I also find myself getting “lost” when going between far and near subjects. If, however, you are like me, you might find the long focus throw impossible to use in situations where speed is a requirement. I practice my focusing almost every day and my rangefinder skills are, admittedly, less than award winning. This is not insignificant and I don’t think this “feature” gets enough discussion in other reviews.
#LEICA 35MM SUMMILUX SERIAL NUMBERS FULL#
In order to go from a long to short focus one needs to turn the barrel a full 180 degrees. This section refers to the usability of the lens and the usability leaves something to be desired for one reason – the focus throw on this lens is longer than a horse’s gut. Sometimes new stuff is just better than old stuff and I am not talking about image quality. It seems shameful to criticize a piece of history sitting here 50 years in the future but as bad as I feel about doing it, I can’t seem to stop the moving train. This was the direct competitor to the Leica Summarit 1.5 (which was succeeded by the Summilux).Reference: On garden gnomes and parked cars
Back then, high speed was a requirement with the slow film emulsions. Each manufacturer needed a high-speed standard lens and Canon threw their hat in the ring with this one. With regards to the history of this lens, apparently, competition between rangefinder camera makers Nikon, Zeiss, and Leica was hot in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Which one should you purchase? There does not seem to be any strong feeling on the internet either way so it is up to you. Although there is some discrepancy with those numbers there if you go deep into the photo forums.
#LEICA 35MM SUMMILUX SERIAL NUMBERS SERIAL NUMBERS#
The second version was made between 1959-1972 and has serial numbers between 29681-120705. The first version was made between 1957-1958 and has serial numbers 10000-29390. If you are searching on eBay nobody seems to say second version or first version but you can gauge it from the serial number. My version is one of the second versions. The internet reports (this information is gathered from scattered sources but is likely largely scraped from Paul Kirchmans book) that the only difference is in the design of the body and the second version has a distance scale in meters and feet.