[Leica] Re: Screw mount Leicas and lenses

[LRZeitlin@aol.com]

I'm glad to see that there are still screw mount Leicaholics. Many of us old
timers insist they they are the only "real" Leicas, the rest being oversized,
overweight, high tech pretenders for people who lack the manual and mental
dexterity to work all the fiddly little knobs and levers. 

Now about screw mount lenses for those lucky enough to have real Leicas. The
best of the 50mm lenses is, of course, the 7 element collapsible Summicron
which was produced during the twilight of the screw mount era. This is
identical, except for the mount, with the M series lens and is probably the
best normal lens ever released for B&W high resolution photography. Almost as
good, and far more available, is the 50mm F2 Summitar. The only other 50mm
Leica lens I would consider for serious photography of the highest standard is
the 50mm f3.5 Elmar. The Summar and the Hektor are soft by current standards.

Leica produced a series of forgettable wide angles during the preWW2 era. The
Hektor 28mm was reasonably sharp but only had a maximum aperture of f6.3. The
35mm Elmar was a good sharp lens with an f3.5 aperture but exhibited some
corner darkening at wide apertures. The best screw mount wide angle was the
35mm f 3.5 Summaron, essentially the same lens as that supplied for the early
Ms.

The best short telephoto was the relatively rare Summarex 85mm f1.5, but for
most uses, the f4 Elmar is quite satisfactory and far less expensive.

A