M3 & R Lenses

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I just bought a beautiful chrome late S/N M3. I understand there is a way to use some R lenses with this camera. Is this true & if so, could someone elucidate. Thanks, Ben

[doubice]

I just bought a beautiful chrome late S/N M3. I understand there is a way to use some R lenses with this camera. Is this true & if so, could someone elucidate. Thanks, Ben

 

Ben,

 

A simple Google search returned many results:

 

M mount to R mount adapter - Google Search

 

There was a Leica-made adapter, code 22228 and of course the currently produced Novoflex. There are a few others, produced in China (i.e. Elephoto).

 

You will lose rangefinder coupling and will have to 'guesstimate' your focus - this will be less of a problem with lenses wider than 28mm but, I would not recommed this technique with longer lenses. Reason of course is the much greater depth of field of WA lenses, where you margin of error will take care of any mistakes in guessing the distance.

 

Cameraquest used to import 'rangefinder coupled' adapters - the adapter had a focusing helicoid, a focusing cam and a distance scale. You focused the adapter/lens combination using the adapter and transfered the distance setting to the lens. Quite time consuming, not very accurate anyway and quite expensive.

 

So - to sum up: OK for wide lenses (19, 21, 24, 28), but not anything longer. You will of course have to purchase the appropriate external viewfinder(s).

 

Best,

 

Jan