Search the Community

Hi, I know that Tele lens are not the most popular among Leica M users, but despite of this there are some old and new models in the market. My question is particularly for 135mm Tele lens, for what kind of photography do you use it? When you deicide to pick 135mm and mount it from your collection? Photo examples will be highly appreciate it

Just because I had 135 Tele-Elmar lying around, I used it on my M2. For framing I guessed based on central patch (it seems patch is 1/3rd the size) by comparing the framing against M240. I am not sure whether it will work. The film is still in the camera. I shot some closeup shots (5ft) as well to test focusing accuracy. Maybe in couple of weeks I will know. Has anyone tried this. Does it work?

or - why there will always be a 135 in my M system

Ideally, I would use my Leica M10 only with Leica or other M-mount lenses. However, given the advantages of high quality DSLR cameras for telephoto photography and optical stabilization (e.g., for whales and other sea and land wildlife, or for people or other relatively small subjects far away), I wonder how many of the photographers on this forum would use a DSLR and telephoto lens in addition to or instead of the Leica M10 with a 135mm or shorter lens? I have DSLR lenses (prime and zoom) that, in the telephoto range, go from 135mm up to 600mm. In turn, the faster of my lenses can take teleconverters up to double those focal lengths, and there is also a 1.5 apparent increase if using a half-frame sensor instead of full-frame. I have both the smaller Nikon D500 DX frame and a D800 FX frame. My current plan on vacation trips where a long focal length would be useful, will be to take (1) my Leica M10 with perhaps a 135mm lens in addition to one or more of my "normal" focal lengths (right now I have 35mm and 50mm and am considering a 75mm), plus (2) a Nikon camera body with a long lens. I rarely use a tripod. Thus, for lenses in the long range of focal lengths, image stabilization has been important to me. So . . . I will be very interested in what others do in regard to sticking with Leica M-mount lenses when they are photographing people, wildlife or other relatively small objects at long distances. And for those of you using a Leica M-mount 135mm lens, do you find any problem with its lacking image stabilization? I think I would buy a Visoflex 020 EVF for use with the 135 not only to see the image better than in the small frame-lined portion of the optical viewfinder, but also to hold the camera more still against my face rather than holding it away from me while looking at Live View.

Some time ago I started a blog (www.mbphotox.wordpress.com) about adapted 50mm lenses on my Canon DSLR. A Leica 50 was on my wishlist for half a year and when I finally went out to buy one, I came home with an Elmarit-R 135mm f/2.8 because the Cron had been picked up by another guy right before I arrived at the store. A few months later, I found a great offer online and bought an Elmarit-R 28mm and finally also the Summicron-R 50mm I had been looking for. Having three lenses, I figured "why not get back into shooting film?", and so I started looking for a suitable Leica R body. The SL2 was not an option since all my lenses are R-only, and the R6 was simply too damn expensive. R3 to R5 it was.. I stumbled upon this expensive offer that had been online for weeks, by a guy who wanted to sell his pristine Summicron-R 90mm together with a near-mint Leica R5... I ended up talking him down by 20% and bought the package Loaded a roll of Superia 200 last night and am looking forward to the results. Here are some pics (more can be found on the blog) The baseplate shows slight signs of wear, the brass shines through at some areas, but other than that it's perfect. My lenses, without the 90mm, I've still got to take pictures of that one. But it only arrived 2 days ago.