Hi Guys,
Just wanted to share my last Leica purchase experience and ask for some advices:
Last month I couldn’t resist buying a 2nd hand Leica M-E with a 35mm Summicron asph at my long time preferred dealership.
The combo is beautiful. However I was unsure about the 35mm that showed some heavy marks as a wobbling and noisy aperture ring. My trusted dealer told me that some play does happens with some samples and that this chrome brass version is more prone to that….
What really sealed the deal was the granted price reduction but above all the fact that the lens was sent to Leica for coding and was heavily recalibrated. My dealer took the lens for its own use during several months before putting it back for sale. He is a long time Leica M devotee and is daily using its 50mm APO. Following his words Leica made some great work with this lens that is 99% as good as its beloved 50mm APO.
Deal !
After using the lens for 3 weeks now I ‘m very impressed by its IQ. I see no default, chroma aberrations are non-existing, it is sharp wide-open and focussing is ultra-accurate. It’s the 1st ever 35 summicron I’m using so no experience with those nice summicrons.
Although I’ve had a monochrome then an m240 with a 35mm summilux asph & an old generation 50mm summilux but never had such great focussing hit rate. The 35 Asph was very nice but showed some optical deficiencies at f1.4 & f2 (chroma aberrations and loss of sharpness f.i.). The summicron clearly offers another level of value for money ratio.
But !
The aperture ring noise and play is worrying me.
I’ve visited another dealer that was selling a 50mm summicron. When testing this 50 on my M-E he took my 35 summicron in his hands and immediately pointed the lack of adjustment of the aperture ring and the possible negative evolution of it. Advising me to send it to Leica for repair.
So I went back to my dealer asking for a solution. The answer was that the repair Leica did on this model is no more under warranty (because he used the lens personally during more than 6 months) and cost a lot of money so it won’t be send back this time.
My dealer then offered me to take the lens back or to exchange it + money against a new one (same model version) he still has in stock.
I’ll meet him next Saturday to get an offer.
As I’m not especially a lucky guy I’m starting to ask myself what to do.
For sure I’ll ask to test the new one to make sure the focus works well in combination with my M-E. But I won’t have the opportunity to use it long enough to see if the IQ is at the same level of my current – wobbling 35mm.
Bad luck could make me spend a few hundred euro more to get the new one and then later realize that the old one really was a fantastic lens…
It all depends on the sample variations and if Leica really did some super extra repair on the model I own to make it an extraordinary one.
I know that the Leica magical repair argument sounds like an easy sale trick but I trust this dealer and my own eyes too. Using a Leica S007 with a 45mm Elmarit for 2 years already I have a good idea of what a nice lens is and this 35mm summicron surely is.
What would you do ? keep it as I’m fully happy with it’s IQ or exchange it to a new one (if the extra cost is acceptable) to get a clean - under warranty - and possibly as good lens ?
(sorry for my bad English and long rant
Just wanted to share my last Leica purchase experience and ask for some advices:
Last month I couldn’t resist buying a 2nd hand Leica M-E with a 35mm Summicron asph at my long time preferred dealership.
The combo is beautiful. However I was unsure about the 35mm that showed some heavy marks as a wobbling and noisy aperture ring. My trusted dealer told me that some play does happens with some samples and that this chrome brass version is more prone to that….
What really sealed the deal was the granted price reduction but above all the fact that the lens was sent to Leica for coding and was heavily recalibrated. My dealer took the lens for its own use during several months before putting it back for sale. He is a long time Leica M devotee and is daily using its 50mm APO. Following his words Leica made some great work with this lens that is 99% as good as its beloved 50mm APO.
Deal !
After using the lens for 3 weeks now I ‘m very impressed by its IQ. I see no default, chroma aberrations are non-existing, it is sharp wide-open and focussing is ultra-accurate. It’s the 1st ever 35 summicron I’m using so no experience with those nice summicrons.
Although I’ve had a monochrome then an m240 with a 35mm summilux asph & an old generation 50mm summilux but never had such great focussing hit rate. The 35 Asph was very nice but showed some optical deficiencies at f1.4 & f2 (chroma aberrations and loss of sharpness f.i.). The summicron clearly offers another level of value for money ratio.
But !
The aperture ring noise and play is worrying me.
I’ve visited another dealer that was selling a 50mm summicron. When testing this 50 on my M-E he took my 35 summicron in his hands and immediately pointed the lack of adjustment of the aperture ring and the possible negative evolution of it. Advising me to send it to Leica for repair.
So I went back to my dealer asking for a solution. The answer was that the repair Leica did on this model is no more under warranty (because he used the lens personally during more than 6 months) and cost a lot of money so it won’t be send back this time.
My dealer then offered me to take the lens back or to exchange it + money against a new one (same model version) he still has in stock.
I’ll meet him next Saturday to get an offer.
As I’m not especially a lucky guy I’m starting to ask myself what to do.
For sure I’ll ask to test the new one to make sure the focus works well in combination with my M-E. But I won’t have the opportunity to use it long enough to see if the IQ is at the same level of my current – wobbling 35mm.
Bad luck could make me spend a few hundred euro more to get the new one and then later realize that the old one really was a fantastic lens…
It all depends on the sample variations and if Leica really did some super extra repair on the model I own to make it an extraordinary one.
I know that the Leica magical repair argument sounds like an easy sale trick but I trust this dealer and my own eyes too. Using a Leica S007 with a 45mm Elmarit for 2 years already I have a good idea of what a nice lens is and this 35mm summicron surely is.
What would you do ? keep it as I’m fully happy with it’s IQ or exchange it to a new one (if the extra cost is acceptable) to get a clean - under warranty - and possibly as good lens ?
(sorry for my bad English and long rant
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