on the cyan side of blue, and maintain a greeness in foliage, architectural gray-greens, and "camouflage" colors that often tend to brown or gray with other lenses. Not enough to counteract "M8 magenta" without a filter, but noticeably less red than the Solms designs when equally filtered.

 

My first two M lenses were Mandler designs (although I had no idea who he was at the time) - the 21mm pre-ASPH Elmarit, and the 90 pre-APO Summicron. And it was the characteristics I describe above and below - especially compared to the Zeiss-Contax lenses I was using then (7 years ago) that sucked me into the Leica world.

 

I'll go through these from wide to long.

 

The first is the 21mm Elmarit-M. While Erwin Puts calls this design "not state of the art", I find it to be quite clean is presenting fine details and textures, and it is noticeably able to handle long tonal ranges without pinning out the highlights and shadows.

 

I am also surprised at how "wide" it still seems to be, even with M8 cropping. I suspect this is due to the way distortion was corrected in 1970's retrofocus designs, with barrel distortion near the center overcorrected with pincushion near the edges. On the M8, the "correction" zone is cropped off, leaving a faint fisheye effect (really not noticeable however)that sneaks in a bit more scenery. This was Leica's, and Mandler's second attempt at a retrofocus lens for the M system - required to allow metering with the M5 (and eventually the M6 et seq.)

 

The original huge 19mm for the R system is roughly contemporary in design, and has very similar imaging qualities.

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[adan]

Next up is the "version III" 28mm Elmarit. It has a touch more macro contrast than the 21, but quite a bit less than the 28 Summicron ASPH. Frankly, while I can appreciate the qualities of the 'cron, especially in a 28mm f/2 lens - I have tried it 3 times and always gone back to this Elmarit, because the 'cron is just too red and harsh (IMHO) to achieve the pictures I want.

 

The Elmarit (III) does have slightly less smooth bokeh, although fairly neutral. It is also the largest of the M 28s, and early lens hoods do not have cutouts, since they were designed at a time when the M bodies did not include 28 framelines, so viewfinder blockage was ignored.

 

In MOST cases I find this lens to produce as much fine detail as the 'cron - with good, clear micro-contrast. Especially on slide film or a digital sensor. On color neg film the extra snap of the 'cron or the Elmarit (IV) may work better.

 

(BTW this image contains so much detail that I had to boost the jpg compression to upload it - take that into consideration, especially in the red areas)

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[adan]

This 50mm Summicron - the optics still used by Leica - was one of Mandler's last designs (the 75mm/80mm Summilux was the very last, I believe).

 

It's interesting to note that most of the lenses I show here had production lives of 15 years or more. The 28 above was the shortest, and this 50 is pushing 29 years, now.

 

In some ways the 50 'cron is transitional - it is a bit pinker in color and snappier in contrast than many of Mandler's previous designs. Which may help explain it's longevity - it fits into both philosophies of lens design, Midland and Solms.

 

It has a mixed bokeh that is very dependent on lighting and subject-background distance. In this shot I like the sparkle it adds to the OOF waterfall highlights, but in other settings it can produce rather obtrusive ring effects.

 

Whether by chance or by design, it has very good close-up performance (.7 meters), one reason why I prefer it to the 50 'lux ASPH, which is incredible at infinity @ f/1.4, but has always gone soft for me in the under-1-meter range.

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[adan]

The 90 Summicron pre-APO is more in the vein of the 21 and 28 - perhaps even more so. Its edge resolution at f/2 is not knife-sharp, but it does DEFINE shapes and forms well through tonal distinctions.

 

And that's probably as good an explanation as any about what I like in the Mandler lenses - they define things well even when their acutance is lower than more recent designs.

 

The 90 pre-APO shows quite a bit of color fringing, especially in OOF areas like the cat's eyebrow whiskers. Green-purple edges. Something it shares with the new Summarit 90 f/2.5 (and if you compare the optical layouts, they are in fact very similar designs).

 

But the payback comes in very smooth backgrounds that approach the creaminess of the 75 'lux at a fraction the price.

 

The 90 f/2 pre-APO R lens from 1970 until the APO version in R mount is also a closely related design from Mandler

 

(BTW, my copy of this lens is from VERY early in its history. In its zeal for compactness, Leica originally designed the lens hood to COVER the aperture ring when retracted. Which at least ensures that it gets pulled out for use. Within a year or so this was redesigned to a layout more like the current APO)

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[wizard]

Kudos! A joy to read, and I certainly sympathize with your findings, owning and using several Mandler designed lenses myself (Summicron 50, Summilux pre-asph. 50, Summilux 80).

 

Best,

 

Andy

[adan]

Finally, one of my all-time favorites from the Mandler line - although not without its faults. The 90 f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit (thin version).

 

For me, Leica RFs are about compactness and light weight, and the 90 TE(t) ranks with the 35 and 50 'crons and the 21 f/3.4 Super-Angulon as a lens clearly smaller than any SLR equivalent.

 

It still amazes me that so much detail can be captured with 4 such thin bits of glass.

 

The TE tends to the cool and cyan, as does most of the other Mandler-era glass. But its well-known tendency to flare also means that it often picks up tints from the background or subject - it will tend to be a warm lens if there is, say, a red brick wall behind the subject, and very cool if there is a lot of sky in, or just outside, the frame.

 

It can be a bit soft at f/2.8 - but it is a "Gaussian" softness that is very amenable to being corrected with unsharp masking. And below f/4 it is sharper than any Summicron 90 except the APO.

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[lct]

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Great article Andy.

Mandler designed more than 30 M lenses like the famous Summicron 35/2 IV, Summilux 35/1.4, Summilux 50/1.4, Noctilux 50/1, Summilux 75/1.4 and Elmarit 90/2.8 (# 11129) which is another favourite of mine.

Also great R lenses like Summicron 35/2, 50/2 and 90/2, Summilux 80/1.4, Apo-Telyt 180/3.4.

For more details, see 'Eulogy for Dr. Walter Mandler' by Rolf Fricke here:

http://www.phsc.ca/phsc_e-mail/Vol-5/PHSC-E-Mail-V5-2-Dr-Mandler.pdf

[earleygallery]

Andy,

 

Interesting stuff. Do you happen to know which of the 35mm Summicron R's Mandler designed? I have the earlier example with the square snap on lens hood - was this his or did he do the later (current) version?

 

I recall an article or letter I read a few years back from a pro (can't recall who or where I read it now) but he said he'd sold his R gear to buy Nikon at the time, but he so missed the 35 Summicron that he bought another R body and another example of the 'Mandler' lens, because it was so special.

[roguewave]

Andy, thanks for the monograph. Your obvious adoration and scholarship are to be commended. I very much enjoyed your images. I'm struck by the absence of the Nocti in your dissertation. Most genius produce prodigiously,but there's a singular signature that remains distinctive long after they're gone. All in all, the Nocti's & Lux's will be Mandler's legacy. As the Voodo Child sings; "Well, I'm standing next to a Mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand. Well I pick up all pieces and make an Island, might even raise a little sand."

[adan]

Ben: main reason I left out the Nocti is - I don't use one. So have no examples or user-based comments.

 

James E. Putz's Leica Lens Compendium list the SECOND (1976) version of the 35 'cron-R as being a Leitz Canada design. First was Wetzlar.

[k_g_wolf ✝]

Sorry, but it´s Puts for Putz not Putz ...

 

It´s so often quoted wrong that I start to wonder if it´s perhaps intential.

 

AND it´s Erwin, not James, but nevermind ...

 

 

Best

 

________________________________________

 

 

PS

 

BTW, thx a lot for your fine contribution on the MANDLER- lenses. Really great, expertly taken sample shots you showed here. Sorry, for not to having mentioned this before.

[adan]

Hi K.G. - I was responding to JAMES, to the effect that E. PUTS' book etc. etc. - but you're right there was a missing ":" and an erroneous "z".

[lct]

Jamez Putz imputz are erroneouz for zure.

[rosuna]

LCT, I believe, is working on an essay about Walter Mandler, so I'll just briefly describe his place in Leica lens design.

 

Then I can send him an article by Thorpe and James, engineers at ELCAN, on several classic double-gauss designs of Mandler.

 

(I added the reference to the Mandler's article of Wikipedia some time ago, and several other links, very interesting).

 

Walter Mandler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I have a Noctilux and Summilux 75. I love them.

 

I was surprissed by the cold and somewhat harsh comments of Erwin Puts about Mandler. He comes to say that Mandler was a good designer, but not so creative, original or significant as Zeiss' chiefs of optical design, or those of japanese brands like Canon.

 

See for instance, Puts' comments on the Canon 50mm f/1.2 (he mentions the Noctilux), or his late comments about the 75mm/80mm Summiluxes. The Noctilux is a very small lens and a half stop faster than the Canon.... and Leica wasn't able to produce ASPH lens elements, as the first Noctilux demonstrated. So, Was Mandler's Noctilux design less good than possible? Puts also wrote about Mandler and other Leica designers (Three generations of... ), but he didn't find kind words for Mandler (as he has for Karbe and Kölsh).

 

Was Mandler one of the great lens designers of the second half of the XX century or simply a good engineer of a small but reputed brand of cameras? Was he an innovator or a pragmatic designer?

[rsh]

All of my SL2 Lenses are from the Mandler era. All of my M lenses, save for the Noctilux and 28 Elmarit, are from the current Asph Designs. I feel as if I have the best of both worlds.

[andym911]

Andy, hat off for such a refreshing read and accompanying images.

 

Youa re largley to "blame" for me getting the 90 Tele Elmarit (recent post) which I just got today.

 

Images to follow soon,,,,first impressions are gooooooooooooooood:)

 

Great thread and hope more people will enjoy

 

andy

[lct]

LCT, I believe, is working on an essay about Walter Mandler...

Andy was mistaking me for James Putz i believe.

[tobey bilek]

The Mandler glass is memorable. I have never sold one piece.

 

I got all new. Just to show you prices, the 21, 28, 90 were all in the $450/650 range. My 75 1.4 was somewhat more.

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[grober]

Your photo in this string with the 28mm Elmarit is truly amazing! My mistakenly-low esteem for that particular lens will undergo a rigorous and thorough revision. (My current 28mm lens is non-Leica.)

 

Thanks for posting.

 

-g

Edited April 10, 2009 by grober

[Overgaard]

That's great. And awesome details of the 28mm. I never regarded the 28mm a "real" lens but you prove me (completely!) wrong.

 

I guess I'll have to integrate the (design by Mandler) on my lens compendium as I've done a few places (included the designers name). I did a few, then thought of it as a bit silly, but it's actually interesting. Because one can tell.

 

leica.overgaard.dk - Thorsten Overgaard's Leica Pages - Leitz and Leica Lens Compendium