Leica R Lenses, I Love Them

[bjdejong]

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I am starting to use my R lenses om my Canon 5D mkII. It is a joy.

 

For more information see: Infocast.nl - Blog - Leica R Lenses, I Love

[lct]

How does your Brightscreen darken at f/4 and f/5.6? Can you still use the split image prism at that aperture? Just curious as i have a Brightscreen with microprisms on my 5D1 and i've just ordered a split image from the same maker.

[bjdejong]

The Brightscreen just works fine. I haven't run into issues like you describe.

 

I only suspect that the Brightscreen affects the lightmeter with about half a stop, but I need to test that still.

 

Cheers,

 

BJ

[farnz]

BJ,

 

I use my R lenses on my 5D MkII too. I particularly like that you can use LiveView to perfectly nail focus and to shoot stopped right down because the LCD automatically brightens so you can clearly see what's in focus.

 

 

LCT,

 

Perhaps it's time for you to trade up to a 5D Mark II.

 

Pete.

[bjdejong]

How does your Brightscreen darken at f/4 and f/5.6? Can you still use the split image prism at that aperture? Just curious as i have a Brightscreen with microprisms on my 5D1 and i've just ordered a split image from the same maker.

I must correct my previous answer on the aspect of how the Brightscreen darkens at f/4 and f/5.6? I have just checked it on my 21mm. f/4 is just fine (you need to keep your eye centered though), f/4 1/2 is acceptable, > f/5.6 the darkening is clearly becoming an issue.

[bjdejong]

BJ,

 

I use my R lenses on my 5D MkII too. I particularly like that you can use LiveView to perfectly nail focus and to shoot stopped right down because the LCD automatically brightens so you can clearly see what's in focus.

 

Pete.

 

This sounds like I have to start using LiveView for a change #nevertooldtolearn

 

Thanks for the tip Pete,

 

BJ

[lct]

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...Perhaps it's time for you to trade up to a 5D Mark II...

Not my cup of tea i'm afraid. The 'Leica solution' will come before the 5D3 hopefully.

[lct]

I must correct my previous answer on the aspect of how the Brightscreen darkens at f/4 and f/5.6? I have just checked it on my 21mm. f/4 is just fine (you need to keep your eye centered though), f/4 1/2 is acceptable, > f/5.6 the darkening is clearly becoming an issue.

Not that bad as the 21/4 behaves like a f/5.6 lens more or less due to vignetting, with the 5D1 at least.

[farnz]

This sounds like I have to start using LiveView for a change #nevertooldtolearn

 

Thanks for the tip Pete,

 

BJ

BJ,

 

I should have mentioned that using LiveView you can magnify the image up to 10 times to make sure you've nailed focus before you take the shot.

 

Pete.

[Jamie Roberts]

You can also get focus confirming adapters, which work (much) more quickly than live view. I haven't used them in awhile, but when I did they were fine.

 

I'm waiting to see what Leica has to show for R users in the next few months or so... before I either buy a new Canon body or adapt the lenses for a Nikon mount.

[Guest jarski]

for Nikon, one has to modify R-lens for the camera. dont currently own any dSLR but my Cron-R 35 was nice on D200 IIRC

[mgcd]

You can also get focus confirming adapters, which work (much) more quickly than live view. I haven't used them in awhile, but when I did they were fine.

 

I'm waiting to see what Leica has to show for R users in the next few months or so... before I either buy a new Canon body or adapt the lenses for a Nikon mount.

 

Jamie, do you still have your DMR? I still use mine constantly but I probably will supplement it with either a Nikon D3 or D700 soon.

 

Cheers,

[bjdejong]

You can also get focus confirming adapters, ...

 

Do you have some more information on what "focus confirming adapters" are and how they work? For me that is a completely unknown concept.

 

Cheers,

 

BJ

[lct]

Do you have some more information on what "focus confirming adapters" are and how they work?...

Those are adapters with electric contacts allowing the camera to blink or beep when it thinks it is in focus.

Not accurate in all cases but handy.

Mines are from Fotodiox and Enjoyyourcamera.com.

The Phototodiox is lighter (22 g vs 41 g) due to the black part of it being steel vs brass made apparently.

The main difference comes from the 2 steel springs, instead of the usual slots, of the Fotodiox.

Makes the Fotodiox more difficult to mount (and unmount) onto the body but as soon as it is mounted, lenses are easy to screw and unscrew onto the adapter.

Beware that some Fotodiox adapters don't fit on some Canon bodies due to tight tolerances or sample variation i don't know. Not sure which of the adapter or the body is the culprit but two of them did not fit on my 5D1

Both AF confirm chips look similar. Both are grossly glued onto the adapters but the Fotodiox uses more glue for whatever reason.

I use the Photodiox for heavy lenses (280, 180) and the Enjoy from 21 to 135.

Cheaper AF confirm adapters can be found on e**y though.

To be avoided on heavy lenses IMHO.

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[bjdejong]

Thank you lct , I'll obviously have to do a bit of invetigation this weekend.

 

Cheers,

BJ

[bjdejong]

In addition to the above-mentioned aspects of using R lenses on a Canon body, I have also learned that the Brightscreen screen has an effect on the Canon lightmeter. When using the integral measuring method my 5D mkII seems to overexpose 2/3 EV. I have tested this by comparing the measuring results of the standard Canon screen with my screen from Brightscreen (type #5), using in a Leica R Summicron 50mm at f/2.

[Jamie Roberts]

Jamie, do you still have your DMR? I still use mine constantly but I probably will supplement it with either a Nikon D3 or D700 soon.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Hi Conrad!

 

I truly love my DMR, but last week I finally sold it along with my R9 I already feel the loss of the system, but business is, alas, business.

 

I haven't found anything that gives me the colour response and file robustness out of the box, though I am using an M9 a lot, which I also like very, very much. But it's a different animal.

 

For a dSLR, I'm currently using the D3, which is great in low-light, but the colour response doesn't usually thrill me (especially after being spoiled by the DMR). It's a completely serviceable device, though, and a great body. I think I must have the only one that has problems with autofocus, though, and like all AF dSLRs these days, they're really not meant for manual focus, though truth to be told, the D3 has a pretty great viewfinder for an AF dSLR.

 

I honestly am not sure what to do. I have to take apart the R lenses (which I haven't sold) to adapt them to Nikon; on the other hand, I could pick up a Canon system for now and use the adapters. But I still couldn't use the R19 without shaving mirrors and such, and Canon's colour is also a headache IMO, though in a different way than Nikon's

 

I wish Leica would announce their strategy for replacing the DMR.

 

How I wish there was an R10!

[glenerrolrd]

Jamie

 

I am in the same boat. I have more nice R glass than I would need if I had 2 R10 s ..19mm thru 800mm with no gaps. I adapted a few for the Nikon mount and have found that the D3X produces some pretty nice files with much better color than the D3 /D700.

 

My DMR/R9 sits idle even though it produces the best color because its ISO performance beyond 400 is suspect and even 1/2 underexposure can kill the image. My opinion others might disagree .

 

I need to test the new D3S which is said to have much improved color sensitivity and of course clean ISO 1600 .

 

The new Nikon glass is much improved ..if you look at files from the new 24/1.4 ,the 70-200/2.8 or the 105/2.8VR you can see better color these are big improvements over even the best Nikon glass. And then you have some of the Zeiss Zf.2 glass like the 21/2.8 ..so a mixed bag is possible .

 

Nothing beats an all Leica R solution on a Leica body but for now thats a DMR ....come on Leica !

[mgcd]

Hi Conrad!

 

I truly love my DMR, but last week I finally sold it along with my R9 I already feel the loss of the system, but business is, alas, business.

 

I haven't found anything that gives me the colour response and file robustness out of the box, though I am using an M9 a lot, which I also like very, very much. But it's a different animal.

 

For a dSLR, I'm currently using the D3, which is great in low-light, but the colour response doesn't usually thrill me (especially after being spoiled by the DMR). It's a completely serviceable device, though, and a great body. I think I must have the only one that has problems with autofocus, though, and like all AF dSLRs these days, they're really not meant for manual focus, though truth to be told, the D3 has a pretty great viewfinder for an AF dSLR.

 

I honestly am not sure what to do. I have to take apart the R lenses (which I haven't sold) to adapt them to Nikon; on the other hand, I could pick up a Canon system for now and use the adapters. But I still couldn't use the R19 without shaving mirrors and such, and Canon's colour is also a headache IMO, though in a different way than Nikon's

 

I wish Leica would announce their strategy for replacing the DMR.

 

How I wish there was an R10!

 

How I wish there was an R10 too! Sorry to hear that you sold your DMR Jamie, I was thinking about selling me mine some time back but thankfully I did not. It is challenging to work in very low light conditions, but honestly I started in the K25, K64 era so I do what I always did: adapt. In truth the reason I haven't bought into other systems yet is the DMR's colour quality. After seeing tons and tons of images from the Nikon D3 produced by a friend of mine ( I also gave it a test run) I'm impressed by the low light performance but not by the colour rendition. I'd be a candidate for the S2 system if only the body was priced more in line with my expectations. Anyway, I still plan to purchase a D3 or D700 sometime in the Fall or at the beginning of next year, while still keeping my DMR for sure.

 

Cheers

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[Jamie Roberts]

{snipped} After seeing tons and tons of images from the Nikon D3 produced by a friend of mine ( I also gave it a test run) I'm impressed by the low light performance but not by the colour rendition. I'd be a candidate for the S2 system if only the body was priced more in line with my expectations. {snipped}

 

Yes, a less costly S2 system (with R adapters) would completely make me forget the R10 And the D3.

 

I wish Leica could make an S2 / special with half the resolution, twice the speed and and was R-capable (though that might be an R10, right? )

 

Nikon colour from the D3 IMO just takes so much work, especially for skin tones. Now, Glen is saying the D3x is way better; maybe the D3s will be too. All I know is I fight with the D3 where I just didn't have to with the DMR (and to a lesser extent, the M9, which is also much less tweaky overall, though I still prefer the DMR).

 

If you can wait, I'd wait for the update to the D700 / D3 line. I have a feeling the next ones will be better... though as you've said, the low-light performance is already excellent.