Dunno if it's been mentioned before, but this relates to the other thread that's drifting into the use of filters etc to protect the front of a lens.

The sliding shade on the 50 Summicron is pitifully useless; with any push it just slides back in. At worst the front element is what'll encounter anything hard; at best the filter gets excessively gunky.

A good solution is to use the screw-in shade for the current 50 Elmar. It fits right inside of and takes the place of the sliding shade.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), July 06, 2001

Answers

Somebody mentioned wrapping double sided velcro around the sliding hood. This keeps it from returning and acts as a spring cushion if you bump it.

-- Simon Wong (drsimonwong@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

Thanks for the Elmar shade idea, John. I have been using a sliding hood 'cron with a filter and that is OK. I do not use lens caps. Now that I have a 35mm lens, I see the advantage of having a rigid hood and not using a filter, because the front element is pretty well protected. This got me to thinking about an aftermarket fixed hood for the 50 'cron. The Elmar hood sounds like just the ticket.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), July 06, 2001.

I've got the current 50/2 and I've never had a problem with the hood. Perhaps I'm just used to the R lenses and longer M lenses with pull-out hoods, and perhaps I just never considered a lens hood as a protection from anything other than stray light. I had an Elmar with the screw-in hood at it was forever binding to the filters, requiring the use of a filter wrench or a rubber glove to get them apart. I wish all the M lenses had built-in hoods.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 06, 2001.

The only problem I have is the Leica cap doesn't go on the B&W filters very well. Since I haven't gotten a single image with the current 50 with a flare problem, I'd say a bigger hood is not that critical. Bty the way, I am still getting noticeably sharper images at f2 and f2.8 with the current version than I did with the tabbed version of the 50 f2.0. Are we sure Leica didn't improve the optics on the current 50? Either that or I focus better with two fingers than I did with one on the tab.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 06, 2001.

You made my day Andrew; I knew this no-tab 50 was in some way better than the last one, the idea of the screw in shade is just great; I´m always getting distracted by looking if this sliding shade has moved; thanks John, now where do I get that screwable shade, does it has a code number?

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

The little shade has M 2.8/50 #12550 on it. It's for the current 50 f2.8 Elmar. I don't recall the price offhand; it's a standard "Leica" price so we all know what that means.

My primary usage of hard screw-in shades is to avoid banging the front of the lens into things. I've badly mashed and bent some shades over the years but never damaged a lens.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), July 06, 2001.

The shade is Leica part 12550 (black) and is special order from B&H at $46.50.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), July 06, 2001.

Ahem, I have a topic on this at my FAQ at:

nemeng.com/leica/#028b

I used to use the B+W rubber lens hood on my 50mm until I realised that it works just fine on the 35mm Summicron (!). So now I use the plastic hood from the 35mm on the 50mm. The hood clips into the ridge around the lens (I have the older-style, tab-focus 50mm Summicron). I've put a small rubber band in the grove to give the hood's teeth something to grip into and so stop the hood from rotating.

So now, I have a nice & deep rubber hood on my 35mm and a nice and compact and rigid square hood on my 50mm. Looks unusual, but both work very well (especially here in Australia with our blazing sun!)

Regds,

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), July 06, 2001.

I also use the plastic Leitz lense shade from the 35mm lense on my 50. My problem has always been the shade rotating from position to position. Thanks for the information about using a rubber band to help keep the shade in place. I will try this today.Wish me success!

-- John Alfred Tropiano (jat18@psu.edu), July 24, 2001.