I would like either a latest version 50 summicron or the penultimate version for my m cameras. I would value the focus tab on the penultimate but wonder if the hood (which is not built- in as per latest) would occlude the viewfinder (I use .72 and .85 finders if this matters). If it does get in the way, by how much? (My wife wants to buy me one for my birthday - and we'll have to do it mail order so I can't just nip along to a shop locally and see for myself). Any comments would be appreciated. I wonder if anyone has used both....? I don't remember there being a problem with the latest version.

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), May 27, 2002

Answers

Properly aligned so you're looking through the slots, with the 12585 hood there's a (insignificant) line across the bottom corner of the view just a bit in from the ends of the framelines, and the non- transparent body of the hood is at the very corner of the actual frame, at infinity, and doesn't intrude at all. At the closest distance, the opaque part of the hood moves in to cover an area of the corner just a bit larger than the size of two stacked RF patches moved down into that corner tightly, with a curved diagonal drawn between the upper right and lower left corners of the stack, if you get what I'm doing. Overall it's not an issue, especially at non- close distances.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), May 27, 2002.

That's with my .72 M4-2, by the way.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), May 27, 2002.

I also have 2 of them. I think Michaels assesment is very accurate.

-- John Abela (jamriman@yahoo.com), May 27, 2002.

If you're looking for this penultimate because you want a tab (among anything else) but don't get to look at it until its already bought, then tell your wife to first find out whether the tab is concave or convex (if that happens to be of interest to you) or tell her to first let you know what the serial number is.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), May 28, 2002.

Steve, FWIW, articles 11819 (black) and 11825 (chrome) with S/Ns 2915801 and onwards (1979-1982) have convex tabs. Those of S/N 3098901 and later (1982-1994) have concave tabs.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), May 29, 2002.