CU with 55-135?

[Dave in Wales]

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The deed is done, I've swapped my Oly gear for a 55-135mm and two Leica UV filters, a 60mm and 52mm, plus £29 in cash  Sadly it's not due at the dealers until 1st of May.

When owners were asked their opinion of the lens it was unanimous....'a fabulous lens'...so who was I to resist.

One happy owner, RoyB, mentioned......'Close focusing at 135 is great for detailed shots.'..... sadly I can find no details in the Leica literature, only.........Focusing range: 1m to ∞.
Smallest object field/largest scale: at 55 mm: approx. 403 x 268 mm/f/17.1, at 135 mm: approx. 188 x 125 mm/f/8.0.

Could I seek the indulgence of a kind owner and ask, what is the closest focusing distance from the end of the hood to subject and what is the magnification at that distance. A photographic example would be excellent if possible, cheeky I know 

I'm aware it's not a Macro lens but a modicum of magnification would be nice......that really would be the icing on the cake.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Dave in Wales

[nicci78]

It will always be too far away. 

1m from the mic holes of the CL

55-135mm is a wonderful lens, but I gave it up in favour of APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 60mm : slightly faster but real 1:1 macro at 16cm minimum focusing distance from the mic holes. 

 

Edited April 25, 2019 by nicci78

[Dave in Wales]

13 minutes ago, nicci78 said:

It will always be too far away. 

1m from the mic holes of the CL

55-135mm is a wonderful lens, but I gave it up in favour of APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 60mm : slightly faster but real 1:1 macro at 16cm minimum focusing distance from the mic holes. 

 

I wasn't looking for a macro capability, but 1m from the mic holes must give some degree of magnification and would be a added bonus.

[Boojay]

Well I would be interested in someone else testing this.  I have never found the 55-135 lacking but mine definitely does not focus at 1m.  I have tested mine with tripod and target measured from camera body and closest mine will focus is more like 1.3 metres. 

 

 

 

 

[Dave in Wales]

43 minutes ago, Boojay said:

Well I would be interested in someone else testing this.  I have never found the 55-135 lacking but mine definitely does not focus at 1m.  I have tested mine with tripod and target measured from camera body and closest mine will focus is more like 1.3 metres. 

 

 

 

 

1.3 metres from subject to where on the camera, precisely?

If anyone does test it for us they will need to know.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Dave in Wales

[Boojay]

1 hour ago, Dave in Wales said:

1.3 metres from subject to where on the camera, precisely?

If anyone does test it for us they will need to know.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but focus distance is judged from the sensor.  I tested my lens on a tripod, measured from the subject to the camera body (around lens mount) and 1.3 metres was the closest I could get my copy of the lens to achieve focus.  

 

 

[Dave in Wales]

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7 hours ago, Boojay said:

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but focus distance is judged from the sensor.  I tested my lens on a tripod, measured from the subject to the camera body (around lens mount) and 1.3 metres was the closest I could get my copy of the lens to achieve focus.  

 

 

Yes, you are correct, but where is the sensor?

The camera does not have the focal plane indicator, shown below, that I'm used to seeing on other marques. Nor can I find a distance quoted anywhere from the lens mount.

Above nicci78 quoted the 'mic' holes as a point of reference I suppose. 

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Edited April 26, 2019 by Dave in Wales

[nicci78]

 

[papimuzo]

12 hours ago, Boojay said:

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but focus distance is judged from the sensor.  I tested my lens on a tripod, measured from the subject to the camera body (around lens mount) and 1.3 metres was the closest I could get my copy of the lens to achieve focus.  

 

 

You are right at least with my experience. At 1.0 m (+/- 1 cm.) the AF cannot get a stable focus. But I have helped it with manual adjustement to get right.

But like you, at 1.3 meter AF works well. 😄

Edited April 26, 2019 by papimuzo
correction

[bherman01545]

 

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[nicci78]

I do not remember any problem for focusing at 1m. 

You may have an issue ? A defective lens. Bad firmware ? 

[Dave in Wales]

3 hours ago, bherman01545 said:

 

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Thank you.

So which of two lenses, the 18-56 or 55-135, would be the best for a +5 diopter achromatic CU lens to give the maximum working distance and maximum magnification.

Or is there a trade off?

 

[nicci78]

TL 18-56 is way better for close focusing

Smallest object is 207 mm at 30 cm distance (18mm) and 73 mm at 45 cm distance (56mm) 

and you can add the excellent and modern Elpro 52 especially made for TL 18-56 or TL 23. Which bring 1:7.5 magnification to an excellent 1:2 at 20.7 cm distance at 56 mm ! 

[Dave in Wales]

9 hours ago, nicci78 said:

TL 18-56 is way better for close focusing

Smallest object is 207 mm at 30 cm distance (18mm) and 73 mm at 45 cm distance (56mm) 

and you can add the excellent and modern Elpro 52 especially made for TL 18-56 or TL 23. Which bring 1:7.5 magnification to an excellent 1:2 at 20.7 cm distance at 56 mm ! 

Oh I'd love it, but at £300 I think it will have to be a an independent CU lens.

Do we know the power in diopters of this CU lens, can't seem to find it.....edit I've found it it's +7

Thank you

Edited April 27, 2019 by Dave in Wales

[lenspeeper]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:42 AM, nicci78 said:

It will always be too far away. 

1m from the mic holes of the CL

55-135mm is a wonderful lens, but I gave it up in favour of APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 60mm : slightly faster but real 1:1 macro at 16cm minimum focusing distance from the mic holes. 

 

 

Quality alternative to buying the expensive 60mm Macro TL mount len:

For macro focusing with the TL and CL, I found that for price and image quality nothing beats a good used 60mm Macro Elmarit R f/2.8 with the matching 1:1 close focus adapter. Since really sharp macro's cannot always rely on AF, I decided that as long as I'm manually focusing, I might as well save a lot of money rather than buy the 60 mm TL lens. Matched with a relatively inexpensive Novoflex R to L mount adapter I got really brilliant results. Effective focal length with the CL or TL is 90mm. Use the lens without the matching 1:1 close focus  adapter and you have a very nice all around high quality portrait lens, albeit manual focus. If I wasn't so thrifty, I'd use either a stacked Leica branded R to M adapter with my M to L adapter or buy a new R to L adapter in order to get the Exif data. 

Note: Because the R lenses are for FF, the cropping effect of using a FF lens on an APSC camera like the TL and CL gives a closer than 1:1 effect with the Macro R adapter, and a very nice slightly larger Macro without the Macro R adapter.

 

The image doesn't do the full sized one justice since I had to convert to jpg and the size limitation for this forum is only .41MB which results in a 58.5 times size reduction.

 

 

 

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Edited April 27, 2019 by lenspeeper
upsize image to max. allowed