Original Summicron 50

Found a local Leica for a very low price, advertised as "Does not work" and the seller knows very little about the camera itself. I'm going to take a chance on the investment, and send it off for an overhaul. By my calculation, this is still much cheaper than buying an M3 kit.

I'm wondering if these Summicrons are worth repairing. Rockwell said "it's front element is made of glass as soft as chalk. It is highly unlikely that you will find one in usable condition."

Am I correct in identifying this lens or could this be another version? Is it really unlikely that this will be useable?

AFAIK you can get these front-elements repolished, but I am not sure if you can get them re-coated.
If you do get it repolished, you might want to consider using a UV filter. I slapped on one on both of my Summicrons (collapsible LTM summicron and a dual-range, both with pretty much prefect glass, albeit expensive purchases)


No idea about expenses, since where I live, there are no Leica-dudes to send stuff too, so I mend the lenses myself (simple CLA), cameras just needs to work before I get them, fiddling with the shutter and rangefinder-optics seems rather scary.

I have a IIIf where the self-timer isn't engaging the shutter and I am very skeptical about fixing it....from seeing the service manual, it seems to be many things that can go wrong.

Helinophoto said:

AFAIK you can get these front-elements repolished, but I am not sure if you can get them re-coated.
If you do get it repolished, you might want to consider using a UV filter. I slapped on one on both of my Summicrons (collapsible LTM summicron and a dual-range, both with pretty much prefect glass, albeit expensive purchases)

No idea about expenses, since where I live, there are no Leica-dudes to send stuff too, so I mend the lenses myself (simple CLA), cameras just needs to work before I get them, fiddling with the shutter and rangefinder-optics seems rather scary.

Click to expand...

Great to know! Luckily, there are repair options nearby, I guess I could be buying a complete lemon that has no working lens or body, but at the price he is asking I can't resist. Great suggestion with the UV filter, I'll start looking now.

Download the first version of Puts’ Leica Compendium: http://leicarumors.com/2011/12/22/d...-lens-compendium-by-erwin-puts-for-free.aspx/ and read what he has to say.

Posted this in the wrong thread before: here is a better angle on the body and lens.

Focal Point can polish off a damaged coating and re-coat. I sent them a collapsible Summicron that I got inexpensively, the coating on the front element was pretty far gone. It's not a cheap process though. Note that if any scratches go beyond the coating and into glass the scratch is not repairable. I'm very happy with their work, the lens came back in beautiful shape.
Their website is http://www.focalpointlens.com

I have one of those lenses. So far as i can tell the front element is not all that delicate, no more so than careful handling you would do with any valuable item would be called for.

Great lens. Do not be dismayed by reports of how inferior older leica lenses are -- I've used some made in the 30s and gotten wonderful images.

Focal Point did a great job polishing and recoating my collapsible Summicron. Highly recommended (though I did get some very romantic and strange photos through the damaged front element before I sent it in - try shooting off a couple rolls for the fun of it first).

The older volume by Erwin Puts can be found here (as of April 2018): https://www.apotelyt.com/doc-pdf/leica-puts-lens-compendium-2005.pdf

A 1953 price list for the USA market (and it lists the code numbers for the hundreds of neat things E. Leitz made back then): https://www.apotelyt.com/doc-pdf/leica-price-list-us-1953.pdf

Other literature: https://www.apotelyt.com/photo-download/leica-literature