Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/11/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Last week my Summicron-DR returned from Leica in NJ. The aperture blades were starting to stick, so she went in for a CLA. They did a nice job, blackened the blades, cleaned and lubed everything etc., all for $150 bucks. I've shot about 6 rolls with it since it got back, and can actually see a significant difference in performance. The most obvious difference is the greatly increased flare suppression. It used to be that if I shot straight in to the sun, I would get a glare across the frame. That's gone. Images also look sharper, but I'm also attributing that to the higher contrast, resulting from the haze being cleaned out and the blades being blackened (less scatter). It's interesting to see the DR as Leica intended it. In comparison to contemporary designs it really must have been an eye opener, when it was introduced. Even today it's one heck of a piece of glass. Feli