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

Summaron 2.8cm f/5.6

Ernst Leitz · LTM + Leica M · 1955 · Six elements in four groups

Also known as: Leitz Summaron 28mm f/5.6 · Summaron 2.8cm f5.6 · SNOOX

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Metric scale, early LTM 1955–1958 — Part of about 9,169 lenses
Feet scale (11001) LTM 1958–1963 — No separate figure published
Black finish LTM 1960–1963 — No figure published
On the M via adapter IRZOO Leica M 1955–1963 — No figure published
  1. The production figure is not settled. summilux.net's documentation gives 6,228 lenses over 1955–1963 and records the code as SNOOX, later becoming reference 11501; the roughly 9,169 lenses and the order number 11001 in the table follow the Leica Wiki. Dealer listings for the screw-mount lens also quote 11501 rather than 11001. Nothing consulted here reconciles the two counts.
  2. A Wetzlar development lens survives. Leitz Photographica Auction 48, lot 50, offered a Summaron 2.8cm prototype of about 1955 engraved on the front with the special serial 0000150 and hand-engraved on the mount with the optical formula number B632 — the B prefix being, per the auction house, the usual marker for a Leitz Wetzlar prototype lens. It is described as showing several differences from the production lens, and went unsold against an estimate of €12,000–14,000 from a €6,000 start.
  3. The Leica Wiki's 9,169 figure is arithmetic, not a factory count: it is the exact sum of the thirteen 2.8 cm blocks on its own page once the Dygon row is dropped, and the head of the same page prints it as an upper bound. It is a ceiling on numbers issued. summilux.net's 6,228 is the other figure in play, and nothing consulted here reconciles them.
  4. The serial blocks span 1954–1971 against the page's own 1955–1963 production era — a year early at one end and eight years late at the other. Where the two disagree the blocks are the harder evidence, since each one is corroborated by the company-wide year list.
  5. Neither the scale nor the finish can be read from a serial number. No block on the list is marked feet or metric, and none is marked black, so the 11001 and 11501 order numbers and the late black barrels are separated only by inspection.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Two thirds of a stop faster than the Hektor 28 it replaced, and 76 degrees rather than 75
  • 150 grams
  • Needs the SLOOZ or SUOOQ finder

Metric scale, early:

  • Metric scale only

Feet scale (11001):

  • Feet scale only — Leitz sold the two markets different lenses

On the M via adapter IRZOO:

  • The screw lens with adapter ring IRZOO 14097

Serial-range notes

the whole Leitz lens sequence
THE RULE. Leitz numbered every lens it made in one continuous run, whatever the model, so this Summaron is dated from the company-wide lens serial/year list and not from any marking on the barrel. Read the number and find its bracket: 1954 = 1124001–1236000, 1955 = 1236001–1333000, 1956 = 1333001–1459000, 1957 = 1459001–1548000, 1958 = 1548001–1645300, 1959 = 1645301–1717000, 1960 = 1717001–1827000, 1961 = 1827001–1913000, 1962 = 1913001–1967100, 1963 = 1967101–2015700, 1968 = 2254401–2312750, 1971 = 2468501–2503100 (Leica Wiki, Leica Lens Serial Numbers). Every block on this model's own page falls inside the bracket it is dated to, so the two lists agree for this lens.
1231001–1231100
The first block: 100 lenses, and the list dates it 1954 — a year before the 1955 production start printed at the head of the same page. The company-wide year list puts 1231001 in 1954 as well, so the two lists agree with each other and both disagree with the stated era.
2279751–2279800 and 2499101–2499150
The last two blocks, of fifty lenses each: 1968 for the screw version and 1971 for a block the list marks (M). Both fall years after the 1963 end of the production era the same page gives, and they are the only evidence located here for a lens still being numbered into the 1970s. The 1971 marking is also the only place a source consulted here treats an M-mount 2.8 cm Summaron as anything other than the screw lens on its IRZOO ring; nothing found resolves what those fifty lenses were.
1677001–1680000
A block two Leica Wiki pages both claim. This model's page prints it as a 2.8 cm Summaron row of 2,969 lenses in 1959, footnoting that 1678204 and 1678626 are 35mm f/2.8 lenses and that thirty numbers went to Swedish three-crown lenses, 1678204 among them. The Summaron 3.5 cm f/2.8 page prints the same numbers as 3,000 of its own lenses, footnoting six more — 1678045, 1678231, 1678272, 1678461, 1679672 and 1679028 — as 3.5 cm and not 5.6 cm as listed. Both readings are recorded; neither page reconciles with the other.
1854111–1875000
The largest row on this model's page and not this lens: 20,890 numbers the page assigns to the Dygon-Vorsatz 0.9 cm f/2 in 1961. It is bracketed and excluded from the total. A footnote on the same page places a screw-thread 2.8 cm Summaron at 1876306, which falls outside every block printed there — the nearest, 1875001–1875500, ends 806 numbers below it.
1325001–1325500, 1363001–1363500, 1412001–1413500, 1477101–1477600, 1537001–1537500
The blocks the list marks (S) for screw thread between 1955 and 1957. Four further blocks — 1501501–1502500, 1557001–1558000, 1677001–1680000 and 1875001–1875500 — carry no mount marking at all.

Specifications

Formula
Six elements in four groups
Construction
6 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/5.6–f/22
Min. focus
1 m
Weight
150 g
Years manufactured
1955–1963
Country
Germany
Material
Chrome-plated brass, later black

What reviewers say

History

The 28mm Summaron is a small, slow, well-made lens for a focal length the camera it was sold for could not show. Six elements in four groups at f/5.6 — two thirds of a stop faster than the Hektor it replaced — 150 grams, and an accessory finder required.

It has no native M version. Leitz sold it in screw mount throughout, and M owners fitted it with the IRZOO adapter ring, which is how most Leitz glass reached the bayonet in the 1950s while the screw catalogue was still the main one.

One production detail says something about how Leitz sold lenses. Early examples carry a metric scale; later ones carry feet, under a different order number. Not both on one barrel, as later lenses would have — two separate products for two markets, and a collector wanting the scale they think in has to find the right one.

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 wanted — shot with a Summaron 2.8cm f/5.6? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,200 across 19 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,700–$3,100). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $2,200.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$2,200$1,700–$3,10019
2026-09-06$2,200$1,700–$3,10019

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

Show 18 more listings

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

Related: Hektor 2.8cm f/6.3 · Summaron 3.5cm f/3.5

Sources (5)

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.