Or, "how a line of bullshit raised used Summicron 35mm f/2 Type IV prices for a while."
It's funny, because I never bought that "King of Bokeh" nonsense anyway. It looked pretty ordinary to me. That's not to say the lens isn't capable or nice in its own right. It's just not royalty.
A New 'King of Bokeh'?"Years ago, rather unfortunately in some ways, I named the 35mm Summicron-M v.4 as the "King of Bokeh" (bokeh—or boke or boke-aji—meaning out-of-focus [o-o-f] blur). The epithet has taken on a life of its own since then...especially when that lens is for sale somewhere. Erwin rightly scolds me for this (indirectly) in Leica Chronicle.
I was missing part of the story at the time (1997). You see I never shot the lens wide open and very seldomly as little as one stop down. It does have wonderfully coherent blur—from ƒ/5.6 and moderate distances. That brilliant but flawed lens doesn't look its best (in any respect) wide open, or close up. (Lots of falloff, too, which I kind of liked.)
Let's face it, bokeh is not a strong point of Leica lenses, in general*.
[SNIP]
*...Except the ones you own. Don't kill me."
-Mike Johnston