Corrected Leica APO Summicron 50mm f/2.0 ASPH lens starting to ship again

By LR admin | Published: March 12, 2014

Leica-50mm-f2-APO-Summicron-M-Aspherical-lens-design-2
The $7,350 APO Summicron 50mm f/2.0 ASPH lens is starting to ship again after a long delay - Leica had to make some adjustments to address the flare issues reported by many early adopters. The first lenses from the new batch were already spotted in Hong Kong and are expected to hit the US market by the end of this month. Here are few links where you can pre-order the lens online:

Related posts:

  1. Leica M-P Typ 240 “Leica Store Hong Kong 5th Anniversary Edition” set with Leica Noctilux-M ASPH 50mm f/0.95 lens announced
  2. Leica’s CEO confirms flare issues with the APO Summicron 50mm f/2.0 Asph lens
  3. Check out this one of a kind red Leica APO Summicron 50mm f/2.0 ASPH lens
  4. Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH lens now shipping in the USA
  5. Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0 ASPH lens delayed

This entry was posted in Leica Lenses and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.
  • nik

    A better lens – for the same price ??

    • There price was already increased once since the lens was officially released.

  • MJr

    So now i’m guessing they’ll change the engraving to:
    APROPER Summicron 50mm f/2.0 ASPH

  • Vivek

    This a lens I covet. Wish the price is lower (around 75AA).

    • vulkanitwit

      There will be promos, eventually. Even for this lens.

      • Vivek

        I hope your prediction comes true and soon. 🙂

        I am quite taken with this 50AA (design/performance) which is in a league of its own.

  • guest

    Four posts in five hours. Everyone else is out buying one…

  • joe

    it’s a shame to pay that much money for a lens that was not even tested right. leica sets high standards but somehow i have the impression that hello kitty and shiny flagship stores are more important.

    • David V. Kutaliya

      100%
      LEICA SUMMICRON-M 2/50 (left) vs. LEICA ELMAR-M 2.8/50 (right) at f2.8.

      100% crop. Focus on “1” (“1000 Teile/pcs./pzs.”).
      LEICA M MONOCHROM, GITZO TRIPOD GT1541OT, ISO 160, No Filters, Self Timer 2 seconds, f2.8, t1 sec.

    • David V. Kutaliya

      LEICA SUMMICRON-M 2/50 (left) vs. LEICA ELMAR-M 2.8/50 (right) at f2.8.

      100% crop. Focus on “1” (“1000 Teile/pcs./pzs.”).
      LEICA M MONOCHROM, GITZO TRIPOD GT1541OT, ISO 160, No Filters, Self Timer 2 seconds, f2.8, t1 sec.

  • sperdynamite

    If you have to have ‘the best’ then size shouldn’t really matter right? Get an Otus for less, or a Phase One for a little more. There are a lot of Leica products you have to be stupid to buy but this one is at X Vario levels of dumb-rich. I don’t understand the obsession with sharpness from a reportage camera, really it’s obnoxious. Who buys a Leica to shoot it on a tripod at low ISO, which is the only condition in which you’ll see this lens out perform the cheaper Summilux or older ‘Cron, or probably even Planar. AND if you have to use a tripod, then it doesn’t really matter what you’re using, your kit’s big anyways, so stop piddling around with the smaller formats. Have you seen what Hasselblads cost these days? Yeesh get it together people.

    • David

      I think one of the advantages of these lens is the ability to shoot wide open and not compromise the IQ; at least that’s what i’ve found when I shot this at f/2.0 compared to the older Summicron version. I agree the different is not huge for normal photography, especially on the M9 or older cameras. But if you’re shooting a busy scene (such as landscape with lots of leaves or a busy street scene), the the ability of this lens to preserve on even the smallest or most distant objects, wide open, is quite remarkable. The 35mm FLE and the Super Elmar 21mm also gives your visual acuity a run for your money …

    • You don’t have to use a tripod to see the difference, but it does take good technique, or luck. I have handheld photos taken with it of my daughter wearing a coat, and the lens clearly resolves the weave in the cloth, which I can’t even see with my naked eye. Now whether that is worth the princely price is certainly debatable, specially when considering what an Otus on a D800E can deliver, or a FE 55mm f/1.8 on an A7R.

      I resold my old pre-ASPH Summicron a long time ago when I upgraded to a Summilux ASPH, but I never found it optically wanting, even wide open, and in fact I miss its pleasing bokeh. That’s why it is still available for sale.

  • M guy

    I for one own this lens and love it, are all previous ones affected because I cannot detect any flare issue on mine.

  • David

    I own this lens and I could not for the life of me detect the flare problem that was talked about. I communicated with Leica and they confirmed that only a fraction of the lenses were affected and even those samples one would have to really, really try hard to detect any issues, usually under conditions that you’d never take a photo anyway . . . On the M9 this lens didn’t really make any difference beyond the older version of Summicron 50mm; likewise you won’t really see it on a computer for normal viewing (unless you do the 100% crop which means you see just a corner of the photo). But on the Monochrom and the M240, any sizable enlargement of the photo made clear the superiority of this lens in terms of sharpness, evenness of resolution, etc.

  • haragr

    Even though I never experienced the flare issue myself when I purchased this lens back in May last year, I still sent in my 50 APO for examination to Leica in october. I got it back in january and it has been performing spectacularly on my Monochrom body. I do believe the 50APO and the Monochrom are a match made in heaven. The results from this combo are JAW DROPPING. I am a landscape/nature fine-art photographer and my shooting style is very deliberate, where I always use a tripod. Honestly, I’d never buy this lens if I were doing reportage – what a waste that would be, IMO. A cheapo dslr body with the cheapest f1.4 lens available is all that’s needed for reportage. That’s just the plain truth.

  • Karen

    To be clear I believe Leica “corrected” this problem last year (according to the Leica CEO) and they did have shipments since then. It’s just that they haven’t made many since last fall (there was one shipment in September and then again in November, I think). In other words, this is not the first shipment since the correction, as the story headline seems to suggest.

  • antaron

    As far as I know this is one the lenses that are super complex in manufacturing. The quality level is so high that a big amount of these lenses fail in-house quality tests.
    This is a lens that Leica builds to show what is maximum possible with M-mount. It’s a engineers prestige lens.
    I guess that all means, you won’t ever see discounts for this lens, as the waiting list is really long and it’s hand made.

  • Back to top