Macro & Tilt-Shift

[AceVentura1986]

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Hello, all. I’ve been shooting Canon gear since 2002 and Leica gear since 2010 and have amassed a solid inventory of cameras and lenses in both marques. Recently, I purchased a slightly used M10M and am now thinking of selling off everything else and getting an M10R as a compliment to the M10M. I really don’t shoot my canon gear very much anymore, I figured I can simplify my life and declutter my home office that way. Still, my 5DsR does serve me in two roles: macro scanning of film negatives and tilt-shift photography. Are there any lenses or lens and adapter combos that can enable me to use the M10M or M10R for macro or tilt-shift?  FYI, I have the Visoflex 020 so I think this will just be a question about lenses and adapters. 

Thanks in advance. 

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[Mute-on]

Current production Marco-Elmar-M 90 f/4 with Macro-Adapter M for 1:2 reproduction. Doubtless there are many other possibilities including adapting R lenses using R-M adapters such as the 60 and 100 Macro Elmarit R lenses. 

Edited April 29, 2024 by Mute-on

[irenedp]

The options you have for T/s are for the Leica S (there is a 120 t/s, and I use also a Mamiya 50 shift). Not sure if you could adapt your Canon T/s lenses to an SL... that might be an option.

[Biotar]

For Canon EF you need an adapter that controls the aperture. This is only available for Leica SL - not for M.

[dpitt]

Leica R-M adapter is easy to use when you use a visoflex EVF. For macro, there are some very nice options in R muount with the Elmarit 60 and 100mm Elmar (or APO Elmarit 100)

There were 2 tilt shift R lenses both made by Schneider Kurznach. I think they are really good and blend in fine with the 'real' Leica R primes. IMO, they are one of the Leica R bargains now. Certainly if you know that the 35mm Curtagon F4.0 TS R was 50% more expensive than the Leica Summicron 35mm R when new.
PA-Curtagon-R 35

There also is a more recent 28mm. I never had that one. It is quite rare and more expensive
PC-Super-Angulon-R 28

Edited April 29, 2024 by dpitt

[Musotographer]

The R-Adapter-M is not cheap for what it is, but it opens your two M-10s to a whole phalanx of interesting R lenses, some very fine and some (still) quite inexpensive by Leica standards. I shall never sell the Summilux-R 80mm, the best portrait lens I know.  I have the Macro-Elmarit 60mm and very good and useful it is too. The 100mm is said to be even better.  I have the PC Super Angulon-R 28 and find it very good for architectural work. It is extremely easy (and fun!) to use handheld with the Visoflex 020 on the M10M, even at the necessary f11 aperture. First pic is on the SL which I have just changed for the M10-R, and the second is on the M10 Mono:

 

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[AceVentura1986]

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10 minutes ago, Musotographer said:

The R-Adapter-M is not cheap for what it is, but it opens your two M-10s to a whole phalanx of interesting R lenses, some very fine and some (still) quite inexpensive by Leica standards. I shall never sell the Summilux-R 80mm, the best portrait lens I know.  I have the Macro-Elmarit 60mm and very good and useful it is too. The 100mm is said to be even better.  I have the PC Super Angulon-R 28 and find it very good for architectural work. It is extremely easy (and fun!) to use handheld with the Visoflex 020 on the M10M, even at the necessary f11 aperture. First pic is on the SL which I have just changed for the M10-R, and the second is on the M10 Mono:

 

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Nice. Tack sharp. 

[dpitt]

6 hours ago, Musotographer said:

The R-Adapter-M is not cheap for what it is...

The value of the Leica R-M adapter is very limited, even more limited than the Leica M-L (or R-L) adapter. Most of my R lenses are non-ROM versions, so it can not read out anything. IMO, any good mechanical adapter is fine for the job. Maybe you can add the 6-bit code yourself to bring up the R lens profiles to chose manually. I can recommend Novoflex or the even cheaper URTH (~ €60) adapter. There will not be any difference in the image you get and they will not damage your camera or drop the lens by accident like some of the cheapest Chinese adapters might do.

My advice would be to buy the URTH adapter and a cheap user Macro Elmarit 60 R or 100 R and Curtagon 35 R. See what they do. You will probably be amazed what value for money they deliver and then you can always upgrade later.

Edited April 30, 2024 by dpitt

[AceVentura1986]

7 hours ago, dpitt said:

The value of the Leica R-M adapter is very limited, even more limited than the Leica M-L (or R-L) adapter. Most of my R lenses are non-ROM versions, so it can not read out anything. IMO, any good mechanical adapter is fine for the job. Maybe you can add the 6-bit code yourself to bring up the R lens profiles to chose manually. I can recommend Novoflex or the even cheaper URTH (~ €60) adapter. There will not be any difference in the image you get and they will not damage your camera or drop the lens by accident like some of the cheapest Chinese adapters might do.

My advice would be to buy the URTH adapter and a cheap user Macro Elmarit 60 R or 100 R and Curtagon 35 R. See what they do. You will probably be amazed what value for money they deliver and then you can always upgrade later.

Thank you. Sounds like great advice. 

[mujk]

I have not seen any lens adapters for Leica M cameras that can access the electronics/ROM of the lenses being adapted. One reason is probably that the M body cannot provide the adapter with power and another that there is no way for the adapter to exchange information with the body.

Many old (e.g. all EF mount) and practically all new lenses for other systems are (almost) completely controlled by electronics, in many cases including focus-by-wire. Of course, many new mirrorless systems also have a shorter flange distance than that of the M mount so they could not be adapted anyway.

As already mentioned in this thread, many old mechanical lenses can be adapted using passive adapters. I have an M adapter for my old Canon FD lenses that works really well as long as mounting instructions are followed.

[Robert Blanko]

For macro, you may also take a look at the Laowa 85 ultra macro: https://www.venuslens.net/product/laowa-85mm-f-5-6-2x-ultra-macro-apo/

[Biotar]

But if you already have the excellent EF-TS lenses, then you can use them perfectly with an adapter on the SL - it's just difficult on the M.

[AceVentura1986]

Thank you, all. I do have an FD to M adapter already, but hadn’t mentioned this yet. Any idea how the FD macro and TS lenses perform? I’ve read that the FD 35mm macro is pretty poor at the edges. 

[F. Edant]

The old Canon TS 2.8-35mm, which is connected to the Leica M10-P via a Novoflex adapter, works, but doesn't really convince me.
Due to the excellent perspective correction of the M10-P, I think I'll get better results with the Summicron asph 2.0-28mm or sometimes even the Super-Elmar 3.4-21mm.
In any case, this makes me more flexible, faster, I can often take photos without a tripod and I don't have first to turn the two tilt & shift screws.