I just bought a used Leica M6 TTL and 35mm Summicron F/2.0 non-aspherical lens. I finally took the "plunge" after reading a thread here how good Leica M camera are. My question is where can I get a lens hood/shade and front/back cap for my lens it seems that this items are hardly in the market anymore. I need your input please... Thanks guys.

-- Ed Gaddi (edgaddi@yahoo.com), August 10, 2001

Answers

You will be able to find lens caps, lens hoods, etc. either from Leica or the used market. First identify the lens that you have. Go here:

http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/overview/listm.html

Probably a good place to look for your lens accessories would be Ebay. There are usually hundreds to thousands of Leica items listed at any one time. Go here:

http://www.ebay.com

Welcome to Leica, and happy hunting!

-- David (pagedt@attglobal.net), August 10, 2001.

I like vented hood #12585 which can be used on the 50 and some of the earlier 90's for that matter. Here's one with the currect cap on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll? ViewItem&item=1262801998. Someone mentioned a while back that the Konica M rear caps are very inexpensive new.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), August 10, 2001.

I use the B+W 39mm rubber lens hood on my 35mm M Summicron ASPH. As your lens has the same filter thread(?) and same FOV, it should work well there as well.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), August 11, 2001.

You don't need to get the exact original hood for your Summicron. Any hood that fits the 35mm Summaron or Summicron from the past 45 years will work, including the IROOA and 12585.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), August 11, 2001.

If your lens is the last non-asph 35mm summicron, the current hood for the 35ASPH will fit perfectly. As for the back caps, go get the Konicas. No point paying $20?? for a leica cap. Do they need specially trained technicians to make those caps?

-- joel (joel_low12@yahoo.co.uk), August 11, 2001.

Thanks David the site you mentioned was very informative. I found out that the S/N (or batch) of my 35mm non-asph was the last batch of non- asph . All input mentioned herein will be all considered. Thanks guys...

-- Ed Gaddi (edgaddi@yahoo.com), August 12, 2001.

Warning! It is not true that all of the earlier round hoods work on the pre-ASPH 35/2.0, if you are talking about the generation just before the ASPH. I found out the hard way that certain round hoods that worked with earlier 35/2.0 versions (e.g. hood 12585) vignette the corners of the pre-ASPH at all apertures. Get one of the rectangular hoods designed for this 4th gen lens or for the ASPH. Rich Pinto at Photo Village in NYC still has some of the original hoods designed for this lens, although the later hoods for the ASPH work fine also.

-- Tim Nelson (timothy.nelson@yale.edu), August 13, 2001.