Leitz 5cm f2 Rigid Summar, nickel

Blue Flamingo Support

+ caps & box. Very rare lens with rare original box (later boxes for the collapsible lens are marked with the code-word ‘SUMUS’. ‘Leica historians for years have wondered why there seemed to be very, very few rigid Summar lenses. Indeed, it was an event when this variation surfaced. Leica Photography magazine, June 1934 provides a possible explanation. Owners of the rigid lens could send it in for conversion to collapsible mount. In 10 Jahre Leica Historica, Leica historian Willy Hahne traces the conversion process by listing hundreds of lenses that began as SUMAR but were converted to SUMUS. This conversion thus explains in part the scarcity of the rigid Summar. It may be added that factory records suggest that less than two thousand rigid mount lenses were completed’. James L. Lager, Leica. An Illustrated History Volume II – Lenses. From a c.1933 batch numbered 167001-168000