Elpro 2 closeup lens with D-Lux 4?

[Anouk]

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Has anyone ever used a Leica Elpro 2 with a D-Lux 4?

I have an adapter tube, with 52mm. If I use a 52-55 stepup ring, this should be a winning combo, no?

Since my other camera is a Digilux 2 and its proprietary Elpro-D is beyond the reqch of my wallet, I was looking into buyin one of the Elpro filters for my D-Lux 4>

Does anyone have the specifications for the Elpro 1,2,3 and 4? I'm not quite sure which one I should get (it would be for macro work on flowers).

 

Thanks for your input!

[elgenper]

Given the close focussing ability of the DL4 alone, I doubt you would gain much by adding a closeup lens, Elpro or other.

 

The rule-of-thumb for selecting a suitable closeup lens for any camera lens is to determine the close focussing limit of the camera lens (in meters) and then invert this value (e.g. a camera lens focussing down to 0.5 m gives 1/0.5 = 2). This number is the required strength of the closeup lens in diopters to get a continuous focussing range down to half that of the camera lens alone.

 

So, if the DL4 itself focusses to 5 cm, you would need a 20 diopter lens (and I doubt you´d find one as strong as that), and this would take you down to 2,5 cm, with vastly inferior optical quality and difficulties of lighting the subject.

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[ho_co]

Keep in mind also that the Elpro 2 is a cemented achromat specifically designed to maintain the corrections of the 50/2 R when focusing just a bit closer than the lens alone.

 

Since it's computed for a specific lens, and since when it's used on that lens it doesn't focus nearly as close as the D-Lux 4 lens does without attachment, my guess is that using the Elpro 2 with the D-Lux 4 wouldn't give you any benefit at all.

Edited July 4, 2011 by ho_co

[Anouk]

Hi guys,

 

I figured as much. I don't use my D-Lux 4 as often anymore, since I've acquired my precious Digilux. The latter camera does have a rather large minimum focusing distance, I forgot that isn't the case with the D-Lux 4! But as I said, I can't afford an Elpro-D filter.

 

Thanks for your replies!

[farnz]

... So, if the DL4 itself focusses to 5 cm, you would need a 20 diopter lens (and I doubt you´d find one as strong as that), and this would take you down to 2,5 cm, with vastly inferior optical quality and difficulties of lighting the subject.

The DL4 focuses down to 1 cm at the wide end of the lens so a 100 diopter lens would be needed.

 

Pete