What adaptor to get?

[Beyder28]

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I am expecting a mint red scale elmar 50mm to come in a few days and I want some advice on the best adaptor to get to mount it on the M9?

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[luigi bertolotti]

If you like to stay classic, found a Leitz original one : is the well known IRZOO - 14097 (for 50 & 35 mm lenses), not difficult to find nor costly : otherwise there are, for instance, the CV adapters (see Adapters: LTM to M) which are well done and have the plus of 6 bit coding capability (which can't be done on the IRZOO).

[250swb]

I have a wide variety of adapetrs from Leica to CV to cheap Ebay self codable adapters, and all work very well and allow accurate focus. In my own case I wouldn't buy an expensive one again.

 

The thing to remember is that a lot of Leica screw mount lenses are meant to sit offset a small amount clockwise on an LTM body (to allow the photographer to see the focus scale if an accessory viewfinder was used). So in all likelihood if an adapter is described as 'LTM' it will mimic that offset on the M9. But CV do an adapter that mounts the lens square on the body, so the focus scale and apertures start top dead centre.

 

So you would think you want the CV adapter to mount the lens square wouldn't you? But if you don't use the original style LTM adapter with a lens that was offset, and has a focus lock, you can find you start to see your finger appearing in the viewfinder as you focus closer. The offset allows your finger to remain out of the way. A lot of people think the offset is down to poor machining and the adapter is therefore poor quality, which is a very wrong assumption.

 

Steve

[luigi bertolotti]

Yes, Steve has pointed right to the (small) issue of infinity lock... is also quoted in the page I linked to...and you are speaking of a classic Elmar, which has it... with the IRZOO there isn't such issue: for the CV, a tradeback for the coding capability...

[250swb]

But you can have your cake and eat it, because it is possible to buy an offset style adapter with machined coding rebates, and the coding option isn't limited to CV.

 

Steve