leica r lenses on 20d

[smokysun]

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i've ordered an adaptor and would like to get at least one leica lens, either a 35 or 50 f/2 summicron. some questions. what is a 'safari' lens and why more expensive? would a summilux be better? what is 1 cam, 2 cam, 3 cam vs. rom? early or late? canada, germany, or japan? elmirit vs. summicron vs. vario, etc.?

 

thanks in advance,

 

wayne

 

ps. are any of the 35-70 zooms really good?

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[carstenw]

The safari lenses are painted olive green, and are otherwise no different. There were fewer of them, hence the price. Wrt. cams, you don't need to worry for use on a 5D, but they are the mechanism for communicating with the Leica cameras, and 1, 2, 3, R, ROM is the old-to-new sequence. Most of the really interesting lenses are at least 3-cam, some are 3-cam plus R, and ROM is the newest, most expensive variant, with electronics that are fully irrelevant for use on non-modern-Leica cameras. There are only Canada and Germany lenses, no Japan ones that I know of. Both are equally good, but the designs tended to be similar in Canada, and later, in Germany. The old German lenses were made in Wetzlar, the new ones in Solms.

 

The 35-70/4 is apparently an underrated lens. The 35-70/2.8 is apparently superb, but will set you back perhaps $6000, so forget about it for now. The older f/3.5 lens is less good.

 

Noctilux = f/1, f/1.2

Summilux = f/1.4

Summicron = f/2

Elmarit = f/2.8

Elmar = f/4

 

There are exceptions, mostly either older design, or telephoto lenses (Telyt). These names are not important. Vario means zoom.

 

With certain Leica lenses, it is really important to get the right version. For the 50/2, for example, you want to pick up this one (but please, a clean one):

 

Image:SUMMICRON-HYPERFOCAL.jpg - Wikipedia

 

The older one looks like this, and isn't nearly as good:

 

http://www.netlaputa.ne.jp/~shima/Leica/Summicron_R50mm_small.jpg

 

The good and less good 35/2 lenses look very similar, respectively.

 

Note that focusing a manual-focus lens (MF) can be a real bear on a crop camera like the 20D. You will probably want to look into a Katz focusing screen, or some equivalent.

 

For these types of questions, I can really recommend the following forum, where lots of people are trying similar things:

 

Alternative Digital Systems & Lenses - FM Forums

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Wayne I have a great 50 cron on e-bay that you will want for sure and there is also a 28 and 80 but the 50 cron is a great start

[Cindy Flood]

Wayne,

I will be selling an excellent 35 f/2 and a user 50 f/1.4 with adapters. If you are interested, please pm me.

Cindy

[jrgeoffrion]

There are only Canada and Germany lenses, no Japan ones that I know of. Both are equally good, but the designs tended to be similar in Canada, and later, in Germany. The old German lenses were made in Wetzlar, the new ones in Solms.

 

 

The 35-70mm f/4 is totally underrated. It's a great lens and made in Japan [by Kyocera I believe but not 100% sure].

 

You'll have a hard time focusing with the 20D screen. The Ee-S screen for the 5D is fabulous (for faster lenses).

[sean_reid]

Should we ask for a classifieds forum on the site? It seems like it might helpful for lots of people.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[woodyspedden]

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I have a mint copy of the Safari 50 Lux which I no longer need as I have the latest 50Lux R. I f there are any collectors out there who would like to know about or buy a Safari 50 Lux, give me a private email and we can talk.

 

Woody Spedden

Fort Collins CO

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Should we ask for a classifieds forum on the site? It seems like it might helpful for lots of people.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

 

Well it can be a nightmare too on a site. Pay a fee and run a non reply ad period. Goes away after 2 weeks. If I started a site that is exactly what i would do.

[smokysun]

hi all,

 

thanks for all the info, especially the rundown by carsten.

 

yes, i would like very much a sale forum. fred miranda does it, but dominated by nikon and canon. anything else tends to get buried fast. i think one for strictly leica users would actually benefit leica. with the m8 out everybody will be looking for lenses.

 

let me digest this info and do a a little research. i am concerned about focusing, but i know split-screens have been made, though i know nothing about katz.

 

thanks again. this is a big help. i remember when, guy, you were switching to leica. quite a presence on the fred miranda buy and sell.

 

wayne

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Thanks Wayne . Manual focussing leica glass is not to bad . First they are very smooth mechnical to focus. The issue is canon makes viewfinders and screens for Auto focus and not manualfocusing . There is no contrast or grit I like to call it to focus with. So Brightscreen and katz make screens for them . Also so does canon. Focusing is really not the issue but dealing with stop down is a PITA after awhile. Some folks does notbother them but It bohers me and one reason i stayed on the DMR besides the images. Just more work that took my mind off the image . Manual focusing i actually thinkmore but that is a whole thread by itself. Depends on what type of photography you like and what would work best for you as the shooter

[smokysun]

hi guy,

 

thanks again. what is stop down? does this mean having to gauge the exposures?

 

as for shooting style, mainly i'd like to start with doing portraits. the 50 on the 20d would work well for this and i wouldn't be in a hurry. the 35-70 does sound like a lot of bang for the buck. i'll have to look at some pictures.

 

wayne

[Guest guy_mancuso]

You would have to manually focus wide open than stop down to the working aperture to shot like at F8 you physically have to do that. Sort of like a view camera setup. For Portraits it can be a issue. reason being is you focus they move by the time you stop down. It was a big issue for me becuase i shoot a long lens and any movemnt can throw focus off like a 180mm i use all the time and on the Canon it was a problem

[smokysun]

hmm, sounds like it might be wiser to go with a shorter lens. i've been looking at pics on pbase, a lot of great ones by cindy with the 5d and various manual lenses. i guess i still don't quite understand the stop down process. lots of lovely shots with the 35 f2, among others. and one fellow using the 50 sum on the first canon rebel and getting very sharp, contrasy pics.

[sean_reid]

Hi Wayne,

 

You may want to take a look at my DMR review again. There's stuff in there that would be relevant to what you're considering.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[carstenw]

Wayne, did you ever use a manual SLR in the film days? You choose the aperture right on the lens, but no matter what aperture you set, it stays wide open for focusing, and the camera moves a little lever behind the lens to actually move to the chosen aperture at the time you release the shutter. This is called "stopping down". There used to be a button on some cameras for "depth of field preview", which would also stop the lens down, make the viewfinder darker, but show you the depth of field, live.

 

With manual lenses and adapters, the adapter usually has a little peg somewhere which holds the lens in the stopped down position, ie. the aperture is always closed down to the chosen value. Since it is hard enough to focus with a lens wide open, people usually focus wide open and then stop down before shooting. This is an extra, manual step and can be a pain. I used to shoot wide open most of the time, or simply focus at the desired f-stop, and keep it relatively open, like f/2.8.

 

Note that some lenses have significant focus shift when stopping down. Fast lenses are the worst culprits, and lenses like the 80 Lux can shift so much that the initial focusing plane is not even in focus any more if you focus wide open and then stop down to f/8, say. You need to learn the workflow for handling such situations, if that is really what you want to do.

 

I would recommend starting with the 50 Summicron. It is a sweet little lens, easy to focus, and is not too fast, avoiding most of the focus shift problems. You should be able to find a 3-Cam model for around $300 or so. Guy's is more expensive because it has ROM, Guy being a Leica R9 user. If you want to keep the option of an R8 or R9 with DMR open for later, then this makes sense.

 

Guy, you misspelled Summicron as Summricron. You might not be reaching all your potential buyers.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Thanks Carsten and yes Sean has this detailed out very nice on his site about manual stop down, nice technical instructions on it. I did this with my canons for several years and it works good just a pain to work like this and finally gave up and bought the DMR but many folks are doing it and getting extremely nice results because simply fact is leica and Zeiss lenses offer some beautifull lenses

[smokysun]

hi carsten,

 

you've been really helpful. i've been testing myself with a brand new sigma 50mm 2.8 macro (i like the sigma build and colors, though i've a number of L lenses). unfortunately, the auto focus usually wins out against my manual focus. i suspect the screen a problem.

 

that said, i found a $200 50 summicron canada 3 cam late at keh and have ordered it. if i hate it, i'll send it back. (I've had very good luck with their bargain lenses. often they simply have too many and mark good ones down.)

 

do you happen to know a table for it's hyperfocal distances? most of the pro shooters i've seen on video (like gary winogrand and hcb) seem to set the focus and f stop and fire away.

 

 

hi sean,i'll take a look at the dmr review. thanks again for the tip.

 

hi guy, as you see, i've gone for a cheap trial which i can send back. mainly i want to test the qualities of a standard leica lens. and i really enjoy shooting with a 50mm on the 20d. you really have made me think about my shooting style and i probably should have been a photo journalist. i like using a big camera where i can't hide and i like to work up close. here's the latest example: striking uncle jack Photo Gallery by wayne pease at pbase.com

 

again, thanks to all. i remember when guy got hooked on leica lenses. here's hoping i have less of an appetite!

 

wayne

[cmb_]

here's hoping i have less of an appetite!

 

Good luck on that score! Once you take it out of the box and feel how solid it is, how smoothly it operates, and see how wonderful the images can be there will be no turning back. See you on the slippery slope!

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Hallo,

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[rsolomon]

Wayne,

your the perfect guy for leica to better understand ..... you see the value the leica lens, the heart of the company, but yet use a Canon body vs leica body why ?

 

just curious is it price ? or is there some other tools/features/functions available with the canon

 

thanks

[smokysun]

hi richard,

 

an interesting question. for a year i used the d2 and d-lux 2 exclusively. frankly, i was never happy with the panasonic build, though the lenses on both great and i've found they're the best with b&w where the sensor doesn't matter as much.

 

in my book the only real leica digitals are the dmr and m8 where build quality comes into super play. (and i'm sure the german produced digitals will get better). and there it is money. when they make a $2500 m9xx as a true leica, we'll see.

 

and i'd love to see them produce a ricoh grd type cam for an afforable price. samsung doesn't make the best, but, boy, are their new digicams built like tanks! i can't tell you how disappointed i was with the $800 build quality of the d-lux 2 when i received it in the mail. i think to carry the leica label, a leica camera should be built as the m8 seems to be.

 

guess that's the long and the short of it. but give me a few days with a leica lens and i may dance to a different tune.

 

thanks,

 

wayne