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

Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v2, 1961)

Ernst Leitz · Leica M · 1961 · Seven elements in five groups

Also known as: Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 v2 · Summilux 50 pre-asph · ズミルックス 50mm F1.4 第2世代 · Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (second version) · Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (second version) · Summilux 50 v2 · Summilux 50mm v2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Knurled focusing ring (KFR) Leica M 1961–1991 — No separate figure published
Un-knurled focusing ring (UFR) Leica M 1961–1991 — No separate figure published
Chrome Leica M 1961–1991 — No separate figure published
1913–1983 anniversary Leica M 1983–1983 — No figure published
  1. The 43mm thread is cut at a 0.5mm pitch rather than the 0.75mm that became standard, which is the practical reason filters are hard to find rather than merely hard to share: Rockwell's version table lists the fitting as "43mm x 0.5mm", and Flavio Bosi singles it out as the lens's most awkward feature in daily use.
  2. Two barrels, not one, and Rockwell and Keith Wee agree on both. Chrome, 1961–1968, 301 g, taking the 12 521 hood; black, 1969–1991, 360 g, taking the vented 12 586 hood. Wee gives 1,844,001 as the first serial of the chrome version, which is also the number Rockwell uses to separate this optical design from the first.
  3. The weights recorded in this entry's own specifications — 275 g black anodised aluminium and 380 g chrome-plated brass — are the figures Rockwell's table assigns to the 1992–2004 barrel, the one that takes 46mm filters. On his account no barrel of this second version weighs 275 g, and the two versions are not distinguished in most secondhand listings.
  4. Rockwell holds that every Summilux 50 built between 1961 and 2004 shares identical optics and coatings, so the 1992–2004 lens is a third barrel on this design rather than a third design.
  5. One auction lot cuts across the barrel dating above. Leitz Photographica's 45th auction sold no. 2220994, which it dates to 1966, describing it as a "Beautiful rare 2nd version black anodised Summilux 50mm" with its plastic keeper and maker's box; it made €3,600 against a €2,800–3,000 estimate. On Rockwell's and Wee's division the black barrel begins in 1969 and 1966 is inside the chrome period, so either black anodised barrels were sold well before 1969 or the 1968/1969 boundary is approximate. The lot's own word for such a lens is "rare".
  6. A chrome example from the same sale, lot 183, made €2,040 against a €2,400–2,800 estimate — but its serial, 1702871, and its 1960 date put it below the 1,844,000 boundary, so it belongs to the first version rather than to this one. Both versions are catalogued under order number 11114, which is why the number cannot be used to tell them apart.
  7. Buyers number the 50mm f/1.4 Summiluxes v1 to v4: v1 of 1959, the Summarit-derived design; v2 of 1961, the classic, and v3 of 1992, the same glass in a barrel with a built-in hood; v4 the ASPH of 2004. This entry uses that numbering; the other pages carry the rest.
  8. カメラのナニワ's review of what Japan calls the '2nd' Summilux — this 1961 optical design: the new formula begins at serial 1844001; the outside unchanged until the black-chrome finish of 1968; screw mount to 1963 beside the bayonet; E43 filter, 1 m, twelve blades; gently soft with some spherical aberration and vignetting at f/1.4, 'powerful' stopped down, poor into the light with golden-coating ghosts, and colour the reviewer loved on Cinestill 50D.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • E43 filters, inherited from the first version and shared with almost nothing else
  • 12-blade aperture
  • Focuses no closer than 1 m

Knurled focusing ring (KFR):

  • A knurled focusing ring

Un-knurled focusing ring (UFR):

  • A smooth focusing ring

Chrome:

  • Chrome-plated brass, 380 g against 275 g for the black aluminium version

1913–1983 anniversary:

  • Anniversary marking

Serial-range notes

2028001
Above this number the aperture has full click stops; below it, half clicks. The Leica Wiki's phrasing is ambiguous about which side is which, and this entry does not resolve it.

Specifications

Formula
Seven elements in five groups
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/16
Diaphragm blades
12
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
47.7 × 54.5 mm
Weight
275 g
Filter
43 mm
Years manufactured
1961–1991
Country
Germany
Material
Black anodised aluminium, or chrome-plated brass at 380 g
Original price
$216 (US catalogue, April 1962; $237 for the special-order black) (today $2,240)

What reviewers say

History

The second Summilux 50 is the one that stayed. Walter Mandler redrew the first version after two years and the result ran for thirty, from 1961 to 1991, at 43,505 lenses — more than twice the first version and the fast fifty that every M generation from the M3 to the M6 was sold alongside.

It keeps the E43 filter thread, which is the lens’s one lasting annoyance: neither the E39 of the Summicrons nor the E46 of the third version, so it needs filters of its own. It focuses no closer than a metre. And at f/1.4 it glows against bright light in a way that is either the reason to own it or the reason to buy the aspherical version, depending on the photographer.

The finish tells you what you are holding. Black anodised aluminium weighs 275 grams; chrome-plated brass weighs 380. That is a hundred grams of difference on a lens of this size, and it is material rather than plating.

One detail in the source is worth flagging rather than repeating confidently. The Leica Wiki gives the click stops as “With full click-stops > 2028001 < half click-stops”, which is a serial threshold written in a way that does not say which side gets which. Something changes at 2028001; this entry records that much and no more.

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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 Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v2, 1961)
Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 v2, 1962, chrome (Sodacan) — Sodacan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v2, 1961)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,200 across 27 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,900–$2,800). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: up 2% from $2,200.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$2,200$1,900–$2,80027
2026-09-06$2,200$1,900–$2,60026

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: Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH (v4) · Summilux 50mm f/1.4 (v1, 1959) · Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v3, built-in hood)

Sources (7)

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.