R lenses and focus on SL2

[nikidi]

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Greetings to all. I want to revive my Leica gear by buying a SL2 in order to use some very expensive R Leica glass. I have taken a hiatus from photography and now that I have more time, I am itching to shoot and shoot some more.

 

One thing I am looking for and can't seem to find is how R Lenses work with the SL2? Is there autofocus, for example? All my lenses a ROM btw. Can someone please explain or direct me so that I can find exactly how this will work?

I use to use my R Lenses with an adaptor for use with Canon DSLRs but Got tired of the hit and miss manual focus. Will an R lense require manual focus?

 

Any answers appreciated

 

Cheers

Nicolas

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[andybarton]

Hi

As you will know, R lenses have always been manual focus on all R bodies. That cannot change on a SL body, obviously.

You would use them exactly as you did on R bodies, or on a Canon with an adaptor.

[Leicaiste]

They will be stabilised. The Leica R adapter will inform automatically the camera of the focal length when used with ROM lenses which is necessary for the stabilisation to work properly. 
 

With non ROM lenses you will have to do it manually. 

[masjah]

IMHO it's worth paying the extra for a Leica branded adapter, because, with your ROM lenses, as Leicaiste says, it's so much more convenient to have the lens identified automatically by the camera (and it's not just focal length for IBIS). It's a bit of a pain having to enter the lens manually from a look-up table as I previously used to do with my M240.

So far as (manual) focussing is concerned, it's perfectly do-able, and focus peaking helps a lot. I've found the following to be useful where possible:

(i) Focus wide open first, and then stop-down (otherwise normal depth of field gives too big a range of focus ring position where the edge illumination is lit).

(ii) Focus peaking can be set in the menu to high or low sensitivity. High is useful when subject contrast is too low for the edge illumination to be triggered, but on the other hand, it gives too wide a range of focus ring position when contrast is good (c.f. (i) above) so I use "low" as my default.

(iii) Magnifying the part of the image you are really interested in further helps see the edge illumination.

(iv) As well as ensuring that the focus peaking option is enabled in the actual menu selection, you also have to make sure that you are using  the viewfinder option which selects it using the function button (that was a "doh" moment for me the first time I ventured out with my new camera).

Given these guidelines, it's possible to get a very accurately focussed image. But it has to be said that these are constraints, so it wouldn't be at all good for sports or action photography;  manual focus with focus assistance is not autofocus, but the same remark also goes for R based film photography! Fortunately my photographic interests do not include these, otherwise I would have (regretfully) sold of my R glass, given up on my film R8/9 and bought SL lenses.

Good luck!

 

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by masjah

[nikidi]

Last time I was a member, more than a decade ago, I remember all the great people who were eager to help in these forums! Thank you all so much for your excellent and prompt responses! I see that the goodwill hasn't changed much. Again, can't thank you enough for the help

 

Cheers

Nicolas

[Stef63]

100% out of curiosity : what expensive Leica R lenses do you have and are you buying an SL2 for?  For me it was another journey: I acquired an SL2 and only then added a nice collection of vintage R lenses to be used on this body.  

[nikidi]

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[fernando_b]

What lens is "Apo Macro Vario Elmarit 2.8/100 ROM"? I know only "Apo Macro Elmarit 2.8 100mm"...

Fernando.

[stam6882]

Hello,

Bumping into this old thread when researching some solution for my SL2 with R lenses as I just purchased my SL2 recently and trying to utilise my R lenses via a Novoflex R to L adapter. It seems that there is some odd behaviour with the Novoflex adapter.  As far as I know, the Novoflex adapter does not transmit lens profile to the SL2 body but I am able to choose the lens profile via the SL2 under camera settings.  My R lenses are non ROMs. 

1. It seems that Auto ISO does not work even I specify the lens is a R lens when powering up the SL2.

2. Focus magnification does not work whether it is auto magnification or manually triggered magnification via the thumb wheel

 

Item 2 seems odd as I am able to trigger manual focus magnification when using the M-to-L adapter with my M lenses. I am not sure why this is disabled when using R lenses.

Would appreciate if any experts please shed some lights on this?

[masjah]

5 hours ago, stam6882 said:

Hello,

Bumping into this old thread when researching some solution for my SL2 with R lenses as I just purchased my SL2 recently and trying to utilise my R lenses via a Novoflex R to L adapter. It seems that there is some odd behaviour with the Novoflex adapter.  As far as I know, the Novoflex adapter does not transmit lens profile to the SL2 body but I am able to choose the lens profile via the SL2 under camera settings.  My R lenses are non ROMs. 

1. It seems that Auto ISO does not work even I specify the lens is a R lens when powering up the SL2.

2. Focus magnification does not work whether it is auto magnification or manually triggered magnification via the thumb wheel

 

Item 2 seems odd as I am able to trigger manual focus magnification when using the M-to-L adapter with my M lenses. I am not sure why this is disabled when using R lenses.

Would appreciate if any experts please shed some lights on this?

All my lenses are ROM lenses, and I'm using the actual Leica branded adapter, so I can only offer limited experience.

(1) Auto ISO works OK for me.

(2) Auto focus magnification  (that is to say magnification on moving the focus ring) does not work, but I can bring up focus magnification OK by using either the little button on the front, or the thumbwheel, and disengaging either using the little button at the front or a shutter half-press. I've got auto magnification set to "on" in the menu, but I can magnify manually using the front button or thumbwheel even if this is set to "off". I suspect that the R adapter doesn't tell the camera that the focus wheel has been moved, and that this feature only works with native SL lenses when you choose manual focus. I guess an M lens might be able to communicate this by the rangefinder cam?

 

 

[stam6882]

Looks like investing in the original Leica R-L adapter is the best option forward as I also have few ROM lenses. I suspect my Novoflex R-L adapter is not fully compatible with R lenses. In fact, when mounting my non ROM R lens, SL2 is treating it as an autofocus lens and even allows me to select S and P mode in addition to M and A.  The little front button does allows me to magnify during manual focus nevertheless so it kinds of working ok for now. Despite the high price for the original Leica R-L adapter, seems it is the most compatible option for my ROM lenses for the long term.

[masjah]

Just an extra little nugget. I'd forgotten that I have just one non-ROM 3-cam lens: a 135/2.8. I mounted it and got the expected "unknown lens" message, and selected the lens from the R-lens list. Auto ISO seems to work OK. No auto magnification when rotating the focus ring, but manual magnification is available either from the thumbwheel or the front button.

Does auto ISO work for you OK on A mode? I wouldn't be surprised if it failed to work if S or P mode was selected when they are not allowed.

 

[stam6882]

Thanks for providing extra info.

My scenario is different as my adapter is the Novoflex R-L without any electronic connection to the SL2.  For some strange reason, when mounting my R lens to the SL2 via Novoflex, the camera treats the lens an AF lens and allows me to select all shutter modes including S and P.  

Auto ISO works when I set the max shutter speed under Auto ISO to a fix shutter speed but it does not work if the max shutter speed is set to "Auto".  I think even I specify the lens lens profile under camera settings being a R-28mm lens, the camera does to recognise the focal length hence Max Shutter Speed of Auto does not automatically set to 1/60 by default for this lens.

The thumb wheel does not magnify the image (either in EVF or LCD) but I can magnify if by pushing the joystick button or using the front Fn button.  This seems to be just a minor thing when using my R lens but of course I still opt to buy the original Leica adapter to make the best of my R lenses including the 21-35, 35-70 etc. This may even be more useful when using my R zooms on SL2 as the focal length can be transmitted to the camera when zooming I guess.

Thanks for your tips.

[stam6882]

For some strange reasons, the Novoflex is treating my R lens as an autofocus lens even I specified it as R-28mm under the camera settings. I can even select P and S mode in addition to M and A!  It seems that there's been compatibility issue between the Novoflex R to L adapter and the SL2.