Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v2, 1961)

Variants & identification

1. The 43mm thread is cut at a 0.5mm pitch rather than the 0.75mm that became standard, which is the practical reason filters are hard to find rather than merely hard to share: Rockwell's version table lists the fitting as "43mm x 0.5mm", and Flavio Bosi singles it out as the lens's most awkward feature in daily use.
2. Two barrels, not one, and Rockwell and Keith Wee agree on both. Chrome, 1961–1968, 301 g, taking the 12 521 hood; black, 1969–1991, 360 g, taking the vented 12 586 hood. Wee gives 1,844,001 as the first serial of the chrome version, which is also the number Rockwell uses to separate this optical design from the first.
3. The weights recorded in this entry's own specifications — 275 g black anodised aluminium and 380 g chrome-plated brass — are the figures Rockwell's table assigns to the 1992–2004 barrel, the one that takes 46mm filters. On his account no barrel of this second version weighs 275 g, and the two versions are not distinguished in most secondhand listings.
4. Rockwell holds that every Summilux 50 built between 1961 and 2004 shares identical optics and coatings, so the 1992–2004 lens is a third barrel on this design rather than a third design.
5. One auction lot cuts across the barrel dating above. Leitz Photographica's 45th auction sold no. 2220994, which it dates to 1966, describing it as a "Beautiful rare 2nd version black anodised Summilux 50mm" with its plastic keeper and maker's box; it made €3,600 against a €2,800–3,000 estimate. On Rockwell's and Wee's division the black barrel begins in 1969 and 1966 is inside the chrome period, so either black anodised barrels were sold well before 1969 or the 1968/1969 boundary is approximate. The lot's own word for such a lens is "rare".
6. A chrome example from the same sale, lot 183, made €2,040 against a €2,400–2,800 estimate — but its serial, 1702871, and its 1960 date put it below the 1,844,000 boundary, so it belongs to the first version rather than to this one. Both versions are catalogued under order number 11114, which is why the number cannot be used to tell them apart.
7. Buyers number the 50mm f/1.4 Summiluxes v1 to v4: v1 of 1959, the Summarit-derived design; v2 of 1961, the classic, and v3 of 1992, the same glass in a barrel with a built-in hood; v4 the ASPH of 2004. This entry uses that numbering; the other pages carry the rest.
8. カメラのナニワ's review of what Japan calls the '2nd' Summilux — this 1961 optical design: the new formula begins at serial 1844001; the outside unchanged until the black-chrome finish of 1968; screw mount to 1963 beside the bayonet; E43 filter, 1 m, twelve blades; gently soft with some spherical aberration and vignetting at f/1.4, 'powerful' stopped down, poor into the light with golden-coating ghosts, and colour the reviewer loved on Cinestill 50D.

Specifications

Formula

Seven elements in five groups

Construction

7 elements / 5 groups

Aperture range

f/1.4–f/16

Diaphragm blades

12

Min. focus

1 m

Dimensions

47.7 × 54.5 mm

Weight

275 g

Filter

43 mm

Years manufactured

1961–1991

Country

Germany

Material

Black anodised aluminium, or chrome-plated brass at 380 g

Original price

$216 (US catalogue, April 1962; $237 for the special-order black) (today $2,240)

What reviewers say

• Ken Rockwell (blog) — His conclusion is unqualified — "for actual photography, this is still the best 50mm f/1.4 lens ever made by anyone until LEICA outdid themselves in 2004 with the ASPH version" — tempered only by the note that it has much poorer definition in a band about 15mm out from the centre at the larger apertures.
• Flavio Bosi (47 Degrees) (blog) — He calls it "a fantastic lens, period" and a candidate for his desert-island lens — sharp in the centre from f/1.4, glowing on highlights from uncorrected spherical aberration, with a long 180-degree throw and a tapered barrel that uniquely stays out of the finder — yet sold his on the grounds that the price no longer justified the metre minimum focus.
• Keith Wee (blog) — Shooting it on an SL2 and M10-R he judges it sharp at the centre wide open and possessed of a character modern fifties do not have, concluding that "this is a piece of optics worth having" if one turns up at a reasonable price — which he notes it increasingly does not.
• カメラのナニワ staff, a 1960s lens (blog) — "程よく柔らかい描写" at f/1.4 with spherical aberration and vignetting, "力強い描写" stopped down; ghosts from the golden coating against the light; "見て美しい、触って美しい、撮って美しい" — beautiful to look at, to hold and to shoot with.

History

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v2, 1961)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

• [N NEUWERTIG] Leitz Wetzlar 12586 Motorhaube 14163 für Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ... — €155.12 · eBay
• Leica Summilux E43 50mm f1.4 First Edition — €879.47 · eBay
• Leica Summilux M 50mm f1.4 Lens Cleaning Marks on Elements Used BGN — $1,199.99 · eBay
• Leitz Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 II E43 Cromato 1962 - Da Revisionare — €1,350.00 · eBay
• Leitz / Leica Summilux- M 1,4 / 50 mm #2503468 Objektiv Made in Germany Leica M — €1,399.99 · eBay
• Leica SUMMILUX-M 50mm F1.4 2nd Rangefinder Camera Lenses Tested [Read Cond] — £1,225.69 · eBay
• LEICA SUMMILUX M 50mm F1.4 1st from Japan!! — $1,699.00 · eBay
• Leica Summilux M 1.4/50mm black 1114 READ — €1,600.00 · eBay NEW
• ⏯️ [Almost MINT] Leica Summilux M 50mm F/1.4 E43 Lens Ver.1 Silver From JAPAN — $1,769.99 · eBay
• [Near MINT+++] Leica Summilux M 50mm F/1.4 E43 Lens Ver.1 Silver From JAPAN — £1,400.66 · eBay
• [NEAR MINT] Leica Summilux M 50mm f/1.4 E43 Black Ver.2 II 2nd Lens From JAPAN — £1,478.76 · eBay
• Leica Summilux-M 50mm F1.4 - Black / v2 / E43 — SN 2308581 — HK$14,800.00 · Fotopia Gallery & Camera Equipment
• Leica Summilux M 50mm f1.4 Pre ASPH Objektiv — €1,790.00 · eBay
• Leica Summilux-M 50mm F1.4 - 1,4/50 PRE ASPH 11868 III - mit Haze - inkl 19%MwSt — €1,799.00 · eBay
• ✨Fast NEUWERTIG✨ Leica Leitz Wetzlar Summilux M 50mm f/1.4 Objektiv Germany... — €1,813.97 · eBay
• [ Near Mint ] Leica Leitz Summilux M 50mm f/1.4 II 2nd Black 11113 from japan — $1,999.99 · eBay NEW
• Leica M Summilux-M 1:1.4/50 mm E46 Titan Objektiv — €1,850.00 · eBay
• Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1,4 II ✅ Clean, Prod. 1967, Leitz Wetzlar, Black, 11114 — €1,899.00 · eBay
• Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M (11868) - goed — €1,899.00 · eBay
• Leica 50mm f1.4 Summilux (II) 11856 - serviced August 2026 — DKK 14,000.00 · One Of Many Cameras

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