Adapter R Lens to anything, auto features maintained?

[djhg]

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I'm wondering if there's any prosumer video  camera to which I can adapt my Leica R lenses, maintaining automatic iris and focus. (I only know of  - and have - adapters which do not support the automatic features.)

Edited July 20, 2023 by djhg

[hepcat]

To be succinct, nope.   Your R lenses are all manual.  The R lenses are manual focus lenses, so there's no autofocus to be maintained, and there's no mechanical linkages in any of the mirrorless bodies to interact with the mechanical linkages on the lens as there are in mechanical film bodies.   R lenses are solely fully manual on any digital camera.

[frame-it]

5 hours ago, djhg said:

I'm wondering if there's any prosumer video  camera to which I can adapt my Leica R lenses, maintaining automatic iris and focus

which Leica R lens had Autofocus?

[djhg]

I have only used R lenses on a digital cinema, not on a leica body, so my perception that they have autofocus capability has gone untested. As I investgate, it appears that I am mistaken (for the whole series.)

As to the iris control, it appears to rely on a mechanical connection between a moving tab on a leica body and a tabbed ring on the lens, for which it appears there's no adaptive solution for any other  camera body except a makeshift connection to a particular similary-tabbed Nikon.

Would like to be wrong about these things.

[dpitt]

Leica never produced autofocus R lenses or R bodies capable of handling any AF lenses. The R lenses are the easiest to use manual lenses that I know, so I do not mind at all.
Old R camera's are great with manual lenses.

If you want to find the best current camera bodies to use with the R lenses (with adapter), look at the SL range.
With the Leica R-L adapter and one of the most recent ROM R lenses, an SL body can read out lens type and aperture info. It also records the FL used on ROM zoom lenses. That is all you can possibly get out of an R lens.

All M camera's are inherently designed as mechanically coupled and manual focus only. I think any attempt to make them AF would break almost hundred years of backwards compatibility with all RF lenses ever made. Making AF M lenses would be very hard (AFAIK impossible to do technically) because of physical and optical laws of nature. Again, I do not mind because the M system is for me the best and easiest to use manual focus system ever.

Many AF users from non Leica systems are afraid/deterred by the thought of using MF for anything. IMO, they are right to not want to use any of the AF system camera's with an AF lens in MF mode, because I also think that does not work for me. Using a MF lens though is a completely different experience. Try it, before you dismiss it, and try it with any body designed to use MF properly. On a mirrorless, that requires a very bright and detailed EVF and at least 6x or 10x magnification at the flick of a button (not menu only). I have tried lots of focus peaking systems, but until now, I did not find anything that works for me as good as the magnification focus aid.

On the Leica SL, I do not mind using MF lenses. On the contrary, I prefer to use MF and MF lenses if I want exact critical focused pictures.

Edited July 21, 2023 by dpitt

[jankap]

On 7/21/2023 at 6:05 AM, djhg said:

I have only used R lenses on a digital cinema, not on a leica body, so my perception that they have autofocus capability has gone untested. As I investgate, it appears that I am mistaken (for the whole series.)

As to the iris control, it appears to rely on a mechanical connection between a moving tab on a leica body and a tabbed ring on the lens, for which it appears there's no adaptive solution for any other  camera body except a makeshift connection to a particular similary-tabbed Nikon.

Would like to be wrong about these things.

I fear, that you are right.😀

There are interesting lenses in this set, but all are pure manual. They can only transfer data to the camera for the statistics.

I like to use some with a Sony 6500 and with a Sigma fp. They have a large flange distance, due to the large mirror in the R cameras.

Edited July 22, 2023 by jankap

[spydrxx]

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I suspect if you use your R lens on an R->M adapter, and a Techart M autofocus adapter for the Sony A7 series body you will achieve autofocus capabilities, although I can't test it because I no longer have my R lenses. I know of no way though to have automatic diaphragm control other than on an R body.

[djhg]

41 minutes ago, spydrxx said:

use your R lens on an R->M adapter, and a Techart M autofocus adapter for the Sony A7 series body

Thanks spydrxx. Wondering if image quality loss from this double-adapter configuration would be noticeable shooting 4k video on the A7.  Also, I can't seem to find an R>M adapter which enables autofocus. Maybe someone can recommend a source.

Edited July 30, 2023 by djhg

[spydrxx]

DJHG - the R->M adapter merely changes both the mount and flange to sensor distance...in does nothing else. The autofocus is managed by the Techart adapter which goes between the R->M adapter and the Sony body. As to image quality for video I can't speak as I only do still shots and no image degradation as neither adapter has optics.

Edited July 30, 2023 by spydrxx
inadvertantly sent before I completed sentence

[djhg]

I wonder how far away from the camera a microphone would have to be to not pick up the servo motor sound.