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Leitz Summaron 2.8/35mm

Leitz Summaron 2.8/35 is a small, high quality build lens. My version is from 1967, Leitz made it with the new rare earth glass.

You can find a good review on Ken Rockwell website.

All pictures taken with Leica M3 and M2 with Summaron 2.8/35. Developed in Xtol. Scanned by meinfilmlab on Fuji Frontier.

TX 400
HP5

The Summaron gives you a wonderful tonality with almost any Black and White Film. It shines on high contrast scenes because the lens has in generell less contrast than the Summicron. The Summaron is great for close up, from about 0.7m - 1.5m.

HP5
HP5

I had a chance to use the Summaron side by side with the a 35 Summicron (V III). I used Portra 160 and HP5. At f2.8 the Summicron was a tad better at the edges, by f4 I could see no difference in the sharpness corner to corner. The Summicron was more contrasty, sometimes too contrasty especially for Black and White. 

HP5
HP5

The Summaron renders Black and White very special with a typical, somewhat articulated bokeh. On the other hand, the Summicron (V III) renders colors a bit "better", more vivid for my taste. 

HP5
HP5

The Summaron has a longer focus throw giving an expanded DOF scale. This makes scale focusing easier where rangefinder focusing isn't always possible in street shooting situations.

HP5
HP5

And here some more impressions.

Thanks for reading...happy shooting.

TX400@800
TX400@800
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FP4
TX400@800
TX400
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TX400

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