Adapted Lenses to Leica M: What's your favorite(s)?

[Musotographer]

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The R lenses can be wonderful bargains, and work very well on an M with Live View/EVF - as long as you have an adapter of course. I mainly use mine on an SL, but on the M10(M) I often use the Macro-Elmarit-R 60 and the Summilux-R 80. Prices seem to go from about £150 - £1000 depending on the usual factors, except for the 80, which tends to cost quite a lot more. To use them on an M you don't need to worry at all about the version involved - 1, 2 or 3-Cam, or ROM - as it is completely irrelevant. (Though apparently the ROM ones transmit more data if you're using the Leica R to M adapter.) They ARE bigger than the M lenses so don't balance as well on an M camera - but I find them very enjoyable to handle and you can get some superb glass for relatively little outlay. The Elmarit-R 35 gets a lot of praise.

[thedirektor]

16 hours ago, RF’sDelight said:

Of course you can! But it’s not converted. It’s a genuinely LTM mount lens combined with a standard LTM/M adapter. But perhaps these two addresses may help:

https://www.cameraworks-uk.com/

https://www.japancamerahunter.com/services/lens-conversion/

Thank you very much. I did message Bellamy but am nervous about shipping the lens to Japan. I'll talk to Cameraworks. Thanks very much for your help. I think Canon added a brace mechanism to the 0.95 which means a standard LTM adapter won't work.

[Peter Zapp]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Musotographer:

The R lenses can be wonderful bargains, and work very well on an M with Live View/EVF - as long as you have an adapter of course.

But I use (bargain) R-lenses outside of the M-range, i.e.180/3.4, 400/6.8, 100/4.0 (on bellows-R), 80-200/4 (with a custom tripod collar) etc..

Live View and Visoflex 020 behave like the Visoflex III from the 1960s, with long blackout while pressing the shutter button.    

[spydrxx]

Years ago I had a Canpn 50/0.95 adapted to my M4. As it was the TV version, the work involved constructing a pusher for the RF cam, which actually meant cutting a small hole in the lens itself. I had to send in both the lens and camera body to get the work done and adjusted properly. I used it for about a year, but found that using the lens at wide apertures really didn't produce the results I had expected, although stopped down it was razor sharp. It was a beast, as can be seen in the photo...quite unwieldy for most uses as it pretty well blocked about 1/2 of the rangefinder.

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[Musotographer]

3 hours ago, Peter Zapp said:

But I use (bargain) R-lenses outside of the M-range, i.e.180/3.4, 400/6.8, 100/4.0 (on bellows-R), 80-200/4 (with a custom tripod collar) etc..

Live View and Visoflex 020 behave like the Visoflex III from the 1960s, with long blackout while pressing the shutter button.    

I use the 180/3.4 too - great lens, but I rarely need something that long. The blackout (0.5 sec max?) on the Visoflex 020/LV has never bothered me - and as this is a thread on using adapted lenses on the M, eschewing it would rather cut down on the lens suggestions 😁 

[Cayenne]

I've been watching YouTube (my worst GAS flame fanner)....and am thinking about scoring and trying out a Helios 44-2.

I've played with the Lomography Petzval lenses that dot he "swirly" background bokeh and it appears this cheap Russian gem does the same thing in a smaller package.

The prices seem to be about $40 US or so delivered...on eBay most seem to be offered from Russian sellers.

Anyone out there played with this one much?  I believe it is a M42 mount, so with an adapter, I'd have to use LV or the EVF I scored the other day.

 

Is there another lens that does the "swirly" that would couple to my rangefinder, that would be vintage and not cost an arm/leg?

 

Thank you in advance,

cayenne

[jaques]

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i use many old SLR lenses on my m240. one of my favorites is the exa mount Zeiss BIOTAR 75/1.5

 

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[me111]

On 10/22/2020 at 4:43 PM, Cayenne said:

I've been watching YouTube (my worst GAS flame fanner)....and am thinking about scoring and trying out a Helios 44-2.

I've played with the Lomography Petzval lenses that dot he "swirly" background bokeh and it appears this cheap Russian gem does the same thing in a smaller package.

The prices seem to be about $40 US or so delivered...on eBay most seem to be offered from Russian sellers.

Anyone out there played with this one much?  I believe it is a M42 mount, so with an adapter, I'd have to use LV or the EVF I scored the other day.

 

Is there another lens that does the "swirly" that would couple to my rangefinder, that would be vintage and not cost an arm/leg?

 

Thank you in advance,

cayenne

It's a fun lens to play with.

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[Stef63]

R-lenses

• Leica 180 APO Telyt-R 3.4 
• Leica 100 APO Elmarit-R 2.8 macro
• Leica 28-90 Vario Elmarit-R 2.8-4.5

LTM

• Nikkor W 28 3.5
• Leica 90 Thambar 2.2

I must admit that the R lenses are mostly used on my SL2.  But the Nikkor and Thambar are the lenses I mostly enjoy on the M10 and M10M despite a large collection of native M lenses.  
 

Like other posters already mentioned “converted for M” is in most cases not the correct wording since the lens is not modified at all.  Only an adaptor sits between the camera and lens.  And because the M camera is mostly a manual focus and manual aperture controlled camera and the distance between the sensor and mount is very short (no mirror) a lot of non Leica lenses can be used on the M without modifying the lens itself.  Only modern “focus by wire” lenses and lenses without a manual aperture control cannot (in most cases) be used on an M.

[RF’sDelight]

Am 22.10.2020 um 16:16 schrieb thedirektor:

Thank you very much. I did message Bellamy but am nervous about shipping the lens to Japan. I'll talk to Cameraworks. Thanks very much for your help. I think Canon added a brace mechanism to the 0.95 which means a standard LTM adapter won't work.

You're welcome!

[LucisPictor]

Am 22.10.2020 um 23:43 schrieb Cayenne:

I've been watching YouTube (my worst GAS flame fanner)....and am thinking about scoring and trying out a Helios 44-2.

I've played with the Lomography Petzval lenses that dot he "swirly" background bokeh and it appears this cheap Russian gem does the same thing in a smaller package.

The prices seem to be about $40 US or so delivered...on eBay most seem to be offered from Russian sellers.

Anyone out there played with this one much?  I believe it is a M42 mount, so with an adapter, I'd have to use LV or the EVF I scored the other day.

 

Is there another lens that does the "swirly" that would couple to my rangefinder, that would be vintage and not cost an arm/leg?

 

Thank you in advance,

cayenne

Well... it does something like the Lomo Petzval but it's definitely not comparable. With the Petzval you can reproduce the effect every time you want, with the Helios-44 it is rather hit and miss, hardly reliable to produce. Sometimes the swirl is promiment, and sometimes you just wonder why it didn't work, athough it should have.

So, yes you can save a lot of money, but do not expect the same results. 

You can use a LensBaby Twist 60 instead for swirly bokeh.

[LucisPictor]

For "normal" lenses -  I don't mean 50mil, but lenses with a "regular character" - I don't see any real reason to adapt them to my M.

But special lenses, the ones with a peculiar character can produce extraoridnary results, also on an M.

I am very happy to have the M(240), since the live view functionality works like a charm here.

I will check my photo bags and cabinets and present some here a little later.

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by LucisPictor

[Twasi]

I have an insane number of lenses for the Leica M, many of which are adapted, but the most interesting I've found is the F4 Schneider Componon, a tiny enlarger lens that has astonishing good color rendition and contrast, a really beautiful look of its own. And it fits in your pocket along with a Schneider F2.5 35mm Xenogon and a Nikkor-S 28mm F3.5 in LTM. You'll have a suite of three outstanding lenses, that fits in your shirt pocket. 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Twasi