Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The story that the collapsible Summicron was the sharpest lens 2/50 that Leitz had made for up to that time and might be the best 2/50 of its time, is upheld by collectors and second hand sellers as it is part of the mystique and upgrades the value of the merchandise. True optical performance is a different matter and I have written extensively about it and I not going to repeat it. The only people who disagree with my assessment are the collector oriented and the collector-user type of Leica users. The reference to "its time" is very vague. The lens has been introduced in 1954. Its time is that year, the whole decade? And for descriptive value: "sharpness" is not an objective property of a lens, it is a subjective notion which can not be quantified and so is as a quality criterium a debatable attribute. So what looks like a neat description is in fact a very vague and subjective impressionistic sketch. Most standard references (Leica books and articles) repeat the marketing writings of those days and the text in the Leica collector's checklist. There is however preciously little hard evidence for this descriptions, however rosy one wishes to look at the performance of these old Leica lenses. Erwin