Sony NEX 5n good entrance into the M lens world ?

[JackStantler]

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Hey,

 

Would it be a good plan to get a Sony NEX 5n with adaptor and a good Leica Lens before buying the leica Body ?

 

I know these lenses keep their value pretty good.

 

Since i don't have the budget to but a Leica Body and Lens at the same time, i was thinking maybe just invest in a good lens with a NEX. And then save up for an M8 or M9.

 

What do you guys think ?

Do the M lenses work well on the Sony NEX system ?

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[mmradman]

Nothing wrong with this approach, be mindful NEX5 is APS-C camera so you will need 35mm lens to get 50mm FOV.

 

Also consider buying second hand lens and camera & adapter, I bet there are some real bargains on earlier Sony cameras.

[flyalf]

Its a good bugdet option. However; not all Leica lenses performs well on the 5N. In partucular wides can give a problem with soft egdes (except the WATE). I used Leica lenses on both 5N and 7,

[A miller]

For under $1000 more you can get a used M8 in excellent condition. this is what i would do. this will give you a true rangefinder experience. a sony nex will not give you this experience, not even close. and you will struggle to use the leica glass using the focus peaking mumbo jumbo. apples and oranges.

 

surely if you are going to be buying leica glass you can manage the budget so that you can get an m8 body. i'd rather get a single leica lens and an m8 body than more than one lens and an nex body.

 

the m8 is very well made and at this point if you get a good one it will hold its value very well.

 

my two cents...

[JakeStone]

surely if you are going to be buying leica glass you can manage the budget so that you can get an m8 body.

 

then you know more than the TO.

 

 

regards

Jacob

[A miller]

Me donna who TO be, but s/he surely don't have your quality of "shooting" life at heart

[JakeStone]

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Me donna who TO be, but s/he surely don't have your quality of "shooting" life at heart

 

you do not want to make fun of non-native english speakers here, do you?

 

TO is acronym for thread owner.

[NightSun]

 

What do you guys think ?

Do the M lenses work well on the Sony NEX system ?

 

NEX-5N and NEX-6 work reasonably well with most of the M lenses, except for some wide-angle ones. However, from among the EVF-based mirrorless cameras, the closest in image quality to digital Leica Ms is still given by Ricoh GXR + M-mount module. Though outdated in some aspects when compared to NEX, it is a dedicated solution for using Leica M lenses and all of them work very well, including WA lenses with symmetrical design that pose a great challenge to the underlying sensor. I have experience with both NEX-6 and the Ricoh, and while Nex-6 is more fluid in operation and has a much nicer view in the EVF, I would still choose Ricoh over Nex.

 

BUT: as noted above by 'A miller', the experience is nowhere near to using a true rangefinder. Since having a Leica M9, I came to acknowledge this. While the Ricoh/NEX can be very well used for static objects, for anything more dynamic, such as street shooting, focusing with RF through a bright viewfinder is simply in another league compared to focusing through an EVF. It is not to say that EVF is useless for such purpose, but it comes with way too much fiddling by having to turn magnification/focus peaking on-off so that the enjoyment in taking photos is taken away (at least for me).

 

Another aspect is, with NEX/Ricoh you are stuck with APS-C. That is, you can't really exploit your lenses and it becomes notably limiting when you want to go 35mm equivalent focal length or wider. The problem is that in that case you can't really get a narrow depth of field, unless you commit to buy e.g. a Summilux 24/1.4 lens, which, however would be overkill both in expense and size to be used with a small EVF-camera.

 

Summed up, I would either start with a Leica M8 (though it also comes with some compromises, e.g. UV/IR filters) or with a Ricoh GXR + M-mount module.

[A miller]

you do not want to make fun of non-native english speakers here, do you?

 

TO is acronym for thread owner.

 

absolutely not. In all my English-speaking prowess, I actually misspelled "donno" thanks to my crack Apple spell-check.

 

Didn't mean to insult you. This is the opposite of a really big deal so please take my light-hearted silliness in proper context, and appreciate my time and input on the question for what it is - which is an effort to be helpful and not simply aimless boredom on my part (which is farthest from the case).

 

I still stand by the comments I made in my original post.

 

Good luck to the "TO"

[JakeStone]

absolutely not. In all my English-speaking prowess, I actually misspelled "donno" thanks to my crack Apple spell-check.

Didn't mean to insult you.

no problem, thanks for clarifying

 

I still stand by the comments I made in my original post.

I absolutely agree to your statements for myself and for sure for many other cases.

My point was, that the thread owner clearly stated, that he cannot afford a Leica body and lens at the same time. I am willing to respect this and we all should do. Otherwise we find solutions for another problem, but not for his problem.

 

Regards,

Jacob

[A miller]

Jacob - to me it is a bit of an internally inconsistent statement that one can afford "good Leica lenses" but not a used M8 body. There is just too much ambiguity to really know for sure what the TO can and cannot afford. It might be helpful for all of us who sincerely wish to comment for the TO to indicate his budget.

 

My assumption is that there is a $2K-$3K budget for "good Leica lenses.".

 

This is plenty to work with

 

A used 28mm elmarit and an Ex+ condition M8 would fit easily within this budget

 

Sometimes, I find the outside the box coments more enlightening...

[NightSun]

 

Another aspect is, with NEX/Ricoh you are stuck with APS-C. That is, you can't really exploit your lenses and it becomes notably limiting when you want to go 35mm equivalent focal length or wider. The problem is that in that case you can't really get a narrow depth of field, unless you commit to buy e.g. a Summilux 24/1.4 lens, which, however would be overkill both in expense and size to be used with a small EVF-camera.

 

And actually, to ponder a bit more on this issue of equivalent focal length/DOF/size, this is what you have to think about well, even if you would decide to buy a Nex first until you save some more money for a Leica M9/M240 camera.

 

Why? Let's say, your preferred focal length (on fullframe) is 50mm. That will make you having to buy a 35mm lens. And while there are quite some options out there, but if you examine them, it turns out that only few of them really makes sense on a Nex. E.g. you might want to look at Zeiss Biogon 35/2, or C-Biogon 35/2.8 lenses, as they are sharp and reasonable priced at the same time (possibly the best cost effective choices if you want modern, sharp, contrasty rendering). However, these don't perform that really well on Nex because of their symmetrical lens design. A Leica Summicron 35/2 ASPH is a good choice, but a more costly one. Summilux 35/1.4 ASPH (FLE/NON-FLE) is even more so, most probably out of your budget. There are Voigtlander lenses, but the only one that is really a good performer (unless you head for classic and softish rendering wide open) is the Nokton 35/1.2. Superb optics, but big enough in size that it makes your Nex completely unbalanced. The best option could be a Leica Summarit 35/2.5 that is not too expensive and yet gives that Leica look. Still, you can't expect a too thin DOF on the Nex with it . In contrast, later on a fullframe Leica M body, you can get a compromise in these factors much more easily, take just a Zeiss Planar 50/2 lens, which is not costly, but renders very sharp images from wide open and also DOF-wise you have a much broader ground to play. You would need a 35/1.4 lens on the Nex to achieve that and if you want sheer image quality, as well, then that would take a Summilux 35 to be comparable with a Zeiss 50/2 on an M9/M(240).

 

If you want 35 mm eq. focal length, then it's even worse. I bought a Leica Elmarit 24/2.8 lens beforehand (I went through this route, first having an APS-C, EVF-based camera), which works very well even on Nex, but it's already not too cheap and for DOF it behaves like a 35mm f/4 lens on a fullframe body. So, again, you can forget about thin DOF on the Nex.

 

Plus you will have to face that the lens you bought for the Nex, might not be your favorite when the time comes to buy your Leica camera. E.g. Leica Elmarit 24 lens becomes significantly wider and it's not optimal on the OVF of M9 for, example, as the widest frameline is for 28mm.

 

So, think well about this. In my experience, even if you buy Leica M lenses and an EVF-based APS-C camera first, it only makes sense if soon you will upgrade to the real thing. Otherwise you are stuck with compromises that you could avoid by choosing another lens-camera system (e.g. Leica T).