NOTch Your Typical Focus Gear

Cine-Mod Journal June 02, 2020 0 Comments

An unusual Cine-Mod we have here... This client was looking for a focus gear for their Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 lens. The finger notch or focus tab - whatever you prefer to call it, posed a conundrum. With a bit of clever machining, we're able to give the customer the exact gear they were looking for.

Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 with focus tab

Several Leica-M lenses have a finger notch on the focus ring of the lens that can get in the way of focus gear installation. In some cases, they can be removed following partial disassembly, but in other cases we can modify the gear to accommodate the thumb notch. In this case, the gear does cover the focus marks, however, lens was going onto a remote rig in which the operator didn't need to see them. it may seem like an odd proportion relative to the lens, but it's exactly what the client wanted.

Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 Cine-Mod

There are several versions of the 35mm Summicron-M mount lenses. The lens in this blog is Version I chrome, produced around the late 1950's to mid 1960's.

Quick fact! Did you know the word Summicron refers to the maximum aperture of the lens? "Summi" is said to be derived from the word "summit" meaning highest point or apex. "Cron" comes from "crown." Leitz had bought Crown glass from the Chance Brothers & Company in England, which was used to build the first batch of lenses named Summikron. "Crown" in Deutsch is "krone"!