Hi, I have a Leica R3 with a Summicron f2 50mm which I love. Right now I have a trip to Hawaii and I want to take a lot of pictures there but the 50mm is the only lens I have and right now I can not afford a Vario-Elmar zoom that I want, so I would like to know if there is an adaptor -and where I can find it- so I can place on my Leica a Nikkor zoom. I already saw one Leica R4 with a Tamron adaptor, and of course I know the difference in terms of quality between lenses, but right now there is my only choice. Any info will be really appreciate. Thank you. Ricardo Villagran. Newport Beach, CA r_villagran@yahoo.com

-- Ricardo Villagran (r_villagran@yahoo.com), March 09, 2001

Answers

Ricardo, go to http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/mounts.htm and you will see that the Leica R series has about the longest distance between the body lens mount flange and the film plane. What this means to you is that using almost any other manufacture lens on the Leica R with any adapter will result in the lens not focussing to infinity - a close up arrangement only. For some camera bodies, they manufacture mount adapters which have negative elements in them to increast the focal length thereby allowing use on cameras with longer lens mounts but they often don't work well and I don't recall ever seeing one for Leica. Stephen Gandy's Camera Quest (www.cameraquest.com) has some lens mount adapters but I can't tell you if he has what you're looking for.

-- mark ackermann (mramra@qwest.net), March 09, 2001.

Tamron is the way to go if you want an affordable quality zoom for the Leica reflex. I shot with a SP 35 to 80 f2.8-3.8 that was as good as the 35 to 70 Leica lens, smaller, faster, and had real 1/2 lifesize sharp macro. Built beatifully as well. The lens with adapter on the used market runs $125 to $150 for one in nice shape. Stopped down 1 stop from wide open, this lens was super sharp and cabable of nice 11 X 14 prints. I liked that lens so much I kept it after I sold the Leica and now use it on my manual focus Nikon. Anther Tamron zoom lens that is excellent is the 70 to 210 SP f3.5. No shame in putting either of these on a Leica R4.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), March 10, 2001.

I agree with Andrew, Tamron is the way to go with affordable zooms for R Leicas. Seeing as most Leica zooms are made by Sigma. Any of the SP lenses are good. The 70-210 SP 3.5 Andrew mentions is worthy of being on a Leica. I have a 28-80 3.5\4.2 Sp that I am very happy with. Nice range, a little big and bulky, but very affordable. Hope this helps Steve

-- Steve Belden (otterpond@tds.net), March 11, 2001.

Ricardo: I am using Visoflex lenses on my R4. You use a 14167 Leica adapter available for about $50-$100 from shops or on E-bay with Visoflex lenses. There are some good buys on older lenses this way. The visoflex lenses are from 65mm on up and are used with stop down metering. Some of the lenses use a "preset" ring that allows you to open the lens up for viewing and focusing and then stop down to the "preset" aperature for shooting. There are also some older visoflex lenses for the Visoflex one that also need and OUBIO ring to adapt from the screw mount to the bayonet. Cheers.

-- Mark A. Johnson (logic@gci.net), March 17, 2001.

Very reluctantly, I put a tamron 70-210/3.5-4 on my R3, though not as sharp as the vario-elmar 75-200/4, it was OK. The 20x30 cm prints were acceptable and the color fidelity OK. Vario-elmar produced pictures which were enlargeable > 40X60 cm without any loss of sharpness and with better color. Considering that the tamron lens cost me only about $15/- (it came with a Mamiya adaptor) and the Leica adaptor (several years ago! It is not made anymore!) $20/-. It is a bargain. After this experience, I have bought 24-50 and 35-70 zooms and am testing them out.

-- Vivek Iyer (postbus@iyer.demon.nl), June 24, 2001.