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

Summarex 8.5cm f/1.5

Ernst Leitz Β· LTM Β· 1949 Β· Seven elements in five groups

Also known as: Leitz Summarex 85mm f/1.5 Β· Summarex 8.5cm Β· γ‚Ίγƒžγƒ¬γƒƒγ‚―γ‚Ή 85mm F1.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Summarex (SOOCX) LTM 1943–1962 541053–541058
593001–593500
732001–732500
823001–824000
940001–941000
1008001–1009000
1151001–1152000 		No figure published on the model index
  1. Japan Camera Hunter's review gives production as 276 black-painted and 4,066 chrome lenses, and the weight as 700 g, or 770 g with the hood. These are the first production figures located for a lens the Leica Wiki's screw-thread index lists without a total, and they supersede this entry's statement that none had been found.
  2. A black paint Summarex, serial 593241, made €7,800 including buyer's premium against a €6,000–7,000 estimate as lot 75 of Leitz Photographica Auction 44. The catalogue describes the black finish as fewer than 300 lenses produced, which is consistent with the 276 above and is an independent check on it.
  3. The Leica Wiki does carry a Summarex model page with a serial table, distinct from the screw-thread index that lists the lens without a total. That page gives the same 276 black and 4,066 chrome as Japan Camera Hunter, so the two are one figure and not two witnesses to it.
  4. Production and numbering do not agree. The serial table assigns 5,006 numbers over 1940–1954, against the 276 plus 4,066 β€” 4,342 lenses β€” printed at the head of the same page: 664 more numbers issued than lenses claimed, on a page where the total is the exact sum of its own rows and nothing is excluded.
  5. The two sources also disagree about weight. The Leica Wiki gives 800 g; Japan Camera Hunter gives 700 g, or 770 g with the hood. Both are recorded here. The Wiki additionally specifies a 17-blade diaphragm and an E58 filter, neither of which this entry otherwise carries.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The biggest and heaviest lens ever made for the Leica screw mount
  • 85mm at f/1.5 β€” a specification aimed squarely at the Zeiss Sonnar 8.5cm f/2 on the Contax

Summarex (SOOCX):

  • A very large front element for a screw-mount lens, with a distinctive clamp-on hood
  • Engraved Summarex f=8.5cm 1:1.5

Serial-range notes

the whole Leitz lens sequence
THE RULE. Leitz numbered every lens it made in one continuous run, whatever the model, so a Summarex is dated from the company-wide lens serial/year list and not from a list for this lens alone. Read the number and find its bracket: 1940 = 538501–565000, 1943 = 593001–594880, 1949 = 682001–756000, 1950 = 756001–840000, 1951 = 840001–950000, 1952 = 950001–1051000, 1954 = 1124001–1236000 (Leica Wiki, Leica Lens Serial Numbers). Each of the seven Summarex blocks falls inside the bracket it is dated to, so the two lists agree and either can be used.
541053–541058
Six black lenses dated 1940 β€” three years before the first production block and before the 1943 start printed at the head of the same page. The list prints them as "Summarex 90 cm 1:1.5", a slip for 9 cm. Nothing consulted here calls them prototypes in as many words, but six numbers standing alone three years early is what a pre-production run looks like, and the page credits Max Berek with the design in August 1936.
593001–593500
The first production block: 500 lenses of 1943, black and chrome together, and the whole of the lens's wartime output. The black-paint Summarex that Leitz Photographica sold as lot 75 of auction 44, no. 593241, falls inside it, and the Leica Wiki's own specimen inscription is given as "Nr.593xxx" β€” the block is effectively the lens's signature.
593501–731999
A gap of six years and no numbers. Between the 1943 block and 732001–732500 in 1949 the list assigns the Summarex nothing at all, which places the whole of the war and the Wetzlar restart outside its production.
732001–732500, 823001–824000, 940001–941000, 1008001–1009000, 1151001–1152000
Every post-war block, and the list marks all five chrome: 500 lenses in 1949, then 1,000 each in 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1954. A chrome Summarex is therefore datable to a single year from its number with no ambiguity, since no two blocks share a bracket.
1152001 and above
Nothing. The list stops at 1,152,000 in 1954, while the same page gives a production era running to 1960 and this entry's table to 1962. No serial evidence has been located for the final six or eight years, and none of the sources consulted here explains the difference.

Specifications

Formula
Seven elements in five groups
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.5–f/16
Min. focus
1.5 m
Weight
800 g
Filter
58 mm
Years manufactured
1943–1962
Country
Germany

What reviewers say

History

The Summarex is the largest lens Leitz ever made for the screw mount, and it exists because of Zeiss. Through the 1930s the Contax had fast Sonnars β€” an 8.5cm f/2 that portrait photographers wanted and the Leica could not match β€” and the Summarex is the answer: 85mm at f/1.5, seven elements in five groups, in a barrel so large that a Barnack body hanging off the back of it looks like an accessory.

It is the least practical thing in the Leitz catalogue. Focusing an f/1.5 85 with a rangefinder of 40mm effective baselength is a matter of hope as much as skill, the lens needs its own finder, and the whole assembly is front-heavy in a way that makes the camera awkward to hold. It is also, when it works, one of the most distinctive-looking lenses of the era.

This entry is thinner than most in the catalog, and deliberately so: the Leica Wiki’s index lists the lens but its own page carries less detail than its neighbours, and no production figure has been located. Rather than borrow numbers from collector sites, this page records what is known and marks itself as resting on one source.

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 β€” but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted β€” shot with a Summarex 8.5cm f/1.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order β€” those come from the search and the sort described above.

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

Related: Biotar 7.5cm f/1.5 Β· Sonnar 8.5cm f/2 Β· Summicron 90mm f/2 (v1, 1957) Β· Xenon 5cm f/1.5

Sources (6)

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 β€” corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.