Mount a Leica s2 lens on a Sony A850?

[Joecamera]

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I've been extremely frustrated over Leica's unwillingness to build a Kodak sensored Digiflex FF body for Leica's incredible R series lenses. So, I sold a pile of Leica gear on eBay, and kept back one 50mm Summicron MF lens with an adapter for my present system, a Sony A850 FF 24 megapixil DSLR body. I picked up a host of Minolta AF lenses for it, including a Sony 70-200mm F2.8 "G" lens. Well, the Sony lens I returned to the dealer as the images were extremely soft. Having used Leica "R" for such a long time, nothing even compares to them. The other Minolta AF lenses will eventually end up on e-Bay as well. What I really lust for is a Leica "S" AF lens to work on my Sony A850. Which poses the question-Is there any possibility to use a Leica S AF lens in full function on a Sony A850?????? I am so pleased with the images my 50mm F2 Summicron with an adapter on my Sony yields, I can't find words to express this. Thanks in advance for any ideas on this!

Joe

[dfarkas]

I've been extremely frustrated over Leica's unwillingness to build a Kodak sensored Digiflex FF body for Leica's incredible R series lenses. So, I sold a pile of Leica gear on eBay, and kept back one 50mm Summicron MF lens with an adapter for my present system, a Sony A850 FF 24 megapixil DSLR body. I picked up a host of Minolta AF lenses for it, including a Sony 70-200mm F2.8 "G" lens. Well, the Sony lens I returned to the dealer as the images were extremely soft. Having used Leica "R" for such a long time, nothing even compares to them. The other Minolta AF lenses will eventually end up on e-Bay as well. What I really lust for is a Leica "S" AF lens to work on my Sony A850. Which poses the question-Is there any possibility to use a Leica S AF lens in full function on a Sony A850?????? I am so pleased with the images my 50mm F2 Summicron with an adapter on my Sony yields, I can't find words to express this. Thanks in advance for any ideas on this!

Joe

 

There is no way to use an S lens on any other system. The lenses have electronically controlled focus and aperture which can only be controlled from an S2 body.

 

David

[peterv]

David is right of course.

Mechanically it could perhaps be possible with a good adapter with the right flange focal distance adjustment.

But the proprietary electronics are not compatible without the help of both Leica and Sony.

 

It's an interesting idea, though.

And for me personally this option would be very tempting since I currently work with two a900's that I'm quite content with. I've been on the fence regarding the S2 but until now I've not bought one because of the price of admission into the system, especially the camera body itself. I'm really very impressed with the optical quality of the S lenses, but the technique in the camera body is three years old by now.

 

I'm not saying it's bad technique, mind you. Just that for a digital camera that was designed with 2008 technique, it seems in a way logical there'll be a successor at Photokina 2012 and that makes it hard for me to pay the full price of admission at this point of the development of the S system. To be able to start investing in the S lenses and use them on the a900 in anticipation of the Photokina 2012 would be a dream come true. Invest in the wonderful S glass and than at a later point decide for an S body...

 

Last month I tried two different Carl Zeiss ZA 24 f2.0 lenses, and sent them both back because of all kinds of issues, very weak corner sharpness, heavy CA, strong back focussing. After that I gave up trying to find a reasonable copy. I'd rather pay €5000 for S glass that I'll be satisfied with for the coming 10 years, than pay €1200 for A-mount lenses that are not really good enough.

 

One more thing.

Every once in a while there are new rumors emerging about Sony and Leica working together on different levels. I guess these rumors are started because it seems likely Leica is looking at Sony as a possible supplier of sensors for future camera's, but hey, you never know...

 

Here's a juicy rumor from two months ago:

 

sonyalpharumors | Blog | (SR1-SR2) Unbelieveable rumor: Medium format camera from Sony?

 

Kind regards from another A-mount user (Leica S wannabe)

[tom0511]

this might sound strange but I have compared the S2 with 70mm lens to the A900 with Zeiss 24-70 and besides the shallower DOF and maybe smoother bokeh I found the A900 with the Zeiss zoom to do very well. If I was usig an A900 I couldnt see spending the money for a slowish and big (for 35mm sensor size) S lens, I would just use Zeiss glass.

just my opinion.

[mwilliamsphotography]

I also have a pair of A900s for workhorse stuff ... like many mass producers there are sample variations with the lenses ... including the Zeiss offerings. It took 3 tries to get an excellent copy of the 24/2 ... but just one try to get a good Sony 70-200/2.8G APO. A bit of a PITA, but ya gotta test everything right out of the box first.

 

Likewise, I tested all four of the S lenses. I was especially interested in the 120/2.5 Macro because an acquaintance got one that exhibited some CA. Fortunately, mine did not ... in fact, all four S lenses I have seem well inspected for quality control.

 

I'm not sure I'd wait for some mythical S2-II or S3 ... Leica can barely get out what they already have designed. If the S2 was designed well, there are plenty of things that can be instituted via firmware upgrades ... which is exactly what they seem to have been doing. There are loads of other things to be done for the S2 as is ... like get the CS lenses out the door, and work on software profiles that make more of what you already have.

 

It is conceivable that a large CMOS sensor camera could be in the future ... how much that would alter the IQ is anyone's guess ... but it most certainly would open up the possibility of Live View and higher ISOs ... neither of which would induce me move to a new $25,000. body.

 

The camera as is does the job ... you start moving past 40 meg and the whole shooting relationship changes dramatically ... given the form factor of the S2, I'm not sure this would be very wise.

 

-Marc

[Joecamera]

Thanks to David, Peter, Tom and Marc for the counsel!

 

Deep down I knew that for all practical purposes mounting an S lens on an Sony A850 was probably a bad idea, but you never know! There are some brilliant minds on this forum. And I understand Leica's position on dropping the "R" system. No corporation wants to lose money. Ask any stockholder. That doesn't make it any easier. I remember my first Leica, a Leicaflex SL, That viewfinder was stunning! The images equally so. Therefore I spent a fortune over a dozen years acquiring a mass of Leica bodies and lenses to use in my business as an aviation artist. The need for auto focus became slowly apparent as my eyes aged, along with the rest of me. But there was no way I was going to drop $30,000 for an AF S-2 starter kit, now three years old.

 

At this point, thanks to some good advice, I do believe I will look for a 24-70 f2.8 Zeiss, and possibly a 70-200mm f2.8 APO lens out of the box, and after I test them, then purchase it. I managed to get my hands on a highly rated 28-135mm Minolta "secret handshake" lens and the image quality is quite good, even my wife couldn't tell the difference between it and the Summicron 50mm..

 

Again, THANKS!!!

Joe