[Leica] 50mm Comparison Summilux vs. Summicron

["Robert Rose" <rjr@usip.com>]

I thought the following observations might be of interest.  I swear that I am not obsessed with testing, it is just that I found myself with two 50mm lenses, and I thought I should sell one of them.

Lens 1:  50 mm Summilux, second optical design (post 1,844,001) circa 1963
Lens 2:  50 mm  Dual Range Summicron circa 1959
Lens 3:  50 mm Summicron-M circa 1997 (borrowed from friend)
Film:       Velvia
Scenes were what I like to do.  Night shots with lights in the image and outdoor shots.

I have not put the slides under a scanner and examined the micro details (yet),
but some interesting observations were immediately apparent on a light table.

The color rendition from all three lenses was identical.
For everything except night scenes, the images were very, very close.  The in focus areas were indistiguishable.
For bokeh fans, the Summilux was much "smoother" and the two Summicrons were very similar.

In short, except for night scenes, the three lenses were really interchangeable in terms of resulting image.  User wise, there were differences.  The Summicron-M was the closest focusing (not taking into account the ability of the DR to use eyes), and has half stop clicks and a built in hood.  The DR has a full time hood (I used the one from the Elmar).  The Summilux had the longest focus track.

Night scenes were a whole different matter.  There were great differences here. The clear winner was the 1963 Summilux, with little flare from street lamps and the best shadow detail.  The 1997 Summicron-M was next, and the 1959 Summicron DR was a distant third, with considerable amount of flare.  I attribute the difference in the Summicrons in part to coating differences.

So, for night scenes, and for bokeh lovers, the 1963 Summilux is a real winner, over even a new Summicron.  For my other work, it seems that any of these lenses will do.  The best buy here would have to be the Summilux.

Bob Rose