Close Focusing 50/1.4 RF Lenses

Brian Sweeney said:
My Summarit-M was $125 a few years ago, my LTM Summmarit was $140 about 5 years ago. My Nikkor 5cm F1.4 in LTM was $95 about 6 years ago. Canon 50/0.95 was $200 6 years ago. Hard for me to believe how fast prices on lenses have shot up. I can thank the RD-1, M8, M9, and u4/3 mount "I guess". Certainly the current economy did not do it!
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Yes absolutely. I have more people recognizing the M off my shoulder than ever before when using film. Not sure I like it, but it's kept Leica and rangefinders in the game.
 
leicashot said:
I still can't believe I had my 6-bit coded boxed Lux 50 ASPH with rub marks on the barrel for sale on this forum for 3 days and it didn't sell for the sub $3K price I was asking. Of course, I put it on the bay and I got above $3K before auction ended.
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Man, a whole 3 days? I probably didn't see it along with many other would be interested buyers.

The Pre-ASPH .7m 50 Lux goes for about $1500.
 
Mister E said:
Man, a whole 3 days? I probably didn't see it along with many other would be interested buyers.

The Pre-ASPH .7m 50 Lux goes for about $1500.
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It also didn't really surprise me too much cause Leica people want their gear nice and mint and my images fo the lens were bright and clear so every mark could be seen. It looked much better in person than it did in the images, and it was perfect mechanically and focused perfectly, with the smoothest focusing I've ever experienced having owned 3 of these babies in the past.
 
Brian Sweeney said:
The 50/1.5 Nokton is a screw mount lens. You can back it off a turn in the LTM to M-Mount adapter for closer focus. The actual optics and the RF Cam will move in unison, the actual focus will agree with what the RF indicates. You could make an LTM adapter with a "shim" on it to set the stand-off, and essentially get a hacked dual-range lens.
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Brian,

You are a genius. I was looking at the Nokton 50/1.5 setting on my desk today thinking, if that focused to 0.7m, it would probably be good enough for me.

Just checked... a 3mm, maybe 3.5mm shim would provide enough extension to move the lens to the limit of the rangefinder linkage. I pulled the mount off the back and there seems like there could be enough helical there to modify the lens. Not sure how complicated the modification would be though.

I may fabricate a shim, which would not take long, to at least test performance of the Nokton 50/1.5 down to 0.7m. If the lens holds up at that distance then it may be worth looking at modifying it for 0.7m MFD.

Thanks!
 
Brian Sweeney said:
The 50/1.5 Nokton is a screw mount lens. You can back it off a turn in the LTM to M-Mount adapter for closer focus. The actual optics and the RF Cam will move in unison, the actual focus will agree with what the RF indicates.
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That sounds great...
all you would need is an ltm-M adapter hacked to allow the cam to move from 1m to 0.7m, right?

One thing I am not sure of is: once you unscrewed the lens, will it still be parallel enough to the film plane to allow good image quality?

I want tto try this with my canon 1.4 !! :)
 
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Just cruised over to the thread about the LTM Nikkor 50/1.4 and seen the scans that Krosya and naruto posted. I am thinking that I will keep an eye out for one.

One time when I wish I had an M8 or M9 to quickly check the performance of the Nokton 50/1.5 closer than 0.9m. Off to find or make a shim...
 
On wobble and being parallel- the shim should steady things up. The alternative would be a custom adapter with longer threads. I'll bet Amedeo could easily make one of those!
 
Brian Sweeney said:
On wobble and being parallel- the shim should steady things up.
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mhh... I was hoping to use this "on the fly", just releasing the lens when close focus is needed...

Brian Sweeney said:
The alternative would be a custom adapter with longer threads. I'll bet Amedeo could easily make one of those!
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That would be great...
If I got it right, you are thinking of an ltm to M adapter that contains its own helical and allows to focus down to .7. One would just mount an ltm lens, possibly locked at infinity, et voila..
But is there enough room between the M39 and the M bayonet to do it?
 
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