Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH (v6)

Leica · Leica M · 2013 · Eight elements in five groups, apochromatic, aspherical

Also known as: APO-Summicron-M 50 ASPH · 50 APO · Summicron 50 v6 · APO Summicron 50 v6 · Summicron-M 50 v6

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
APO-Summicron-M 50 ASPH (11141) Leica M 2013 — No figure published
  1. Leica's press release describes the group behind the diaphragm as a floating element, moving relative to the front group as the lens focuses so that performance holds at close range as well as at infinity — the mechanism behind the close-distance claim (DPReview, 10 May 2012).
  2. Announced 10 May 2012 at a US list of about $7,195, with deliveries stated for late July 2012 (DPReview). Reviewing the lens for Macfilos, Brian Bower reports roughly nine months between announcement and lenses reaching buyers, and says early production was halted while a random flare problem was investigated and corrected.
  3. No production figure and no serial list have been published for this lens. The Leica Wiki's table carries no total at all, and its two rows are brackets around observed examples rather than allocated blocks.
  4. What the year list will not do. Leica reserves a block of numbers before a batch is built and does not always use it, so an engraved number can run ahead of its lens by a year or more. Ken Rockwell's copy of the list states plainly that it is not exact and that numbers after 2000 are less accurate, and summilux.net — whose database took over the job after Leica withdrew its own serial lookup page in July 2006 — reports an Apo-Telyt-R 180mm carrying a number Leica assigns to a 50mm Summilux. Cameras and lenses also run in separate sequences, so the same number exists on one of each.
  5. Buyers number the 50mm f/2 Summicrons v1 to v6: v1 the collapsible of 1953 and v2 the rigid and Dual Range of 1956 (one optical design, one page); v3 the 1969 six-in-five; v4 the 1979 six-in-four and v5 its 1994 built-in-hood barrel (identical glass, one page); v6 the APO-Summicron ASPH of 2012. This entry uses that numbering in its variant names, and the other pages carry the rest.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 47 degrees on film; 36 degrees on an 18×27 sensor
  • Apochromatic correction at a focal length where it is hardest to justify and hardest to achieve

APO-Summicron-M 50 ASPH (11141):

  • Entrance pupil 24.4mm from the bayonet flange
  • 11-blade diaphragm

Serial-range notes

the six- or seven-digit number on the front ring
The rule for every Leitz and Leica lens: the numbers run in one running sequence shared across models, so a serial normally gives an approximate date — but the sequence does NOT begin at 100,000 in 1931, and a serial usually identifies the model too. The register behind the published year list records reserved BLOCKS, each entered with a date, a range and a lens name, which is why per-model batch tables exist and why they are the better evidence where the two disagree. The date is when the block was reserved, not when the lens was finished. Date a copy by the year band it falls into. The bands covering this lens are 4,130,001–4,210,000 for 2012, 4,210,001–4,280,000 for 2013, 4,280,001–4,400,000 for 2014, and 4,400,001 upwards for 2015 and after.
4138043–4235363
The lowest and highest numbers the Leica Wiki records for this lens, on a row it dates 2013. The 97,321 printed against them is the width of that span — 4235363 minus 4138043, plus one — and not a count of lenses. The numbers in between belong to every other Leica lens made in those months.
4138043
The earliest recorded example sits in the general list's 2012 band, the year of the announcement, while the model table dates the row 2013 — the interval between announcement and delivery that Brian Bower describes.
429041X–4290478
The wiki's second and last row, dated 2014, with the final digit of the opening number masked as printed. Both ends fall in the 2014 band of the general list.

Specifications

Formula
Eight elements in five groups, apochromatic, aspherical
Construction
8 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Diaphragm blades
11
Min. focus
0.7 m
Weight
300 g
Filter
39 mm
Years manufactured
2013
Country
Germany
Original price
$7,195 (US list, 2012)

What reviewers say

History

The 50mm APO-Summicron is the most demanding lens Leica has built for the M mount and the hardest to argue for. Apochromatic correction pays off most at long focal lengths, where colour fringing is worst; at 50mm the errors it removes are small to begin with. What the lens delivers is resolution at f/2 across the entire frame, at close distances as well as far, at a level that exceeds what most film can record.

It is sold beside the ordinary Summicron 50, a six-element design from 1979 that Leica has never needed to replace, at several times the price. Both are current. That is the clearest statement of what the modern M catalogue is: a working lens and an uncompromised one, offered together, with the customer deciding which problem they have.

Expand Collapse

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 taken with the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH (v6)
APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH, black — Sodacan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sample photo taken with the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH (v6)
Lindos, Rhodes — tagged APO-Summicron-M 50 by the photographer (Sanshiro Kubota) — Sanshiro KUBOTA from London, UK, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH (v6)
Waiting for the tram at dawn, Milan — tagged APO-Summicron-M 50 (Sanshiro Kubota) — Sanshiro KUBOTA from London, UK, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH (v6)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $7,600 across 61 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $6,600–$9,200). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $7,600.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$7,600$6,600–$9,20061
2026-09-06$7,600$6,600–$9,20061

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Summicron-M 50mm f/2 (v4 · v5) · Summicron 50mm f/2 (v1 collapsible · v2 rigid and Dual Range) · Summicron 50mm f/2 (v3)

Sources (8)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.