Will there ever be a M - SL mount autofocus adapter?

[cboy]

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Hi all, 

Just wondering will there ever be a Leica M - SL autofocus adapter from Techart, Fotodiox etc? Or is it not possible due to the flange distance.

All the best

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[beewee]

If there was one, it wouldn’t work well with modern M lenses. Lens with floating elements don’t play nice with varying their flange distance for focusing.

[Simone_DF]

The Techart PRO relies on PDAF.

No PDAF = no autofocus adapter

[cboy]

43 minutes ago, Simone_DF said:

The Techart PRO relies on PDAF.

No PDAF = no autofocus adapter

The sigma fpl had PDAF so its a matter of time that other products to follow and eventually an adapter right?

[Simone_DF]

1 hour ago, cboy said:

The sigma fpl had PDAF so its a matter of time that other products to follow and eventually an adapter right?

That is extremely unlikely. Unfortunately Panasonic is very stubborn about not adopting PDAF, and Leica will follow. 

[Michael Markey]

2 hours ago, Simone_DF said:

That is extremely unlikely. Unfortunately Panasonic is very stubborn about not adopting PDAF, and Leica will follow. 

Unbelievable that a manufacturer would want to cripple their product in this way .

[BernardC]

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5 hours ago, Simone_DF said:

The Techart PRO relies on PDAF.

No PDAF = no autofocus adapter

Is that something that Techart stated? I'm asking because there are many AF adapters for L-Mount-to-EOS (and at least one for Nikon), so I don't understand why the Techart adapter would behave differently. After all, the adapter can just tell the camera that it's an EOS 50/1.8 (or some other ubiquitous lens), and carry on.

[BernardC]

12 hours ago, cboy said:

Just wondering will there ever be a Leica M - SL autofocus adapter from Techart, Fotodiox etc? Or is it not possible due to the flange distance.

The ball is in Techart/Fotodiox's court. Fotodiox has already almost reverse-engineered the L-mount protocol. I write "almost" because their EOS adapter bricked Leica cameras. Oops...

I am not interested in AF M-lens adapters, because their AF performance will take you back 30 years. However, if one wanted such a thing, at least the L Mount has a few cameras that perform well with M lenses. Using one of these adapters on Sony means slow AF and soft corners with weird colours. I'm sure some people put-up with that, but to me it seems like the kind of thing that you play with for a few days, and then cast to the bottom of a very deep pocket in your camera bag.

[Simone_DF]

1 hour ago, BernardC said:

Is that something that Techart stated? I'm asking because there are many AF adapters for L-Mount-to-EOS (and at least one for Nikon), so I don't understand why the Techart adapter would behave differently. After all, the adapter can just tell the camera that it's an EOS 50/1.8 (or some other ubiquitous lens), and carry on.

Yup:

The Techart PRO has been designed to provide optimum performance with Sony cameras that support 3rd party PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus)

Techart do not recommend using the TAP with cameras that are CDAF-only or whose on-sensor PDAF works only with native lenses (e.g. the A7, A7R, A7S, and A6000). 

https://www.techartpro.it/pagina.phtml?_id_articolo=23

[Simone_DF]

1 hour ago, BernardC said:

The ball is in Techart/Fotodiox's court. Fotodiox has already almost reverse-engineered the L-mount protocol. I write "almost" because their EOS adapter bricked Leica cameras. Oops...

I am not interested in AF M-lens adapters, because their AF performance will take you back 30 years. However, if one wanted such a thing, at least the L Mount has a few cameras that perform well with M lenses. Using one of these adapters on Sony means slow AF and soft corners with weird colours. I'm sure some people put-up with that, but to me it seems like the kind of thing that you play with for a few days, and then cast to the bottom of a very deep pocket in your camera bag.

The Techart is ok for what it is. On a A7III I found it fast and accurate even when shooting wide open at 1.4, as long as the subject is in the centre. With the subject in mid-zone, it generally works ok but it may hunt a bit. With the subject in the corners, it won't lock focus. Also it struggles in low light. I used mine a lot with a Elmarit 90mm and can't complain

The trick is to assign a camera button to switch between AF and manual focus and to use AF when you can and MF when conditions do not allow it.

Anyway, given that Fotodiox copied the Techart, and that both companies are coming out with a version 2 and they are supporting more mounts, I think it's a commercial succes and people do use them.