Leica Summilux R 50 mm f1.4 vintage lens review

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Leica is a luxury brand with a cult following and, allegedly, iconic colors and I’ve always been both curious and reticent about it. Most probably it is just overpriced and overhyped, but I couldn’t form an opinion without trying it. And that’s where my opening statement comes into play: it is a luxury brand, something I most definitely cannot afford. Luckily for me, a fellow photographer and vintage lens user has loaned me this lens to try, but I have to warn you: it has been slightly modified.

The lens is made of metal, it weights around 380g, it is 52 to 59mm long and it has an external diameter of 65mm, with a 55mm front thread. It also has a built in sun hood.

The iris has 6 blades, the aperture would normally be clicked, but this was declicked and it goes from f1.4 to f16 - with half steps.

The focusing is rubberized, it turns 270 degrees and minimum focusing distance is a little less than 50cm.

The Leica R mount has a flange distance of 47mm, but this copy has been converted to the Nikon F mount.


Of the 50mm 1.4 I’ve tried so far, this is noticeably heavier, bigger and a bit more unwieldy. The focusing ring is a bit too narrow and the aperture is far too narrow and hard to grip.


Sharpness wide open is poor all over the frame, but it improves significantly already at 2.8 and by f8 it gets quite sharp. And here you can see how much it distorts. Chromatic aberration and blooming are present at wider apertures but disappear stopping down. Colors, contrast and saturation are a bit washed out wide open but get more natural and vibrant stopping down.

Specular highlights have some hard edges and visibly deform as soon as they are not in the center of the frame. Backgrounds swing from a complete blur to busy with hints of swirliness. Flares do appear when shooting directly into a light, but are well controlled in everyday use.


While I cannot comment fully on the famous Leica colors without shooting on film or a Leica body, I did notice a difference in contrast and punchiness compared to other lenses, although only when shooting from 2.8 and past.

A difference, in my opinion, not worth the price tag.

Also, I didn’t really like the lack of detail wide open and the specular highlights.

I never talk about prices because they can vary a lot, but in this case I have to take it in consideration, as this is a much more expensive lens than what I can afford to buy and show you here.

So I, personally, cannot say that this is a good lens for its price.




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