Leica Summicron-M 50mm f/2 (Dual-Range)

There is a particular Leica shooter who keeps a chrome M3 with this lens screwed to it and almost never takes it off. The Dual-Range Summicron is a beautiful object, the heavy chrome barrel, the little focusing eyes that clip onto the rangefinder window, the spectacle attachment that drops you into a close range down to 19 inches, about 0.48m. People buy it partly for the glass and partly because it is one of the best made fifties Leica ever shipped. But the glass is the reason it earned its reputation.

Optically it is a double-Gauss, 7 elements in 6 groups, the formula it shares with the rigid Summicron of the same years. Wide open at f/2 it is sharp in the center with a gentle drop toward the edges and a slightly lower contrast that flatters faces. Stop down to f/4 and f/5.6 and it tightens up, holding skin texture and fabric detail without looking surgical. The micro-contrast is the thing collectors talk about, the way midtones separate from each other. Backgrounds render smoothly behind the subject, quiet falloff rather than busy or swirly, which is a big part of why portrait shooters keep coming back to it.

The Dual-Range part is what sets it apart from the rigid and collapsible Summicrons. Clip the goggles on and the close-focus range engages, which is genuinely useful for tight head shots, flowers, a watch on a wrist. That near focus is where you should think about your meter. At 19 inches on a 50mm lens you are adding real extension, and a reflected reading off a small bright subject will fool you. If you are working that close, the bellows and extension compensation in Zone Light Meter will fold the added factor into your exposure so the close portraits do not come back thin.

Who shoots it now: Leica people, classic-rangefinder collectors, and photographers who want a fifty with a bit of older drawing to it. It is a documentary and portrait lens at heart, not a landscape optic. The honest weakness is flare. The early coating and that deep chrome barrel mean backlight can wash the frame and drop contrast fast, so a hood is not optional and shooting into the sun is a gamble. The goggles also add bulk, can fog or scratch, and the close range does not couple correctly on every body. The goggles do not clear the top covers of the M5 and CL, so the near range is not usable on those.

Today it trades as a sought-after vintage piece, cross-shopped against the rigid Summicron and the later v3 and v4 fifties that are smaller and easier to carry. Those are the more practical daily lenses. The DR sells on rendering and on the fact that nothing else looks quite like it on the camera, and prices have climbed accordingly. If you want a 50 f/2 that does genuine close focus and gives you that older lower-contrast Leica look, this is the one people still go after.