Re: Lens cap for the M Summicron 35?

[ATANOVIC <ATANOVIC@genre.com>]

It has to be said that some of the lens caps and hood on current production M 
lenses are really quite flimsy, not at all matching the look, fit, or finish of 
the lens itself.  Please note, I'm not complaining about the price (like the 
fellow who started the "Leica Ripping Off Photographers" thread), just 
commenting on the quality.  Granted, they perform a totally non-mechanical 
function, and I really don't mind plastic per se, but the lack of solidity is a 
bit dismaying.  Whenever possible I try to find older caps/hoods which fit, and 
consign the new ones to the cupboard.

The hood that came with my recently purchased 35mm 1.4 was even manufactured 
incorrectly, and I had to return it.  It has two asymmetrically-placed "prongs" 
which are supposed to ensure that you can only put it on one way: with the 
viewfinder "cut-out" in the proper position, up and to the left.  But the 
prongs were backwards and it would only seat with the cut-out down and to the 
right.  Kind of curious since the whole thing is injection-moulded: the entire 
production run must have come out wrong.  Must have been Monday morning in 
Solms...

I do, however, like the built-in hood on the current 90mm 2.0: smooth, solid, 
and (as a bonus) good-looking.  The design of the built-in hood on the current 
50mm 2.0 is less successful, IMHO.  It's rather "wobbly" and when pulled out 
gives the camera that phallic-extension look of one of those long-zoom 
point-and-shoot cameras.

Adrian