Leica 50mm f-2 Summicron-R II (1978) Safari green

The name Summicron is used by

Leica Leica Camera AG () is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes and microscopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), in Wetzlar, Germany. ...

to designate

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

lenses A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

that have a maximum

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

of f/2 after 1953 and to present day.

History

The name Summicron is derived from ''summus'', latin word for maximum and ''kronos'', the ancient

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word for time. In the 1950s Leica bought Crown glass from

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance f ...

, an English company and used it to make the lenses. Leica designed a number of f/2 lenses before the Summicron, such as the Summar and Summitar. New coating technologies available after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

allowed for the creation of the Summicron lens. The first Summicron was an evolved Summitar collapsible 50mm with

Lanthanum Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57. It is a soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that tarnishes slowly when exposed to air. It is the eponym of the lanthanide series, a group of 15 similar elements between lantha ...

glass, and was launched in 1953. Generations before approximately 1960 were produced in M39 mount ("screw mount"), then made available in M-mount (Latch-on A42), R-mount, and C-mount.

Description

The Summicron lenses have a maximum

f-number In optics, the f-number of an optical system such as a camera lens is the ratio of the system's focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil ("clear aperture").Smith, Warren ''Modern Optical Engineering'', 4th Ed., 2007 McGraw-Hill ...

of f/2.

Market position

Faster Leica lenses are offered with the trade names Noctilux (or

Nocticron Nocticron („Night-time“ from latin ''nox, noctis'' „night“ and ancient Greek ''kronos'' „time“) is the brand name of Leica lenses with an extreme speed of f/1.2. Because of the large aperture size and its image stabilisation system ...

) and

Summilux The name Summilux is used by Leica and Panasonic Lumix to designate camera lenses that have a maximum aperture of less than f/2, typically f/1.4, but greater than f/1.0. The lens has been in production since 1959 and carries on to the present d ...

. Summarit,

Elmarit The name Elmarit is used by Leica to designate camera lenses that have a maximum aperture of f/2.8. History The Elmarit is a derivation of the Elmar. Confusingly not all f/2.8 lenses are Elmarits. The 50 mm f/2.8 collapsible, manufactured ...

, and Elmar lenses are slower.

List of Summicron lenses

;For the M39 lens mount: * Summicron 50 mm collapsible (1953) * Summicron 50 mm f/2 rigid (1999) ;For the

Leica M mount The Leica M mount is a camera lens mount introduced in 1954 with the Leica M3, and a range of lenses. It has been used on all the Leica M-series cameras and certain accessories (e.g. Visoflex reflex viewing attachment) up to the current film Le ...

: * Summicron-M 28 mm ASPH. * Summicron-M 35 mm * Summicron-M 35 mm ASPH. * Apo-Summicron-M 35 mm ASPH. * Summicron-C 40 mm * Summicron-M 50 mm * Apo-Summicron-M 50 mm ASPH. * Apo-Summicron-M 75 mm ASPH. * Apo-Summicron-M 90 mm ASPH. ;For the Leica R mount: * Leica 35 mm Summicron-R 1st version – 1970 * Leica 35 mm Summicron-R 2nd version – 1976 * Leica 50 mm Summicron-R 1st version – 1964 * Leica 50 mm Summicron-R 2nd version – 1977 (built-in lens hood, 3-cam and R-cam only version) * Leica 90 mm Summicron-R 1st version – 1969 * Leica 90 mm Summicron-R 2nd version – * Leica 90 mm APO-Summicron-R ASPH – 2002 * Leica 180 mm APO-Summicron-R ;For the Leica S mount: * Summicron-S 1:2/100 mm ASPH. ;For the Leica L Mount: * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 21 ASPH. (According to the Leica roadmap for 2020) * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 24 ASPH. (According to the Leica roadmap for 2020) * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 28 ASPH. (According to the Leica roadmap for 2020) * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 35 ASPH. * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 50 ASPH. * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 75 ASPH. * APO-Summicron-SL 1:2 / 90 ASPH. ;For the Leica L Mount Cine lens: * 15 mm T/2.0 * 18 mm T/2.0 * 21 mm T/2.0 * 25 mm T/2.0 * 29 mm T/2.0 * 35 mm T/2.0 * 40 mm T/2.0 * 50 mm T/2.0 * 75 mm T/2.0 * 90 mm T/2.0 * 100 mm T/2.0 * 135 mm T/2.0

References

{{Leica Camera Leica lenses Photographic lenses