LEICA SUMMILUX M 50mm F1.4 1st.

Review and Photo example of the LEICA SUMMILUX-M 50mm F1.4 1st.

Gallery

The example photo was taken using a LEICA M6 +Reversal film

Review

The first generation Summilux M 50mm is a bright standard lens made from 1958 to 1960.
The classification of Summilx differs depending on the person, but here, following the notation of LEICA Wiki, silver is the first generation, black is the second generation, hood built-in is the third generation, and aspherical is the fourth generation.

The first-generation Summilux has an old mount shape, so it cannot be officially modified to add a 6-bit code for lens recognition used with the digital M Leica.
The filter diameter is 43mm, and since it is attached to a hood, an E43 thin filter that does not have a thread cut on the front looks good. The number of aperture blades is large at 16. The first generation with a silver lens barrel has beautiful machining, especially on the knurling part.
The second-generation Summilux, which is now black, has the impression of a rugged industrial product, but I feel that the first-generation Summilux has the beauty of a craft.

XOOIM (12521) and 12586 can be used as lens hoods. XOOIM (12521) has a beautiful crepe finish on the hood surface. 12521 is a misspelling of XOOIM. 12586 is often distributed with the second generation Summilx, but it can also be installed on the first generation Summilux.

I first encountered this lens when I was traveling to a camera store in Kyoto, where I had a LEICA M6 and a KODAK DSC SLR Pro/n, and I fell in love with it at first sight and bought it. Although there were some mold marks on the middle lens, the Helicoid was a good lens with smooth and well-adjusted focus. When I used it in conjunction with a digital SLR camera in Kyoto at night, I felt the advantage of a rangefinder in the overwhelming ease of focusing.

Perhaps it’s because the lens is worn out, but it doesn’t have the overwhelming resolution that modern lenses do, but the soft depiction when wide open is very pleasing. Although it is inferior to a DSLR in terms of minimum shooting distance, it is fun to keep the 1m limit in mind when shooting.

At the time I bought it, it was much cheaper than it is now, and since the lens had mold removed, I was able to purchase it for around 100,000 yen. This is also one I wanted to keep, and when I was short on money, I sold it because I was worried about what to do with the remaining 50mm.

Specification

Item	SUMMILUX M 50 1st	SUMMILUX M 50 ASPH.
Local length(mm)	50	←
Max aperture	1.4	←
Min aperture	16	←
Leaf blade	16	9
Lens Construction	7elements in 5group	8elements in 5group
Min distance(m)	1.0	0.7
Lens length(mm)	52	52.5
Lens Max diameter(mm)	53	53.5
Filter Size(mm)	E43	E46
Aspherical lens	none	exist
Weight(g)	360	460(Chrome) 335(Black)
Release date	1958	2006