In 1961 Leitz Midland computed the Summilux 1:1.4/35mm for the M -system as the world’s first 1.4/35mm lens. It stayed in production till 1993, when the (second) aspherical version appeared. At full aperture the overall contrast is very low .

Coarse detail is recorded with clean edges, but becomes much softer when going to the corners of the picture. Fine detail is rendered with low contrast and even finer structures are lost in the image noise, as contrast becomes so low as to blur the small details. The long production period of the Summilux is a clear indication how difficult it is to improve on a well designed lens when the parameters are really difficult