The Leica Summaron-M 28mm F5.6 is a curious thing – a ‘new’ M-mount version of a pancake lens originally introduced in the mid 1950s. Manufactured in limited numbers between 1955-1963, the original Summaron would have been most commonly paired with Leica’s screw-mount and (via adapters) M3 and M2 film rangefinders of the day.
So is the Summaron a collectors item best left inside its presentation box, or is this something you might actually want to shoot with?
Leica Summaron-M 28mm F5.6: Key specifications
- Optical construction: 6 elements in 4 groups
- Aperture range: F5.6-22 (full-stop detents)
- Minimum focus: 3.3 feet (1m)
- Filter thread: 34mm
- Hood included
- 6-bit coded
- Eight aperture blades
- Weight: 165 g (0.36 lb)
The answer to that question is a bit complicated, and I must admit that I changed my mind a couple of times during the course of shooting for this article.
Initially, I must say I was rather skeptical. Leica lent me the Summaron ahead of a trip to Japan at the end of February, and I opted not to take it, borrowing a more practical 28mm F2.8 Elmarit instead. I enjoy vignetting as much as the next person, but I didn’t like the idea of being limited to F5.6. The fact that the Summaron arrived in a satin-lined presentation box scared me a little, too. I’m painstakingly protective of loaner gear, but accidents do happen, and the thought of accidentally losing or scratching the tiny jewel-like lens worried me. So I took the Elmarit, and I don’t regret it.
Back home though, with a few days left on the M10 loan agreement and a strong desire to get away from rain-drenched Seattle, I headed to the coast to see what the little Summaron could do.
Handling
There’s not much I can say about the Summaron’s handling, because there’s precious little lens to actually handle. As you can hopefully tell from the photographs in this article, it’s very small indeed, which means that focus and aperture rings are small, too. The focus ring features a traditional infinity lock, by way of a sprung peg that must be depressed to move the lens from its ∞ position.
Whether or not you get on with this depends partly on what you’re used to. Personally I find the infinity lock a bit annoying, more so on this lens than others I’ve used with a similar design, mostly because the whole thing is so tiny. With the hood attached and the camera to my eye, there is very little tactile differentiation between the infinity release peg and the hood tightening peg. A bigger issue is that when rotating the focus ring, the one tends to get in the way of the other.
The Summaron’s aperture ring is unusual by modern standards in that it has detents only at every full stop setting, not 1/2 or 1/3. You can of course live dangerously and set intermediate positions if you want to. The M10, at least, will recognize 1/2 steps in aperture-priority mode, but be warned – in its 1/2 stop positions, the 8-bladed aperture is far from rounded – in fact it’s literally star-shaped.
Like the focus ring, the aperture ring is slim, and a little hard to find by touch when the hood is attached.
Given that the hood also occludes a decent portion of the M10’s 0.72X viewfinder, I stopped using it pretty quickly, except when it was very obviously going to be necessary. Flare isn’t enough of a risk to require it most of the time, and ditching the hood makes the Summaron’s aperture and focus rings easier to manipulate.
Of course this is mitigated somewhat by the fact that when the lens is used at a small aperture and its corresponding hyperfocal focusing distance, there is very little need to actually adjust anything.
Image Quality
I didn’t expect a great deal from this 1950s-vintage lens in terms of critical image quality, and after looking through my images, I’m equivocal. Leica’s marketing team is sensible to make a virtue of its vignetting, because it’s impossible to ignore. Although corner shading is (arguably) acceptable beyond F8, at F5.6 it’s a defining feature of images captured with this lens. Sometimes I like the effect, sometimes I don’t.
At F5.6, vignetting is impossible to ignore, but for a lot of photographers, the look of the corner shading and edge softness might be part of the Summaron’s appeal.
Another image taken at F5.6, this shot arguably benefits from the lens’s natural vignetting, and when pointed directly into the sun, flare is well-controlled.
Likewise corner softness. It’s not bad by F8, and evens out at F11, but wide open, edges are pretty smeary. While extreme corner sharpness is nothing special, edge sharpness isn’t too bad at F8 and beyond, which means that provided they’re not in the corners, off-center subjects are rendered pretty well.
The Summaron takes some persuading to flare, but when it does, the pattern takes the form of a simple diagonal ‘sword’ through very bright off-center light sources, with a diffuse central glow. When a bright light source (i.e, the sun) is directly facing the camera, there’s little in the way of defined flare pattern, more just a big ‘glob’ of light. Sometimes this adds to a scene, and sometimes it detracts. No sunstars here, I’m afraid.
When the sun is off to one side, however, flare is very noticeable, taking the form of a diagonal ‘sword’ of light. This photograph was taken at F8, and as you can see, vignetting is reduced compared to F5.6.
Veiling flare is another matter, and this can be a factor when a bright light source is positioned just out of the frame. Honestly though, I don’t dislike the effect.
After all, this is a lens that ‘has character’ as Leicaphiles say when what they really mean is that there are better lenses out there, but they love it anyway. You don’t buy this Summaron because it’s technically any better than the (cheaper) Elmarit, or the higher-end Summicron. Or at any rate you shouldn’t, because it isn’t.
By F8, the Summaron delivers perfectly acceptable results across most of the image area, albeit not up to the same technical standard as the F2.8 Elmarit or F2 Summicron. At F11, as diffraction starts to bite, sharpness is slightly reduced, but reasonably consistent across the frame, before things start to get soft at F16. As you might expect, F22 is pretty hazy. Impressively though, there’s very little CA visible at any aperture setting.
Conclusion
Let’s be honest – this lens will probably be purchased mostly as a collectable item, rather than as a tool for everyday photography. I enjoyed shooting with the Summaron (more than I expected to) but if I owned an M10 or Typ 240, I’d save a bit of cash and buy the 28mm F2.8 Elmarit instead. It’s faster, sharper, more consistent across the frame, and only a little bit bigger. With no hood attached, it won’t occlude a 0.72X viewfinder either.
There’s no denying the appeal of the Summaron’s ‘glow’, but if you wake up one fine morning with a notion to shoot with a 1950s wideangle prime, there are countless antique third-party lenses (or genuinely old Leicas) you can pick up for a lot less than $2500, which will give you all the vignetting, flare and corner shading you could ever ask for.
Another wide-open shot, which benefits from the Summaron’s uncomplicated flare characteristics. Although critically less impressive than a more modern optic, the Summaron’s overall rendering has an attractive, old-fashioned feel.
However, all that being said, I really do like it. While the appeal of the 28mm F5.6 Summaron might be more aesthetic than practical for most people, I don’t regret taking it as my only lens on my busman’s holiday to the coast. It has many limitations (a maximum aperture of F5.6 being only one of them) but it does have a very pleasant ‘analogue’ look, it’s a lot of fun to shoot with, and I’m happy with my images. The fact that it is essentially useless as a handheld lens at night meant that when the sun went down, I left the M10 in the hotel room and enjoyed my evenings more, too.
Even ‘wide open’ at F5.6, virtually everything from a few feet away is in focus. Forget about depth of field control with this lens. The mesh of this fence was only about a foot away from the lens, and I focused on the boat in the background.
uring my time with it, I ended up deliberately shooting the Summaron at F5.6 quite a lot, precisely because I wanted some of that distinctive vignetting. Likewise the soft corners can (sometimes) help to emphasize a centrally-placed subject. However, if you’re a mirrorless user with a thing for Leica lenses, I’d recommend you look elsewhere. The M10’s custom microlens design keeps vignetting relatively well under control, but corner shading is severe on a Sony a7R II.
Used between F8-11 on a modern digital Leica, the Summaron is an acceptably sharp, extremely small street-shooting lens, with unusual but largely pleasant optical characteristics. It’s much less ‘clinical’ than more modern, sharper Leica designs, but it’s sharp enough where it counts. For the ‘F8 and be there’ crowd, the Summaron’s light weight and slim profile may prove very enticing.
What we like:
- Vignetting at F5.6-8 can suit some subjects
- Very small, ultra-slim profile
- Beautiful all-metal construction
- Good central sharpness across aperture range
What we don’t like:
- Limited maximum aperture
- Full-step aperture detents
- Fiddly hood, which occludes viewfinder
- Soft corners until F11
- No sunstars
- Price (but what did you expect?)
Sоurсе: dpreview.com