Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> From: Lucien (original snip from me:) > >It took me over 25 years of use to find out that the bayonet mount > >was actually an adapter. I was using a screw mount lens version called > >the SOOZI model, with a serial number indicating that it was made in > >1957, the first year it was made. > >Total production was only about 500. > >That lens deserves to be called rare, yet on the few occasions that > >one is for sale, the price has averaged around $2500. > > Is there a red index mark (plastic or painted) on your SOOZI ? > If there is, it's not a real screw mount lens, and it's > less rare, but more than a fixed bayonet 90/2. ;-) > The presence of the red mark is the first question from a well-informed collector, since apparently Leica themselves adapted many thread-mount SOOZI's to be a bayonet mount lens, adding their own red dot. Mine has no bayonet index mark at all. There was a little residue on the threads when I took off the adapter 25 years after I bought the lens. It could have been some glue that a user or dealer applied to tighten the adapter, or maybe Leica originally glued a few without adding the index mark. That would make an interesting point for a historical collecting discussion - Did Leica ever sell the first 90mm Summicron as a bayonet lens without adding the index mark? Since mine has the 147 serial number batch, it appears to be among the first few ever made. Gary Todoroff