Question about R lenses on M240 with adapter

[seekwul]

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Hi

Sorry if this has been asked already - I ran a few searches and was unable to turn anything up.

 

As far as I can tell, there are R lenses available on the secondary market that are billed as having 1, 2 or 3 cams. Which of these would I want if I were only going to use the lens on the M-R adapter on an M 240 (or M-P 240) ?

 

Thanks in advance !

[lct]

The number of cams is not relevant when using R lenses on the M240 or any other digital M.

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[jaapv]

The same for ROM

[bocaburger]

From a mechanical standpoint the above 2 replies are correct. From an optical/IQ standpoint it gets a bit more complicated. 1-cam lenses are the oldest, dating from the original Leicaflex, 2-cam lenses came about with the SL, 3-cam came about with the Minolta-based R3, then 3rd-cam-only lenses, and finally ROM lenses along with the R8. Along the way the lens range was expanded, new versions of many lenses replaced older ones, and it is also said that even on those lenses whose optical formulae did not change, there were improvements in coatings. To further complicate matters, Leica and independent repair people offered update conversions, so it is not reliable to judge a lens' age or version based on the number of cams or if it has a ROM chip. I suggest doing some research into Leica R lenses if you plan on purchasing them now.

[jaapv]

Complicated by the fact that some lenses acquired a ROM during their production life, so there are ROM and non-ROM versions of otherwise identical lenses.

[CheshireCat]

Rule of thumb: if your need to choose among several "identical" lenses, and you cannot test them, then go for the one with the highest serial number.