RachelR-UK Posted September 19, 2008 Share #1 Posted September 19, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have quite few Tamron lenses and it would be nice if I could use some of them on my Leica reflex cameras. OK, they do an adaptor and I have one but can I get it to work? Unfortunately not. They mount OK but the only one they sort of work on is the R3 but very sluggishly. The R4 and The R8 have trouble seeing the aperture they are set to. On the R8 which shows the aperture in the viewfinder it always shows f22 although, in P mode, I can sometimes get the shutter speed to change when I change the aperture on the lens. I have tried three different Tamron lenses but they are all equally unreliable. Anyone else had problems with the Tamron Adaptor? Rachel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 19, 2008 Posted September 19, 2008 Hi RachelR-UK, Take a look here Using Tamron lenses on my Leica R cameras. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
gyoung Posted September 19, 2008 Share #2 Posted September 19, 2008 I have quite few Tamron lenses and it would be nice if I could use some of them on my Leica reflex cameras. OK, they do an adaptor and I have one but can I get it to work? Unfortunately not. They mount OK but the only one they sort of work on is the R3 but very sluggishly. The R4 and The R8 have trouble seeing the aperture they are set to. On the R8 which shows the aperture in the viewfinder it always shows f22 although, in P mode, I can sometimes get the shutter speed to change when I change the aperture on the lens. I have tried three different Tamron lenses but they are all equally unreliable. Anyone else had problems with the Tamron Adaptor? Rachel I think it might depend on the Tamron mount you use, there were different versions, when I had the R4 I used Tamron 24mm and 70-210 f/3.8-4 lenses on it (as a temprary expediant while I saved up for the real things!) and they worked OK. Gerry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChadHahn Posted September 19, 2008 Share #3 Posted September 19, 2008 Especially on Leica Forums people say "It's the glass." I would be hesitant to buy an aftermarket lens for my Nikon. Why would you want to shoot a Leica without Leica glass? I'm not trying to flame you or anything, I just don't really see the point. Chad Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted September 19, 2008 Share #4 Posted September 19, 2008 Because you can? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted September 19, 2008 Share #5 Posted September 19, 2008 Could it be that the Tamron lens is only 2 cam? (Just guessing here...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelR-UK Posted September 19, 2008 Author Share #6 Posted September 19, 2008 Well Chad I can only repeat what Steve says ... "Because you can" ... although it seems I cannot at the moment. While it would be great to have all the Leica "glass" that I would like, I am not a millionaire and actually Tamron "glass" is pretty good. It would also fill gaps in my Leica "glass" collection. Andy the Tamron mount is for the R4 and onwards so is 3rd cam only. I'm sure that I have used it successfully before but it doesn't seem to work now. It's quite a complicated little bit of mechanism but as far as I can see it is engaging the aperture follower in the lens throat of the camera. Also they are quite expensive adaptors to buy so I don't want to spend the money buying another one to find that doesn't work either. I could be putting the money towards some real Leica "glass" and get Chad's approval Rachel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyoung Posted September 19, 2008 Share #7 Posted September 19, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) Especially on Leica Forums people say "It's the glass." I would be hesitant to buy an aftermarket lens for my Nikon. Why would you want to shoot a Leica without Leica glass? I'm not trying to flame you or anything, I just don't really see the point. Chad In my case, I already had the Tamrons before I got the R, and I couldn't afford Leica 24 and long focus. They gave the same image quality on the R4 as they did on the Olympus and Pentax, ie acceptable for the job in hand Gerry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted September 19, 2008 Share #8 Posted September 19, 2008 I use some Tamron lenses on my R3 and the adaptors work fine. Maybe it is a problem with your particular adaptor, or are you sure you have mounted it correctly? You should mount it with the lens aperture set to the maximum f stop (i.e. wide open). As for why use a Tamron lens, well, they are excellent quality for a start and absolute bargains now. I have a 24, 28, 80/210 SP, 28/80 SP and a 35/70. The SP lenses were considered to be as good as Canons/Nikons. Lets not forget that not all R lenses were actually made by Leica, some are Minolta, Sigma or Kyrocera lenses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tourmie green Posted September 22, 2008 Share #9 Posted September 22, 2008 Just to add another variable;some tamron mounts were for fixed aperture mirror lenses only! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin K Posted September 23, 2008 Share #10 Posted September 23, 2008 "I'm sure that I have used it successfully before but it doesn't seem to work now. It's quite a complicated little bit of mechanism but as far as I can see it is engaging the aperture follower in the lens throat of the camera. Also they are quite expensive adaptors to buy so I don't want to spend the money buying another one to find that doesn't work either." My experience with using Tamron adaptors was very mixed. Some worked, others did not work well at all. On my SL for example, the mirror was locked many times in the up position after the exposure. So, I soon stopped using Tamron lenses on my SLs. I never tried them on the R3, R4 or R9. In his book Classic SLRs, Ivor Matanle mentioned the same problem, quoting a repair technician as saying that the spring rate of the camera diaphragm actuator was too demanding for the independant lens systems, i.e. the spring rate of the lens had to be just right, otherwise it did not work. Obvioulsy Tamron did not get it consistantly right. (Soligor had a T4 adaptor for the Leicaflex as well, same issue). Porbably the same is true for the R4. Kind regards, Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelR-UK Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share #11 Posted September 23, 2008 My Tamron adaptor, marked for use with the R4, does not have the cams for use on the SL. I do have the T4 adaptor which only has an SL cam (2nd cam). I guess that something has happened to my adaptor as I have used it successfully before with my R4. I think I just have to accept that it no longer works and there is not much point fiddling with it anymore. Thanks for for all the interest in my query, Rachel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tourmie green Posted September 23, 2008 Share #12 Posted September 23, 2008 Dear Rachel,There always seems to be a good number of used tamron leica mounts on uk used camera websites ( mxv.co.uk / mifsuds.com / ffordes.com ) at fairly reasonable prices. I have sometimes even seen supposedly unused mounts advertised .Maybe a fresher mount might work with your earlier R? My favourite family snaps combination when the kids were growing up was an R4 and 35-80 Tamron SP ., so I have fond memories of the combination. I have a 17/3.5 Tamron SP + R mount heading my way soon. Based on past experience,I hoping it will be an ideal ultrawide for use on my R6-2.. Only time will will tell. All the best, ITC. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelR-UK Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share #13 Posted September 23, 2008 Thanks Tourmie. I will have a look and see what is available. The Tamron Leica mounts always seemed rather expensive to me but I will see if any of the dealers you mention have them at a reasonable price. I have a rather nice Tamron 24mm f2.5 lens that I wanted to try on my newish R8 so it's worth pursuing one more time. Rachel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelR-UK Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share #14 Posted September 23, 2008 Further to this I cannot find any UK sellers offering Tamron Leica adaptors but plenty in Germany but their prices are hideously expensive. Had another go at using my own adaptor with the aforementioned Tamron 24mm lens on my R8. I think it's only going to work with the lens set to Manual aperture and the camera to manual mode. As usual the camera shows f22 in the aperture readout whatever aperture I set on the lens. I guess my only option is to shoot a few frames and see what the results are like. I notice that if I set my R8 to A or P mode and Tamron lens to Auto aperture, despite the aperture readout on the camera showing f22 all the time, the shutter speed changes in response to any changes in selected aperture on the lens I should know to leave well alone really I expect in the end I will have to buy a Leica 24mm lens if I want to use that focal length ... Rachel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spydrxx Posted September 24, 2008 Share #15 Posted September 24, 2008 I used several Tamron lenses on my Leica R gear a couple of years ago and found that I had to make a little 3x5 card to keep track of how each lens metered on each body. Once I got it straight, everything was fine...but, like you, it was a little frustrating figuring out the variability, which BTW, was less of an issue when I used the lenses on other bodies. As an aside, the lenses I used weren't quite up to Leica performance at all apertures, but in many cases when stopped down 1-2 stops they gave the R lenses a real run for the money. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.