EOS 5D Mark 2 hacked to Leica M mount

mto'brien said:
As far as I know a Noctilux is only available in M mount, so an R mount adapter, or any other of the many available adapters isn't really what this guy was after. To think that the hacker didn't consider that, doesn't give him enough credit.

Perhaps I should have said: testament to the character of leica glass, especially wide open. And frankly, I don't really understand your door stop analogy in context here, i thought we were talking about using lenses as lenses, and why this guy would want to do what he did, but a good fallacy here and there can be funny, too. 🙂
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You made the (fallacious) argument that the mere fact that someone would do such a conversion is a testament to the quality of Leica glass. My analogy was obviously chosen so as to show the absurdity of that argument. Just because one person decides to do something doesn't mean it's a good idea.

But let's get back on topic. Sure the Noctilux is only available in M-mount but (beside the Canon 50mm f1.2) there are many fine f1.2 lenses around that would work just fine with an adapter. And there's even an EF 50mm f1.0 lens although it's been discontinued.
 
Jamie123 said:
You made the (fallacious) argument that the mere fact that someone would do such a conversion is a testament to the quality of Leica glass. My analogy was obviously chosen so as to show the absurdity of that argument. Just because one person decides to do something doesn't mean it's a good idea.

But let's get back on topic. Sure the Noctilux is only available in M-mount but (beside the Canon 50mm f1.2) there are many fine f1.2 lenses around that would work just fine with an adapter. And there's even an EF 50mm f1.0 lens although it's been discontinued.
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You are right, I am guilty of overstatement. This is more along the lines of what i should have stated:

it is a testament to his belief in the character...

Point being he wanted to mount a Noctilux (and other M glass) on a 5DII, and he did it. Good idea? only for him to decide. Many interesting ideas are killed by the one guy on the committee that says it's a dumb idea. That's why a lot of innovators work alone. ~99% of innovation leads to a dead end or fails. Our hacker here actually succeeded. Taking this idea to market, however, would be a dumb idea. No right minded person would argue against that.

That there are other options is also beside the point. He did this because the option he wanted did not exist yet. Now it does. I think it's cool. Our opinions differ, nothing more.
 
The Noctilux Problem

The Noctilux Problem

i Listen, I have a Noctilux and really love what it does in its unique way. I love this lens so much, that I wish I had other ways to use it. Yes, it works fine on a rangefinder, but are there not times when you would want to use SLR type focusing at f1.0 to make absolutely sure you were in focus?

Hacking a camera for this purpose alone is understandable, and you can see the person who made this camera has a Noctilux on it.

I just adjusted my M8 for my Noctilux and it took some time. What if i were in the field and my focus went out (camera or lens) and I had as a backup another way to use the lens?

I am really waiting for a full frame camera that will have a mount short enough to accomidate M lenses with an adapter. Even if the wide angle lenses would not work well, I would buy the camera for the Noctilux! alone!

Another point: Why can't Leica incorperate a small LED in the viewfinder for focus confirmation in addition to the Rangefinder? This would be benificial to those of us who use f1.0, f1.2, f1.4 etc,,, frequently.
 
mto'brien said:
You are right, I am guilty of overstatement. This is more along the lines of what i should have stated:

it is a testament to his belief in the character...

Point being he wanted to mount a Noctilux (and other M glass) on a 5DII, and he did it. Good idea? only for him to decide. Many interesting ideas are killed by the one guy on the committee that says it's a dumb idea. That's why a lot of innovators work alone. ~99% of innovation leads to a dead end or fails. Our hacker here actually succeeded. Taking this idea to market, however, would be a dumb idea. No right minded person would argue against that.

That there are other options is also beside the point. He did this because the option he wanted did not exist yet. Now it does. I think it's cool. Our opinions differ, nothing more.
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Oh, don't get me wrong, I have no problem whatsoever with someone hacking a 5DII in order to use Leica lenses. There are plenty of 5DIIs around and $2k is not that much to invest into a hobby project. All I was trying to say was that, even from a videographer point of view, this is not exactly practical and there are easier ways to achieve comparable resulst.
 
Jamie123 said:
Oh, don't get me wrong, I have no problem whatsoever with someone hacking a 5DII in order to use Leica lenses. There are plenty of 5DIIs around and $2k is not that much to invest into a hobby project. All I was trying to say was that, even from a videographer point of view, this is not exactly practical and there are easier ways to achieve comparable resulst.
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I totally agree ^^^

I'll choose my words more carefully in the future to avoid misunderstanding. And don't get me wrong, the door stop analogy was good one.
 
I actually had the Canon 5D2 and the 50 1.0 AF. I sold them both for Leica gear 😛. I can tell you that the Canon 50 1.0 AF is a fantastic lens and while both are F1, the Noctilux has a completely different signature than the Canon 50 1.0.

I would love to be able to use my 50 1.0 Noctilux on the Canon 5D2 even if others scoff at the idea. If I still had the camera, I wouldn't give a second thought to modifying it.

It would also be very interesting to use my 12 4.5 ASPH for video as this focal length isn't available in a Canon mount.
 
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Given the lack of micro lenses on the Canon sensor compared to a M8 or M9, this only really precludes the use of older lenses with deep protruding rear elements.
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- this is a misunderstanding. All camera sensors have microlnses. Leica's innovation weren't the microlenses themselves, it was offset microlenses at the corners of a sensor.
That said, RF lenses have been tested to work surprisingly well with Canon's full frame sensors: http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/15mm_test1.html
 
ampguy said:
IMHO, the fF thing is overblown. The nex has none of the wonky color weirdness of the M9 with wides.
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I've been strongly considering a NEX 5. I looked at the Olympus PEN. Meh. Then considered the GF1; still pondering that one, because its actual handling looks far better than the NEX 5. But the APS-C sensor trumps the 4:3 sensor (which makes less and less sense ever since more FF 35mm sensors show up in the market).

While I agree that the "FF thing" is overblown, it is still hugely important to those of us who really like their lenses and have been mentally visualizing and framing with certain fixed focal lengths in mind.

Those who don't/can't/won't understand how that is don't/can't/won't understand the importance of FF. Nothing wrong with that. But it's wrong for them to state as The Truth that "it's not important" (or, my favorite, "who cares!").

And they're in the majority. IF they weren't, the 4/3 marketing bonanza would have never taken on (it's always good business when you have new customers buying a whole new system, or old ones migrating).

There are a few of us who are not religious about brands nor systems. Everything has its applications. The Cyrillic alphabet works extremely well in Russian literature; not so sure it works well for Haikus in Japanese. Yet, there will be those who will swear that the only thing that will ever work is the Latin alphabet. Like, "ever". Just look at that keyboard you're using. ::shrug::
 
eleskin said:
Another point: Why can't Leica incorperate a small LED in the viewfinder for focus confirmation in addition to the Rangefinder? This would be benificial to those of us who use f1.0, f1.2, f1.4 etc,,, frequently.
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It would be benificial to those with a bad eyesight,but as such it could never be more accurate that the RF mechanism itself.
 
eleskin said:
Immagine a world where photographers actually designed the cameras and what they would look like!
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tichy_camera.jpg



camera.jpg



User interface design is overrated.
 
That Tichy exhibit was great. One of my favorite parts was that they were very scared of bringing bugs into the gallery where they were displaying all his home made cameras. His living conditions were apparently less than sanitary. That one probably cost him under 2K. Probably under $2.


Gabriel M.A. said:
tichy_camera.jpg



camera.jpg



User interface design is overrated.
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Hi Gabriel

Hi Gabriel

You should check out a NEX, but definitely try before you buy. If you're really used to pressing a brick like thing up to your forehead, and squinting through a tiny hole, you have to ask yourself if you can really adjust to the NEX big screen, and if you really want to focus that accurately.

I'd pass on the GF1, go with a Nikon D40 with 35/1.8 lens, they're about the same size, and you'll get infinitely better images with the D40 and NIkon F lenses.

Gabriel M.A. said:
I've been strongly considering a NEX 5. I looked at the Olympus PEN. Meh. Then considered the GF1; still pondering that one, because its actual handling looks far better than the NEX 5. But the APS-C sensor trumps the 4:3 sensor (which makes less and less sense ever since more FF 35mm sensors show up in the market).

While I agree that the "FF thing" is overblown, it is still hugely important to those of us who really like their lenses and have been mentally visualizing and framing with certain fixed focal lengths in mind.

Those who don't/can't/won't understand how that is don't/can't/won't understand the importance of FF. Nothing wrong with that. But it's wrong for them to state as The Truth that "it's not important" (or, my favorite, "who cares!").

And they're in the majority. IF they weren't, the 4/3 marketing bonanza would have never taken on (it's always good business when you have new customers buying a whole new system, or old ones migrating).

There are a few of us who are not religious about brands nor systems. Everything has its applications. The Cyrillic alphabet works extremely well in Russian literature; not so sure it works well for Haikus in Japanese. Yet, there will be those who will swear that the only thing that will ever work is the Latin alphabet. Like, "ever". Just look at that keyboard you're using. ::shrug::
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Does anyone know how I can contact the person who did this conversion? I would very much like to have one of these Canon 5D2s. As far as the huge battery pack 🙄, when you shoot video it takes lots of power, and I for one was grateful to have the extra "juice" when shooting with the 5D2.

Furthermore, has anyone seen any video footage with the Noctilux 50 1.0 and the Canon 5D2?
 
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Leica 50 1.0 @ 1.0 on a Nikon D3 (using Live View to focus)

I shot this a while ago, holding my Noct up to my Nikon D3. Clearly I am very curious about using Leica M on DSLR 🙂.
 
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I love the D3 shot!!!!

I love the D3 shot!!!!

Wow! I love the bokeh, tone, color, everything! This just shows what a beautiful lens a Noctilux is and how foolish it is to restrict that lens to just one type of camera. Don't get me wrong, I love my M8's but seriously, it is a better situation to have different types of bodies that do different things. The fact that it is possible to use a Noctilux and take advantage of some of the things that Leica is not doing well (high iso) with another camera makes too much sense to me. I never cared about the camera as much as the lenses. What all of this tells me is we are moving away from which camera and going towards which lens as technology advances. If we perfect the digital camera, lenses will be all the talk, and let me tell you, any of the classics , especially Leica gems like the classic Noctilux will be even more desirable. Kind of like a Stradivarius where the sound is unique when compared to other instruments. The same is true with the Noctilux and other lenses. So here, we will see more attempts at hacking other cameras because Canon, Nikon, cannot see what is happening or they just want people to just use their lenses only. As an artist myself, sticking to one brand is absurd! I am a pro photographer, but I do have a masters in fine arts and I made many paintings in my life. Different oils and brushes gave different results and look. Same is true with lenses. The ultimate camera solution for me would be a modular design where one could build a custom camera to fit ones needs. Here, we would have the worlds first full frame truly universal camera body for any lens ever made. The problem is who would make it?
 
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