Canon 5D with Leica R glass

[Nick De Marco]

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Now that Canon have announced the 5D Mk II I am getting seriously tempted to buy this camera, having put my 5D (which is a good camera) in the cupboard for some time now as I love using the Leica M3 and quality Leica glass.

 

So yesterday I conducted an experiment, bringing out out my 5D and trying a Leica R lens with adaptor on it. Have to say I was impressed with the results. With a couple of the photos, shot at wide open or between f2-f4 on the Leica Summicron F2 R lens, I think the Canon files show that "Leica glow" and handsome bokeh well. The shots look quite lke what you could get using Leica lens and 35mm film. Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

 

The whole gallery is here

5D & Cron play Photo Gallery by Nick De Marco at pbase.com

 

It includes a sub-gallery of a rather unscientific test between a couple of Leica lenses and Canon lenses. Before anyone shoots me, I don't claim these tests are anything more than what I was able to do quickly with what I had. I only have a couple of Leica R lenses (the 50 and the Elmar 28mm), so I could only compare with a 50mm f1.4 Canon lens which I KNOW is not an L lens (although I think the optics are as good or better than some of the L lenses) and the 16-35mm f2.8 L Canon lens, which obviously has the disadvantage of being a zoom but a god one at that, and had a polarising filter on it I did not bother to take off. My favourite Canon lens is the 135 f/2 L but I don't have a Leica comparison so I was limited to what I have. Thus the test does not clim to be scientific. Nevertheless I think it is possible to conclude a couple of things from it: (i) it is not easy to notice a big difference between the Canon lenses I used, and the Leica ones, especially at f/8; (ii) however, I think if you look closely, especially with the 50mm, the Leica is just slightly sharper and had more contrast. I prefer its look, but there is little in it. The Leica outperforms best when wide open in my opinion, something I did no comparison with. All the lenses are good, and there is nothing wrong with sticking Leica glass on a Canon. Here s the sub-gallery:

Leica or Canon lens Photo Gallery by Nick De Marco at pbase.com

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[stunsworth]

Nevertheless I think it is possible to conclude a couple of things from it: (i) it is not easy to notice a big difference between the Canon lenses I used, and the Leica ones, especially at f/8;

 

Almost any reasonable lens will look good at f8. It's wide open where the fun begins.

 

I used R glass with a Canon 5D for a couple of years or so. It works very well, but you have to be able to put up with the quirks of the system. I never found it a problem.

 

In particular there's of course the issue of stop down metering. Also the metering is rather inconsistent with the exposure as the R lens is stopped down and tends to overexpose with smaller apertures. I only ever shot RAW and set the exposure compensation to -2/3 of a stop to prevent blown highlights.

 

As I say, the system works well if you can accept its limitations. There are also some issues with some of the R lenses as the 5D's mirror fouls the rear of the lens.

[farnz]

... There are also some issues with some of the R lenses as the 5D's mirror fouls the rear of the lens.

For convenience, here's a rather good table showing R lenses that are compatible with Canon DSLRs: R lens compatibility

 

Pete.