It’s been in the rumour mill for a long time that Leica will be introducing a new lens called the Summaron-M 28mm f/5. 6 and apparently it’s here. The official announcement hasn’t been made yet, but Leica Rumors is reporting that the lens is already listed and available for purchase at an authorised European Leica dealer.
This new version is largely unchanged from the old Summaron, and features the same optical design – pretty intriguing, since the previous edition itself was first relatively unchanged during its production cycle from 1955 to 1963.
There will, however, be new coatings; two extra centimeters of length; 6-bit coding for digital compatibility; and a lens hood, but otherwise the lens hasn’t changed much in half a decade. Is Leica being lazy or was the original just that perfect? Who knows – people will buy it anyway.
Since it’s a f/5. 6 lens, it should be a pancake-type lens that is flat and good for the road. It will exist alongside current Leica M designs, and should be the same weight as the old Summaron.
Leica Rumors is saying the price in Europe will be ˆ2,200, and that it will feature four elements in six groups, with a weight of 154g.
It may not sound exceptional, but from what we can see of sample images of even the old version, it gets the job done alright – albeit with quite a lot of vignetting. Hopefully they'll have fixed that, since this is hardly priced cheaply.
. digitalrev.com2016-10-18 03:00
