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Leica M mount - max weight ? torque ?


MaxBerlin

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Without getting kicked out for life - let's just say I have a friend that wanted to skirt the sell a kidney get a Noctilux scheme and decided to circumvent it by buying a Zeiss Contax 1.2 "50 Jahre" (this is the 85mm 1.2 Contax)

 

The thing is that Zeiss lens (while costing 1/2 the Noc) weighs another 300+ gms more. Add in a spacer that adds a little extra fulcrum to that weight ( 900+ for lens) it sounds like it might be an equation for disaster.

 

Your thoughts are welcome on this issue but please not a Leica/Zeiss debate - tia.

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Hello Max,

 

Since I didn't say it before - Welcome to the Forum.

 

When you have a heavy lens attached to the camera pick them both up by lifting the lens. Lift w/ your left hand underneath the lens. Right hand works camera controls.

 

Leicas are decidedly right handed altho ambidexterously eye'd cameras.

 

The mount can support the weight of the camera itself.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

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But it would be foolish to walk around some city with this set up ? Not only because it's heavy but ultimately it would fail the lens mount or distort it ?

 

And thank you - happy to have found you all - I am happy to be a Leica user. My wife not so much. I am obsessed at this time - hope it wears off..

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The first disaster will be trying to focus an 85 f/1.2 SLR lens that has no rangefinder coupling. ;)

 

I doubt the mount itself will suffer - it was designed to be used with 560mm lenses plus the weight of a Visoflex (SLR-type viewing device). If your camera is an M8/M9, it is possible the clamshell-type body construction is not quite as strong as the one-piece film cameras - but I regularly carry a 650-gram 75 f/1.4 mounted on an M9 without a hint of trouble.

 

Which - BTW - DOES allow rangefinder focusing - unlike the 85mm Zeiss f/1.2, and costs about the same as the Zeiss.

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With a degree in engineering I can take an educated guess that the mount will take continual use with anything we could lift up and want to

 

I think it's more about will it work and if it does do you want to lug it around

 

Having said that the Nikon D4 is some 700g more than the M9, it's not whether you can lift and handhold it's how you feel about it. The Noctilux is heavy but before we get all precious about weight the average skinny press guy will lug around far heavier all day without falling over

 

If you can sort out the coupling ( probably too tricky ) then I say have some fun !

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A heavy lens won't damage the mount in itself, it is leverage on the mount that causes damage, but that can be with a light lens or a heavy lens. This should be taken seriously because if the lens can't be focused on an M body you shouldn't rule out the user jumping up and down on the combination at some point in the future.

 

Steve

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