Leica glass on Nikon body?

[Niandra]

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I know this is strictly a Leica forum, but I was wondering if any of you use (or have used) Leica glass on a Nikon DSLR body.

 

I'll be getting a D700 this week and would love to purchase at least one Leica lens for it... not sure which one yet, but I had to ask. Leica lenses are like no other, in my opinion. As near perfection as possible.

 

I guess I should ask... which lens would be best for someone focusing mainly on portraits?

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[andybarton]

Search here for Leitax

 

I love my R glass on my D700 more than my DMR. just don't tell the diehards here ...

[lct]

... which lens would be best for someone focusing mainly on portraits?

My favourite (on Canon 5D) is the pre-apo Summicron-R 90/2 which is plenty sharp at f/4 and on and nicely softer at f/2 with a smooth bokeh. Matter of tastes though. You might prefer the apo if you don't intend to shoot your mother in law or your tax auditor.

[Jamie Roberts]

As always, I vote for the 80R Lux, one of the best portrait lenses ever made IMO.

[integrale]

Elmarit-R 35; a great all-rounder, sharp and very compact.

[ns_ng]

I decided to adapt some of my R lenses for my Sony A850. Prior to this I was using the DMR.

 

Wioh the DMR and its 1.37x crop, the edge and corner performance of the lenses was not visible. But the ff sensor will show up weaknesses in these two regions. The 28mm Elmarit-R (1st ver), performed very well with the DMR, but with ff sensor, at f2.8 and f4.0, the outer edges and corners were not sharp at all. Even at f5.6, the corners underperformed. For critical work, I would stop down to f8.0. Moreover, the outer edges and corners show some CA, although not severe, but could be visible dependiing on your enlargement. I suspect the 2nd version to have much better performance.

 

The 19mm Elmarit-R, 2nd ver, performed well in the centre to the outer 2/3 at f2.8. But the corners and edges were soft and only became sharp when stopped down to f5.6. Even at this aperture, the outer corners showed some softness. The outer corners kept improving until f11.0, but diffraction caused the performance at its centre to drop. I still like this lens as its distortion is very low and it has that typical Leica colour.

 

The pre-asph 90mm 'Cron is a great lens. Wide open, it has that soft, out-of-focus rendition, just great for portrait. But by f5.6, the lens is sharp, even to its edges. This is a much under appreciated lens.

 

The 180 Elmarit Apo is another great lens with ff sensor. Even at full aperture, its performance is outstanding. If you need this focal length, this Apo version is a must.

 

N.S. Ng

[Arif]

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As always, I vote for the 80R Lux, one of the best portrait lenses ever made IMO.

 

I agree! The first time I used it on the D3x was a wow moment for me.

[3rdtrick]

I have not been able to do this because I sold my D700 to fund the M9 but the Nikon Cafe has a great thread I have been following on just this.

 

NikonCafe.com

 

I hope to try it myself someday.

Pete

[missouri]

I was considering this matchup too with my D700. I'm pretty sure you'll need an adapter to attach the lens. But Wow all that tech, with a Leica lens.

[integrale]

I was considering this matchup too with my D700. I'm pretty sure you'll need an adapter to attach the lens. But Wow all that tech, with a Leica lens.

 

Hi Missouri!

 

You can't do it with an adapter and retain focus to infinity; you need to replace the R mount with an F mount, like the one from Leitax.

 

Andy Barton wrote a very extensive and informative thread on this exactly one year ago: andybarton on leitax etc.

 

A few months later, I did a similar conversion for my (then) D300: integrale on leitax