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Old and New
90mm Elmar f4 screw-mount
My
example of this long-running lens is from 1949. It is homely: shaped like
a field cannon from the Civil War, with black paint skinned to the brass. But you forget
about cosmetics when you see what this thing delivers.
I
first tested this lens on a visit to the Bronx Zoo, a couple of Octobers back. The
in-focus areas of my shots were well rendered, to be sure, but the OOF areas—autumn foliage in this case—were
remarkable. There was a stippled quality that reminded me of Impressionist painting.
Some writers have accused this lens of cooling colors, but it doesn't. It mutes them.
I once used the Elmar to photograph a red-haired woman, and the flame color was right there in the print; it just wasn't exaggerated. The contrast of this lens is moderate, and the tonal scale long.
This
Elmar's focusing has a long throw, which slows its operation but helps you be more precise. It has a tendency--noted
by other photographers, also--to stick at the focus extremes. However, the f-stop ring is easier to use than the one
on the Summaron, and it has enough spacing between stops to make fine adjustments possible. The body is strongly
constructed, but is nonetheless lightweight and compact. It fits the breast pocket of a sports jacket and doesn't
weigh it out of shape.
Despite
its compact size, it is a long-focus lens, not a telephoto. It has four elements, and takes the FIKUS or IUFOO lens
hoods, depending on serial number. Good luck finding either.
Summaron 35mm 3.5
This
is another early lens; it was made from 1946 to 1960. It was excellent for its time, although several levels
inferior to the 1951 Skoparon for the Voigtlander Prominent. The Summaron’s
strong point is the way it maintains image quality even as the diaphragm is stopped down, down, down. It has some field curvature, which I welcome: I normally include some nearby object to lend perspective in
wide-angle shots; because of its curvature, the Summaron pulls those targets
into focus. Of course, if you are photographing a flat surface, this is not the
lens to reach for.
The
Summaron is unusually compact, even for a Leica lens and despite having six elements.
The 36mm hood for it—FOOKH—is hard to find and insanely expensive.
One recently sold on ebay for $157--a lens hood! Get a push-on 37mm-to-series-6
adapter, and you can use a series 6 hood. You definitely should take trouble to get
a hood of some kind: the Summaron is susceptible to flare. The push-on filters and caps for this lens,
I might add, are not that hard to find or expensive; of course, with the aforementioned adapter you can use series 6 filters.
An
M Leica with the 3.5 Summaron on it is a fine street shooter. It is inconspicuous: some people don’t even realize your camera has a lens on it. With fast modern film, you can stop the Summaron ‘way down and zone-focus. You will have a lot of
field depth to cover errors. If you prefer, you can shoot from the waist
or with a very brief lift to your eye. It is swifter than autofocus and incomparably
quieter.
It seems curious that Leica waited until 1958 to redesign the Summaron for more speed, and equally curious that they
continued making the slower version for two years more. It is consistent, however, with their decision to put no 35mm
framelines in the M3. I conclude that the 35mm focal length was not popular in the 1950s, and that the good match of
the M Leicas with that length was just being discovered.
A study of online bulletin boards and forums reveals that the Summaron 3.5 inspires sharply differing
reactions. Some shooters find it mediocre and too slow; others say it's terrific and that they have used it
for decades. I haven't tested the lens enough to join either camp, but I can show some preliminary results on the
next page. I can also say--by way of preface--that the Summaron is beautifully constructed, lightweight, and small.
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| Union Square, New York City |
The above picture was made with the Summaron, zone-focused and aimed
from the belt. My scanner does badly with monochrome; but this picture illustrates, if not the qualities of the optics, the
style of shooting to which the Summaron is adapted. I can't say that the
quietness of the Leica shutter was terribly important here.
Do please note the sharpness of the pavement nearest to the camera--courtesy
of field curvature.
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