To get an idea about the Canadian lenses, you might want to read the history about Walter Mandler who designed many of Leica's famous lenses in Canada:Īs far as I know, the oriental "leica" lenses are supposedly designed by Leica (I would guess with much design input from Panasonic). Because of this, the Canadian government made a law that required all products (in particular, Leica products) that are manufactured in Canada be clearly identified as Canadian made. Of course it does not matter that many of the "German" old lenses (as well as early M-series) were fully constructed in Canada (but without the front lens identification, or in the case of M-series, without the top covering) and then sent to Germany for "final assembly" where the "German" label was put onto the lens or the camera top). Very interesting set of the Leica MP 'Leica Historica 1975-2020' set which comes with a Leica 50mm f2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH Silver 'Leica Historica 1975-2020' and on top also a limited Leica 50mm f1.2 Noctilux-M ASPH Silver. since people want to see the German label. With the Summicron, Leica set the standard for how a 50mm lens should look and behave, a standard that holds to this day. But Germany made it more appealing to me mainly because it has a warmer tone. On the collectors market, there tends to be higher prices for German lenses. Leica Summicron-M 35mm f2 (Canada model V4), excellent clean lens. In terms of construction, the old Canadian and German lenses are identical. Of course some photographers will prefer the image rendition characteristics of the older or newer lenses - but that is a matter of taste. Newer lenses, designed and built only in Germany, are possibly "better" for things like contrast, sharpness etc.
I know it's a bit apple & oranges and I reckon both render and behave quite differently, and that's where I'm at loss. Optically, lenses of the same optical formula from Germany and Canada are exactly the same in quality. I'm trying to decide whether to get a new Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 1.5 II, or a good copy of the Summicron 50mm f2 v4.