GF1 with Leica f2 Summicron 35mm = 70mm

I'm very impressed with the GF1. I think it is just the ticket I've been waiting for to use for personal projects and street shooting. I was curious about using other lenses, so I ordered one of those $70 Fotodiox adapters for Leica M. Attached a 35mm f2 Summicron which is equivalent to 70mm on the GF1. All worked well and the new GF1 firmware makes focusing pretty painless (although I'm nowhere near as fast as the AF with the f1.7 pancake). I couldn't detect any problems with the IQ using the Summicron with the GF1. See pic of GF1 with lens. Yes, I blacked out most of the GF1's graphics.. just an old habit.



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Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Oops.. here's the pic...



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Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member.
http://www.bonannophoto.com

I want to see some pics from this combo in addition to seeing pics of it.

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Thanks,

Teski
http://www.tedescophotography.com

Of course. I ran out of light to shoot this afternoon, but I did get this quick shot out the back door. ISO 400, 1/400th, f5.6 (I think), RAW, quick processing in LR 2.6, split tone.



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Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member.
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Teski said:

I want to see some pics from this combo in addition to seeing pics of it.

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Thanks,

Teski

Click to expand...

More than being concerned at this moment with actual pics FROM it.. what rather puzzles me moreso is that the original Summicron f2 that I had and used for YEARS regularly on my Leica M SLR.. this going back quite awhile..maybe ast LEAST 50 years or so .. but your lens says on the front 'Leica Canada' with no mention of Summicron. I just feel sure mine actually said Summicron on the front.. and as it was of course.."Wetzlar"

PLUS... although I'm not exactly certain in mind now , my mind these days being not quite as cute as it was (!).. but MY Summicron was the type that 'split' - you could unscrew the front part and use it (as I did) in an enlarger.. does yours do that ??

My original Summicron .. silver finish by the way.. was then just about the pinnacle for a Leica M , certainly in my eyes .. and if these lenses can be used on a GF-1 ..by golly..that would be a real corker.

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eric-UK

Now I'm waiting for a body with built in stabilization AND with easy manual focusing so that I can put my Leica M and Leica R lenses to good use.

Ed

Tony Bonanno said:

the new GF1 firmware makes focusing pretty painless (although I'm nowhere near as fast as the AF with the f1.7 pancake).

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Tony,

Is the new firmware change the ability to activate and deactivate MF Assist with the click-wheel? I started using my 50mm Summicron on my GF1 only after I updated the firmware. I notice that the manual does not make mention of using the click-wheel to control MF Assist. I also looked around on the Panasonic site for specifics but could only find mention of an improvement to MF Assist.

I used Leica M bodies and lenses for thirty years prior my switch to digital six years ago. I really am happy to be using my Leica lenses again on my GF1. I still have two M bodies left, an M4 that I bought new in 1972 and a special edition black paint M6 with a .58 finder. Every once in a while I put a roll of film through them and simply can not even think of getting rid of them.

I don't usually comment on images posted here, but that landscape has such a "3D" feel to it... really nice! Looks like something that I'd get from my 5D MkII / 70-200mm f.2.8.

Post more!

I'm not quite sure but I think it's 35 summicron version 2 (6 elements). From my understanding, late version 1, all of version 2 and 3 and also the early version 4 are made in Canada.

I just got my GF-1 this morning and here is the picture of my silver GF-1 with 35 'cron v1 Wetzlar.



I will go out to country side tomorrow and hope that I can get some nice pictures from my 14-45 along with 35 and 50 'cron and nikkor 20/2.8.

Black 6 element I believe. You can barely see the bottoms of the letters SUMMICRON peering out from under the front filter lip in photo...

Cheers,
Tony
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Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member.
http://www.bonannophoto.com

I know what you mean about keeping your old M bodies. Unfortunately, I sold what little Leica gear I had about 10 years ago. Kicking myself now as I would have liked to have at least kept the lenses. This one is actually a loaner from a colleague. You are correct, it wasn't until I upgraded the GF1 firmware to 1.1 that I was able to just "click" the wheel for Manual Focus assist.

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Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member.
http://www.bonannophoto.com

I had the same impression after stepping back and taking a look at the full size file. Thanks for the nice comment. it was just quick and dirty before the light left to see if the setup was actually working and i could focus, etc. I hope to get out and take more soon.
Happy Holidays...

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Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member.
http://www.bonannophoto.com

Hmm, just got mine and haven't had time to check on the firmware (but I have played a little with my own 'cron on it -- no exciting images yet). I think I may still need to upgrade firmware.
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eieio said:

I'm not quite sure but I think it's 35 summicron version 2 (6 elements). From my understanding, late version 1, all of version 2 and 3 and also the early version 4 are made in Canada.

I just got my GF-1 this morning and here is the picture of my silver GF-1 with 35 'cron v1 Wetzlar.

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YES - that's the one .. the Silver Wetzlar Summicron ..looks just the same as the one I had..(as far as my memory allows now after all this time...)

But does YOURS have that 'unscrewable' front part .. for enlarger as it was... I know some were rigid and I guess maybe the 'split' type are even more rare now.

Blmey..if only I'd known THEN, what the future held .. I bet we can all say that though...

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eric-UK

...

ericN2 said:

But does YOURS have that 'unscrewable' front part .. for enlarger as it was... I know some were rigid and I guess maybe the 'split' type are even more rare now.
...

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Eric, I believe what you had was a Leica screw-mount lens mounted in a screw-to-M-bayonet adapter ring - not specifically a separable lens for that purpose.

Use of the camera lens as an enlarging lens in the darkroom was an intriguing and money-saving idea in the early 1930's, hence the early Leitz "VAROB" enlargers were fitted with the L39 thread mount, and this became a widespread standard in the industry. In actual fact, the best enlarging lenses are not the best general-purpose camera lenses and vice-versa. So it became more common to purchase a true enlarger lens, but the tradition of the L39 mount remained.

Regarding rarity, some of the Summicrons are relatively rare in true screw-mount versions, since they were introduced near the beginning of the M line, which overlapped the end of the screw-mount line by roughly a decade. And a few lenses (e.g. the 90 Summicron) were built for M-mount with a semi-permanent "adapter" ring cemented and/or set-screwed in place - the adapter is sometimes removed and the lens then sold as a "rare" screw-mount variant - one telltale is the presence of the dome-shaped red indexing bump for M bayonet mount which would be missing on the real screw-mount lens.

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JoelH

Sorry, I mis-remembered the product code - VAROB was an early enlarging lens, prior to the Focatars, while VALOY was the 35mm enlarger model, prior to the Focomats.
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JoelH

Joel Halbert said:

Sorry, I mis-remembered the product code - VAROB was an early enlarging lens, prior to the Focatars, while VALOY was the 35mm enlarger model, prior to the Focomats.
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JoelH

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Joel -

Interesting notes... although I follow your thoughts , I'm sure there WAS a Summicron f2 , as I had, which WAS a 'normal' type but allowed for the front half to be used in an enlarger. Could be wrong, as my mind is too old now to be precise... but I still have..somewhere.. all the old catalogs and various literature on Leica and lenses..one thing I've never got rid of .. just have to find them now !!

Re that Valoy enlarger you mention.. I had one once ..in those days money was very short with me and I just had to buy what I could afford. But as far as I now recall, the VALOY were good but not quite as update as some others then coming along, and I later.. and the last I did use.. I bought a DURST.. and that worked for me all through the negatives era thereafter.

Seems a LONG time ago now .. or maybe because my next stage was into a Hasselblad 2000 with an absolutely superb 100mm f2 Planar lens .. From then, all my after-work was done by a Pro Lab that somebody recommended and were really excellent for the next 15 years or so.

Good grief ... it is more than half a lifetime back .. now - almost unbelievable that those old lenses at least are being used again !!!

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eric-UK

I like the color on this one. Looks like the combo is working okay for ya.

Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks,

Teski
http://www.tedescophotography.com

You guys are making me jealous! I'm using my Pentax mount primes on my GF1 but I rue the day I sold off my Voigtlander Bessa and handful of M lenses. Every time I see a shot of an M lens on a GF1 I cry over how compact the setup looks. Better get myself some M lenses again!

Here's my roughly equivalent setup.



I don't think my budget can stretch to a Summicron, though. Perhaps Voigtlander will be my choice for M lenses.

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Looks nice.. I went out a bit ago to try a few more shots with the 35 Summicron.. may try to get some images up in the next day or two..

Cheers !

--
Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member.
http://www.bonannophoto.com