I have a Summicron - M 50/2 (3756799). On the focusing ring and behind feet/m marks there is a small number. This number is 22. What is the meaning of this number? A friend of mine told me that this number is about the quality of the lens and that lenses with the 22 are very good lenses. Is it true?

Best regards,

Dimitris

Street Photography by Dimitris Kioseoglou

-- Dimitris Kioseoglou (kosefoto@otenet.gr), June 29, 2001

Answers

Mine has the 22 also--I never even noticed it before. I have no idea why it's there. It is the sharpest lens I own, so maybe your friend is on to something! Serously, anyone know what that little number is for? My current 90 Elmarit has a 10 in the same spot that I also never noticed before, and my 135mm lens has a 55 there.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 29, 2001.

This is simply Leica being accurate beyond the standard rounding of the focal length. The 22 means that your lens is really 52.2mm. My Elmarit M is really 91.5 rather than 90mm, displaying a tiny 15 on the scale.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), June 29, 2001.

Andrew, sorry I didn't see your 135 lens... this is 135.5mm. You overlay the two numbers on the focal length, and if the first one matches the actual length, (as the 5.5 would for 135), it stays the same, and the last of the two numbers is one the right side of a decimal point. This fact about lens markings is from many of my books, with the best explanation coming from Andrew Matheson's "Leica Rangefinder Practice."

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), June 29, 2001.

No s---? I've always wondered but never took the time to find out. Thanks everybody.

-- jeff voorhees (debontekou@yahoo.com), June 29, 2001.

This would be a great trivia question for the Leica know it all.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 29, 2001.

I (too?) am amazed that this little piece of trivia has never been asked here before (I think).

The German word for these small number engravings means "focal length groupings". They appear exclusively on M 50, 90 and 135 mm lenses and serve as a better identification of exact production data for each lens manufacturing. As they would say (again in German), for example, "50 doesn't always mean 50". All numbers yield the same quality. Actually these numberings are only at home for customer service application. Examples are:

on 50 mm: 00 = 50.0 mm 10 = 51.0 mm 11 = 51.1 mm 16 = 51.6 mm 22 = 52.2 mm

on 90 mm: 95 = 89.5 mm 00 = 90.0 mm 05 = 90.5 mm 10 = 91.0 mm

on 135 mm: 45 = 134.5 mm 50 = 135.0 mm 55 = 135.5 mm 60 = 136.0 mm

Happy to see you have a 22 (00 not meaning zero quality).

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), June 30, 2001.

Thank you all for your kind information about this matter. I do not really disappointed because of the number 22 does not mean a good lens! I had a suspicion that this number is not about the quality of the lens. If it was about the lens quality, everybody was going to buy Summicrons with the 22 on them! By the way this lens (not only mine but all Summicrons-M!) is perhaps the best 50mm lens ever made in the history of photography.

Thanks everybody!

Street Photography by Dimitris Kioseoglou

-- Dimitris Kioseoglou (kosefoto@otenet.gr), June 30, 2001.

Hi, Dimitri: I wanted to have a look on your Street Photography but the link didn't work. If you can have it do what is supposed to, please let us know. Thanks in advance. Regards

Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), June 30, 2001.

Only problem with the link is it has an extra http://www at the beginning...delete these and hit 'enter' when you get the error message and it goes to the correct place....nice pictures, Dimitris! A definite '22' rating!

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), July 02, 2001.

Andy, thank you for your correction on the clickable link. I have not noticed that. Here are my pictures. I wish it works!

Street Photography by Dimitris Kioseoglou

-- Dimitris Kioseoglou (kosefoto@otenet.gr), July 02, 2001.