LEITZ Summicron 5cm F2(Retractable)

Review and Photo example of the ELMAR M 50mm F2.8.

Gallery

Sample photo taken with the LEICA M8.2.

Review

The Summicron 5cm F2 is a standard lens released by Leica in 1951.

It is a long-lived lens that has been produced to this day in 2024, with changes to the exterior design and the final form of the early 50mm lens.
The lens configuration is a Gaussian lens like its predecessor, the Summitar, but instead of the 4 groups and 7 elements that the Summitar used a lot of bonding, it has a 6 groups and 7 elements configuration with fewer bonding surfaces, and I feel that this design brush-up has improved the image quality compared to the Summitar.
The early retractable lens configuration is the same as the silver fixed lens barrel, and the lens configuration has changed from the black fixed lens barrel to 4 groups and 6 elements, and the latest M-mount Summicron 50mm has a similar configuration.

The lens I owned was purchased cheaply, so it was a little scratched and cloudy, but I was able to enjoy the soft depiction at full aperture, as in examples 1, 2, and 4, and the neat depiction at a slightly stopped-down aperture, as in 3 and 5.

The filter diameter of the Summicron has remained the same since the retractable type, E39, 39mm. Many hoods can be used, such as IROOA and ITDOO.

The first Summicron was produced in 250,000 units, but they can be broadly divided into three types: this retractable type, fixed lens barrel, and fixed lens barrel + glasses. Retractable lenses were produced in parallel in L39 and M39 mounts, and according to calculations from Leica Wiki, just over 50,000 L39 mounts were produced by 1955, and just under 50,000 M mounts by 1956. There are about 100,000 retractable types alone, so if you look hard enough you can find one, as long as you don’t mind the condition.

Specification

Items	Hektor	Summar	Summitar	Summicron
Focal length	5(cm)	←	←	←
Max aperture	2.5	2	2	2
Min aperture	18	12.5	12.5/16	16
Leaf blade	6	6/10	6	10/16
Lens Construction	6elements in 3groups	6elements in 4groups	7elements in 4groups	←
Min distance(m)	1.0	←	←	←
Lens length(mm)	32	–	–	–
レンズ最大径(mm)	47	47.8	47.8	47
Filter size(mm)	A36	←	36.5	39
Hood	FIKUS	FIKUS/SOOMP	SOOPD	SOOFM / IROOA / ITDOO
Weight(g)	190 130	205 180	240	–
Release date	1930	1933	1938	1951
Production number	5,600	127,950	172,390	253,314

Reference links

Leica Wiki Summicron 5cm F2
Classic Camera Selection 19: How to Identify Leica Lenses (Asahi Sonorama) – Amazon Affiliate Link
- The book describes the specifications and the differences in specifications, but does not mention lens depiction.
- The appendix includes a diagram of the lens construction.
Leica Lenses (Shashin Kogyosha) – Amazon Affiliate Link
- The Summicron retractable type is reviewed by Kazunori Kawata in P90

Update history

2024.06.06

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