A few weeks ago I ordered the new Leica lens poster, containing pictures and details of 112 Leitz and Leica lenses through the ages.
I unravelled it today and I was astonished how up to date it is. In fact, it is positively futuristic and includes one lens with a very strange maximum aperture that isn’t yet in the public domain. Poster boy should have kept this one in his budgie smugglers.
Shiver me timbers, I thought, as I spied this unicorn of an optic — a Leica 90mm Summilux-M ASPH with a very odd f/1.5 aperture.
Could it be a hoax? As far as I can recall (and someone will surely correct me if I’m wrong¹), the only Leitz lenses made with an f/1.5 aperture were the screw-mount Xenon (on sale between 1936 and 1948) and the screw/bayonet Summarit from 1949 to 1960. Zeiss and Voigtländer, though, have had a bit of a splurge on f/1.5 over the years.
No, the obvious explanation is that someone has been rather quick off the mark and that the 90mm f/1.5 Summilux ASPH is a lens that hasn’t been announced but which should come in the next few months.
I’m going out tomorrow to get my poster framed just in case the new lens rubs off. I do wonder how this could have happened, however. We don’t normally do rumours, but this is hardly a rumour. After all, the check is in the poster — and it won’t be long before other netizens discover the deliberate mistake.
If you’d like your own copy of this fascinating and prescient wall decoration, send an email to Rainer Giacomelli at rgiacomelli@gmail.com, telling him how many you want and he will let you know how to pay. I used PayPal which seemed the most convenient method. The cost is 25 euros per poster and it is well worth it.
Here is the original article on Leica Rumors where I found out about the poster.
¹ I was right about someone pointing out the error of my ways. Bill Rosauer of the LHSA came back like a flash with the one I’d overlooked:
“Mike, you forgot about the closest classical Leica lens to this focal length/f stop combination, the mighty 85/1.5 Summarex! This was quite a marvel when it was introduced in black during the war and then post-war in a chrome finish with the first lens coating from Leitz. It is said that only about 276 of the black version were made out of the 4,342 lenses produced. I have both versions in my collection. Its a pity they have never used the Summarex name again.”
Thanks, Bill!
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UPDATE 27 February 2018. According to Leica Rumors: “This is not a leak, the listing is based on previous reports and rumors about more fast lenses coming in the future (probably by the end of this year).”
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Xenon 50/1.5 -> Summarit 50/1.5
Summarex 85/1.5 as mentioned by Bill already
Thanks, as you see I’ve incorporated Bill’s comment in the article.
Super
Mike, you forgot about the closest classical Leica lens to this focal length/f stop combination, the mighty 85/1.5 Summarex! This was quite a marvel when it was introduced in black during the war and then post-war in a chrome finish with the first lens coating from Leitz. It is said that only about 276 of the black version were made out of the 4,342 lenses produced. I have both versions in my collection. Its a pity they have never used the Summarex name again.
Thanks, Bill. I knew I’d probably overlooked something and, of course, the Summarex is the best example to use. I’ve added your comment as part of the story since many people don’t bother to look at the comments and your addition is useful record material.
The LTM Summarex was a Berek creation. This might explain the presence of Berek on the poster just beside the lens. It might also indicate that a modern M version of the Summarex is in the pipeline. The 90mm might be a deliberate ‘red herring’. Some speculate that the ‘rex’ at the end of the name comes from one of Berek’s dogs, called Rex.
William
William
I wonder will they do a similar one for the LTM lenses with a similar leak about a forthcoming model? Now, that would be a real miracle. I see Max Berek’s face on the bottom right hand side of this poster, even though the M lenses did not arrive until after his death.
William