Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2021/08/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Erwin Puts wrote: > 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 Erwin, your comments are somewhat confusing to my simple mind. If as you say, it was a only a myth, created by collectors and dealers, that the 50 mm summicron when it was released was the sharpest f2 50 mm lens Leitz made, tell, which one was as sharp or sharper. Was it the Summar? Or was it the Summitar? I don't think so. It is quite possible, that other vendors F2 50 mm lenses where as good. Which one? Regards, Horst Schmidt