This lens was the work of Berek, the first generation designer of Leica, in 1933. At that time, it was mainly designed to compete with Zeiss’ sonnar lens. Leica summar 50/f2 is produced in quite a lot. Due to its age, these lenses almost all need maintenance. Fortunately, its price is very attractive.

Summar’s glass is relatively soft and prone to scratches, which will reduce contrast. The matte paint inside the lens is also peeling off, which will also reduce the contrast, so summar shooting is more suitable for taking black and white photos. If you don’t have this mental preparation, it’s better not to choose summary.

When the Leica summar50 is set to f2, it will produce a blurry light at the edge of the highlight ratio, but some people like this feature. They say it’s hazy romance. This kind of light diffusion and infiltration effect cannot be achieved by software. Summar disperses intense light throughout the entire image without overexposing a single area, giving it a charming warm tone.

Surprisingly, the summar has very high center sharpness, but it is not modern sharp, and the details are very rich and delicate. Suitable for elegant and romantic portrait photography. It allows the light to diffuse a soft atmosphere, and at this point, you’re not just capturing an image, but an emotion.

The double Gaussian structure of Summar 50 uses 6 pieces of glass, and the Tiansai structure of elmar 50mm 3.5 uses 4 pieces of glass. The increase of glass will reduce the contrast and make it easier to glare. The double Gaussian lens has higher coating requirements than the Tiansai lens. Because it is too early, the Summar lens is not coated, so it is normal for the contrast to be smaller than the Tiansai lens.

The 1933 non-retractable Rigid version was produced in fewer than 2,000 pieces. Agfa customized version (the aperture ring is notched), folding version, nickel version, chrome version, black version (the front ring is black), and there are also different versions in meters and feet.

summar50 f2 is a very unique lens. The shots that are in focus are warm and the shots that are out of focus are romantic. If you don’t care about the quality, put it on the digital Leica M11 and you won’t be disappointed.