Which adapter?

[masjah]

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This should be an easy question to those in the know. I've got a heap of R ROM lenses and an R-M adapter to use them on my M240 (with EVF2). I'm giving consideration to an SL2 because of a significantly worsening benign tremor, hoping that the SL2's IBIS will do the business. I can either

(a) buy an M-L adapter, and stack my existing R-M adapter on it (thereby also allowing use of my single M lens!)

or

(b) buy an R-L adapter (and an M-L adapter if I also really wanted to use M lenses on the SL2)

My understanding is that an R-L adapter is partly smart with ROM lenses passing some information through to the camera, in particular their identity, which could be convenient. I'm presuming that the R-M + M-L stacking would not do this. Am I correct? It wouldn't actually break the bank for me to get both.

 

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

The stacked adapters don't pass much information beyond "this is an R lens."  If you have ROMed lenses, the Leica R to L is worth the expense..  M lenses work on the SL and SL2, but with reservations (some of the tinier lenses have soft edges when you look carefully), but they do better than on Panasonic or Sony platforms.  So I have the two direct M to L and R to L adapters, and no longer use the stack of two.  In fact, I keep M lenses of 24 mm and down on an M.

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[masjah]

3 minutes ago, scott kirkpatrick said:

The stacked adapters don't pass much information beyond "this is an R lens."  If you have ROMed lenses, the Leica R to L is worth the expense..  M lenses work on the SL and SL2, but with reservations (some of the tinier lenses have soft edges when you look carefully), but they do better than on Panasonic or Sony platforms.  So I have the two direct M to L and R to L adapters, and no longer use the stack of two.  In fact, I keep M lenses of 24 mm and down on an M.

Scott, that is exactly what I needed to know, and confirms what I suspected - thankyou.

[thighslapper]

3 hours ago, scott kirkpatrick said:

The stacked adapters don't pass much information beyond "this is an R lens."  If you have ROMed lenses, the Leica R to L is worth the expense..  M lenses work on the SL and SL2, but with reservations (some of the tinier lenses have soft edges when you look carefully), but they do better than on Panasonic or Sony platforms.  So I have the two direct M to L and R to L adapters, and no longer use the stack of two.  In fact, I keep M lenses of 24 mm and down on an M.

.... plus the dedicated adapters pass the focal length of the ROM'ed R and M lenses so IBIS should work without having the nuisance of choosing the lens from a menu every time you attach it. 

[Aktenschrank]

I do stack  M>L & R>M Leica adapters at the moment, trying to convince myself to not spent the considerable amount of money that Leica asks for an R>L one. Just to pass on my experiences so far...

Advantages:

• Since I regularly use M lenses on the SL2 and only have two R lenses that see any use, and one of them considerable more than the other (Summilux 80), I like that I can switch from multiple M lenses to an R lens in an instant by leaving the R>M adapter constantly on the 80 Summilux. From what you've written this will probably not apply to you though...

Disadvantages

• When stacking the adapters you always have to manually choose the respective R lens in the lens selection menu. Leica makes this easy though by bringing up the respective menu when the R>M adapter is detected. IBIS will work flawlessly after you've chosen the correct lens.
• Should you own R zooms, as far as I know the respective focal length is not correctly passed on when you stack adapters.

So... I guess I´ll get a proper R>L adapter at some point, closing my eyes when hitting the buy button 😀

Edited January 22, 2020 by Aktenschrank
typo

[Leicaiste]

The stacked adapters induce some vignetting with longer lenses. 

[Aktenschrank]

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9 minutes ago, Leicaiste said:

The stacked adapters induce some vignetting with longer lenses. 

Thanks for the hint @Leicaiste! I haven't experienced this myself so far, or didn't pay attention, but I could very well imagine that this is the case given that the diameter of the "opening" when stacking is of course narrower than it would need to be with a dedicated adapter....

[Leicaiste]

 

[masjah]

Thanks everyone. It's clearly a no brainer in my circumstances to get the R - L adapter. All wise words and all much appreciated.