Adapter for Leica R will be on sale from end 2016 ???

[ramarren]

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To be honest, I don't understand why so many ppl insist on using the Automatic Aperture adapters. I use my R lenses on my A7s, mostly for video , and I don't feel challenged using the R-lenses with the EVF, it allows gain and let focus the lens comfortable in regular shooting situations stopped down.

For my use stacked adapters will be ok.

 

There are two primary advantages of a dedicated R Adapter SL with aperture control and auto-diaphragm operation are:

• Increased metering range :: since the aperture is generally held open until exposure time, the metering system has more light to work with and knows what's set vs what full aperture is. This expands the metering range by several stops. 
• Access to other metering modes :: without aperture control, you do not have access to P or T AE metering modes. 

I'm perfectly comfortable using the SL with the two-adapter solution as it is, but I look forward to a dedicated adapter with the hope of aperture control and AASD for the additional capabilities it offers. Also, a single adapter will have less fitment lash in the bayonet flanges and will make what is already an excellent, tight, "as designed" feel even better. 

 

The SL is such a good camera and such a good performer with my R lenses just as it is, a dedicated adapter will do nothing but improve upon it! 

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[IkarusJohn]

Here's a question for one of the DMR practitioners.  What information was an R ROM-equipped lens able to transfer to the DMR?  Aperture in use?  Focal length (on a zoom lens)?

We should reasonably expect to see this transferred in an Leica R to SL adapter, and if that information did not transfer to the DMR, it seems unlikely that it will be located and expressed for the SL.  

 

scott

 

Hi Scott, 

 

I am not a DMR user, but I was curious to understand the benefits of a ROM lens.  This from the APO-Telyt website:

 

 

 

• ROM-lenses (1996-09): The R8 featured electronics that could take advantage of lens-specific information to correct for lens vignetting, to adjust the zoom reflector on flash guns according to lens focal length or to correctly display aperture information if accessories, like tele-extenders, were attached to the lens. This lens-specific information was stored in a Read-Only Memory (ROM) chip that was added in the form of a strip of electrical contacts between the mount and the rear element of R-lenses. The ROM chip came with all newly sold lenses at the time, but could also be retrofitted by Leica technicians to older lenses. ROM-lenses have the R-cam and can also be mounted on R3-R7 cameras, where they support all the functions that these cameras offer.

 

So it is likely that the adapter will be able to provide the SL with focal length (for R zooms), aperture in use and lens specific information - quite an undertaking.  However, as most lens specific information is now stored in the SL database for R lenses, the real benefit will be transmitting accurate aperture information into the EXIF data.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Hi Scott, 

 

I am not a DMR user, but I was curious to understand the benefits of a ROM lens.  This from the APO-Telyt website:

 

 

So it is likely that the adapter will be able to provide the SL with focal length (for R zooms), aperture in use and lens specific information - quite an undertaking.  However, as most lens specific information is now stored in the SL database for R lenses, the real benefit will be transmitting accurate aperture information into the EXIF data.

 

 

Reading your quote carefully, it sounds as if only the  static information stored on the ROM chip is being transferred, with the proviso that the 2X and 1.4X extenders could correct that information by 2X or 2.4X.  In that case, what focal length is read for a zoom -- min, mean, max, or actual?  And was aperture readout and stop-down control down with the cams or electrically on the R8, R9 and DMR?  A DMR user would know.  I haven't found much online description of the DMR's functions, but I haven't looked beyond visiting APOTelyt and Thorsten Overgaard's sites.  Overgaard used the DMR for a few years, but didn't write much about it.  Anyway the DMR's function sets a reasonable level to expect for the SL at least.

 

scott

 

edit:  The R8, R9 and DMR manuals are still online on a Leica site.  APO-Telyt points to them.  Googling  LEICA DMTR INSTRUCTION MANUAL, as you might expect, takes you right there.  The manual doesn't distinguish between information conveyed through the electrical contacts (available as well to the SL) and information conveyed through the R-cam (unlikely to survive...).  There is one illustration of focal length displayed that shows, for a zoom lens, only the min and max lengths.

[IkarusJohn]

You've found more than me.  There was a lot of comment about the information being transferred from the zoom to the flash, which suggests it's actual focal length rather than min & max.

 

I don't have an R zoom, so I assume that the contacts effectively work like the coding on an M lens - corrections and EXIF data for the lens.  As I will be using a 2x extender, it may be useful.  Most of the time, the camera will remain on the last setting - having only one R lens, it won't make a lot of difference to me in practice.