what brands should I get? must it be Leicas?

-- Travis koh (teckyy@hotmail.com), February 23, 2002

Answers

I have one Leitz and one Voigtlander - both do a perfect job of coupling a screw lens to a M body - buy either.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 23, 2002.

where did you get the M adapters Giles? Thanks, Scott

-- Scott Evans (scottevans@attbi.com), February 23, 2002.

I only have one, bought secondhand about 5 years ago - back then (pre- Voigtlander days!) they were still easily available. As I say I bought a new Voigtlander adapter for my 75 F2.5 - it works fine.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 23, 2002.

I have a Voigtländer adapter for use with their 15mm lens on my M bodies. There's no problem with it at all. The build is just as good as the old Leica ones.

I would advise against one made by, I think Novoflex, which I had before. It wouldn't click into place on the body, so was never 100% secure.

-- Tim Franklin (tim_franklin@mac.com), February 23, 2002.

I looked around recently and could only find Leitz ones at the $60 to $90 range.

Steve Gandy sells the Voigtlander ones for much less, they're new not corroded (as many of the old Leitz ones are), and they come with that all important M rear cap and a crappy scrw mount body cap that pushes in. Having an M cap is handy when you convert.

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), February 23, 2002.

Travis, if you're new to Voigtlander, be forewarned that their lenses don't always line up correctly, that is with the middle of the depth of field scale directly at the 12:00 o'clock position. I've had lenses that aligned at one o'clock and then when the same lens was used on a Leica with an adapter it aligned differently again. I complained to Cosina about this and they said it was because they couldn't machine the lens and camera mounts to exact tolerances and that this was just a characteristic of the product that could not be corrected. On the other hand the Leica adapters seem to be machined to more precise tolerances. At least I've never seen a lens line up incorrectly with a Leica adapter, unless the lens never lined up correctly anyway without an adapter. Voigtlander lenses are good, but be forewarned: the Voigtlander system is not constructed to the same degree of precision as Leicas usually (but with exception) are.

Dennis

-- Dennis Couvillion (couvilaw@aol.com), February 23, 2002.

The C/V lenses have mounts that can rotated in a number of positions to correct (but not totally) the offset. As I recall, even the Leitz screw mounts were not always dead-on at 12 o'clock

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), February 23, 2002.

charles, how do you do that?

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), February 24, 2002.