Leica M confusion

[dennersten]

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I was extremely glad this morning finding out that the new Leica M supported R lenses. I recently moved out to countryside from the city. So the urge to start nature photography have been growing. But buying a new system have so far let me off from that plan. I alreday have a few R lenses on the shelf.

 

Now to my question:

 

I get a confused by the Leica M brochure. There are just 20 R lenses, none of them above 200 mm, i would like a 400 or something like that and as i understand the functions of the new Visoflex thing it shouldn't be any problem? Or have i misunderstood something? Why didn't they add anything above 200 mm?

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[earleygallery]

Leica aren't making any R lenses any more. You would have to buy a s/h R lens if that's what you want to use.

[dennersten]

yes, i know that. Sorry for an unclear question. The question was can i use anything above 200 mm? Or is it something i don't understand from the brochure

[earleygallery]

I don't see why not. The adaptor will be a simple thing, M mount one end R mount the other.

[jaapv]

:confused:There are lenses up to 800 mm out there.

As for adapters, There is the old Leicina one, the new one now, a Novoflex one and I think a Cameraquest one. At least.

[giordano]

I think that the 20 R lenses are just the ones included in the new M's firmware, for EXIF and - presumably at least for the wider lenses - tweaking the in-camera processing. The lenses not listed seem to be very long or very old, and I guess they just didn't bother to include them, just as the oldest and longest LTM, M and V lenses aren't listed in the M9's menus.

[Ruhayat]

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I've been using one from Fotodiox for the past year or so. Works very well on all my Ms (M6TTL, M4-P, M7) as well as non-Leica digital cameras in conjunction with M mount adapters (m4/3). It's cheap as chips, too.

 

:confused:There are lenses up to 800 mm out there.

As for adapters, There is the old Leicina one, the new one now, a Novoflex one and I think a Cameraquest one. At least.

[dennersten]

I think that the 20 R lenses are just the ones included in the new M's firmware, for EXIF and - presumably at least for the wider lenses - tweaking the in-camera processing. The lenses not listed seem to be very long or very old, and I guess they just didn't bother to include them, just as the oldest and longest LTM, M and V lenses aren't listed in the M9's menus.

 

Thanks sounds like a reasonable explanation

 

/HD

[anabasis]

I am wonder why the Modular Telyt-R lenses are excluded from the menu. Those have ROM contacts. I don't know the software, but since both the focusing module and lens head have contacts, they should talk to each other and tell the camera which lens configuration is mounted.

 

Will there be a way to program lenses like my 3-cam APO 100mm Makro in there since it's optically the same as the ROM version?

 

I am very curious as to how well these R lenses render on a 24 MP CMOS chip.

 

JCA

[masjah]

I am wonder why the Modular Telyt-R lenses are excluded from the menu. Those have ROM contacts. I don't know the software, but since both the focusing module and lens head have contacts, they should talk to each other and tell the camera which lens configuration is mounted.

 

Will there be a way to program lenses like my 3-cam APO 100mm Makro in there since it's optically the same as the ROM version?

 

I am very curious as to how well these R lenses render on a 24 MP CMOS chip.

 

JCA

 

My understanding from what Andy has said is that the adapter does not talk to the ROM chip. The presence of the adapter mounted on the camera simply tells the camera that there is an R lens attached, and makes available the R lens menu. So I would guess that you could simply select 100/2.8 irrespective of whether it's a ROM lens or a 3 cam lens.

[andybarton]

yes, i know that. Sorry for an unclear question. The question was can i use anything above 200 mm? Or is it something i don't understand from the brochure

 

You can use any R lens you like. Only the 20 most popular ones have EXIF data included in the firmware.

[Larcomb]

You can use any R lens you like. Only the 20 most popular ones have EXIF data included in the firmware.

 

 

I think Leica simply want to have a single product that takes both M and R lenses. Not sure I agree. Leica was wrong to stop R cameras. How can a manual-focus rangefinder camera which is harder to use be more popular than a reflex camera? Only lousy marketing and poor planning. Why quit making reasonably priced lenses and offer only APO lenses? There was nothing wrong with the telescope lenses (400 & 560 f/6.8). They were awesome, which you would know if you used them. Yet Leica felt compelled to replace them with the APO module lenses that hardly anyone could afford. Stupid!

 

Same with the 180 Elmarit and Elmar. Not everyone wants or can carry a 1800mm APO Summicron.

[andybarton]

I don't understand your problem with this.

[zeitz]

I haven't read all the press releases and commentary. Does any of it say how the automatic diaphragm works?

[wildlightphoto]

... There was nothing wrong with the telescope lenses (400 & 560 f/6.8). They were awesome, which you would know if you used them. Yet Leica felt compelled to replace them with the APO module lenses that hardly anyone could afford. Stupid!

 

Having used both of the f/6.8 Telyts for most of the last 30 years and now using APO lenses as well I can assure you there's a world of diffrence between them.

[earleygallery]

I haven't read all the press releases and commentary. Does any of it say how the automatic diaphragm works?

 

It doesn't - you are in stop down mode, but the focus peaking feature apparently makes it easy to focus with the EVF.

[Larcomb]

Having used both of the f/6.8 Telyts for most of the last 30 years and now using APO lenses as well I can assure you there's a world of diffrence between them.

 

So what? Note everyone can afford those APO lenses! They were 10x as expensive!The f/6.8 lenses were fabulous in any event. Not to mention compact, portable, and light-weight. The single tube could take both heads.

 

Discontinuing them was foolhardy. Hardly anyone bought the module APO lenses. It seems that a total of 3,000 lenses of the whole group was sold:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/800mm_f/5.6_APO-Telyt-R_Module

[wildlightphoto]

So what? Note everyone can afford those APO lenses! They were 10x as expensive!The f/6.8 lenses were fabulous in any event. Not to mention compact, portable, and light-weight. The single tube could take both heads.

 

Discontinuing them was foolhardy. Hardly anyone bought the module APO lenses. It seems that a total of 3,000 lenses of the whole group was sold:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/800mm_f/5.6_APO-Telyt-R_Module

 

There are enough used f/6.8 Telyts on the market that selling new ones was darned near impossible.

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[jaapv]

That is quite a large number for such a specialized system imo.

Personally I think the Achromats were good lenses in there time and still well usable in this this day and age, but if we start looking closely, we can see that optical design has not been stagnant.

I think Leica would sell about one a year nowadays.

[digitalpowershot]

Not that I would ever use an M this way, but I'm just curios. Will it be possible to mount with an adapter Canon L lenses too? Those 200mm f/1,8 or 300mm f/2,8 or even 500mm, 600mm, 800mm and not to forget the 1200mm ) ?!