May grail Leica l39 lens arrived this morning. Leitz 5cm f2 Summicron.

dougdarter

dougdarter

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Douglas
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This little beauty arrived bright and early in the post this morning. I have been looking for a good one for years, but never been lucky enough to find one at the right price. Good ones can fetch up to £700, because most are badly scratched due to the soft 'soda' glass used on the fron element. This one is exceptional, with most of the fragile coating intact, with NO SCRATCHES! There are light cleaning marks in the coating, but that's it. It's also in near mint codition, with most of the wax filled engraving perfect. No internal dust or fungus, no oil on blades, or scratches on the barrel either, so overall, I'd rate it at Exc +, or 95%.

This was the absolute to lens of it's era in 1953 when it was built, and will still hold it's own today, and will outperform many expensive SLR lenses. Leica didn't use the LAK9 Lanthanum 'radioactive' glass in 1953, so it's not going to go yellow either.

It has a 10 bladed aperture, which is circular at all f numbers, so bokeh will be excellent.

The pattern you can see in pic 3 is not the aperture blades or oil, but the pattern from my conservatory roof!!

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Here are a few pics taken using this lens this morning, on my digital Olympus EP5 M 4/3 camera. Weather was overcast outside, and raining hard, so these shots were taken indoors. Not bad for a 62 year old lens!!

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That's a nice hipped Edwardian conservatory with glass roof you've got! [emoji1]

Lovely cameras too
 
Must have come early :D
 
One of the benefits of getting old, and retirement!:pompous:
 
Lol FairPlay your a role model in my eyes I hope to emulate lol
 
And ther's more.....

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And more.....

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And the digitals....

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And more tucked away in boxes, case, cupboards......
 
I have to, my wife completely disowns my cameras (unless that is she wants me to take some photographs)!
 
Nice collection indeed !
How many get used? The problem with having so many is that don't get used very often.
 
You are, of course, correct. Most do not get used, but all are scrupulously fired at regular intervals to keep the shutters mobile. The Rollieflex 3F and baby grey Rolleiflex are used more often than the other TLR's, and the Leica III and IIf are my favourite amongst the rangefinders. The OMD 4 and 50 f1.4 is my favourite film SLR. To be honest, I doubt I expose more than 6 - 10 rolls of film per year. Film is so satisfying, but putting a vintage Leica or Canon lens on a mirrorless SLR is so much easier, but still the character of the old lenses shines through.

Leica lenses are so good on the Olympus mirrorless, because the distance to the film plane is so close to ominal as makes no difference, and no correctional glass is need for the lens to focus to infinity. Canon, on the other hand, require a deeper and heavierl adapter but a good one is only £30 or so. All heritage lenses on M4/3 double their native focal length, but all benefit from the Olympus 5 axis VR!!
 
Douglas;

Just curious, do you own a Rolleiflex 2.8GX ? What's your favourite TLR?

I own a basic Lubitel 166B and a Holga 120 GFN.
 
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I wish! I used to have one around 10 years ago, but I swaped it for a Canon lens. The canon lens is long gone!

Nothin wrong with Russian TLRs, they do the job well, and the Holga is renowned for it's interesting effects.
 
My Doctor says it is incureable! My bank manager, hides when I walk in!
 
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