Leica glass on a Canon 5D

[Nick De Marco]

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

 

[jbf]

Leica glass on Canon are all manual focus right? How hard are these lenses to focus at night? I'd personally buy a 5D if it meant I could use leica glass and still be able to focus relatively easily.

Are there any options for split/screen style focusing such as with older slrs? Maybe third party focusing screens?

 

[Stephan]

Canon market a screen for mf lenses and a grid screen for the 5d, apparently they will for the mark II as well. As for how hard it would be to focus, I guess that's kind of a personal taste thing. I always use manual focus in low light as I get more problems with af so I guess I'm not really qualified to answer.

 

[jbf]

I guess the thing I am confused about is how exactly does it work. What is this whole thing about stop down metering, etc? Can anyone who uses these lenses on the 5d explain the limitations, etc that there are?

 

[sojournerphoto]

I guess the thing I am confused about is how exactly does it work. What is this whole thing about stop down metering, etc? Can anyone who uses these lenses on the 5d explain the limitations, etc that there are?

I use a Distagon 35 f2 in Nikon mount on my canon bodies and it works like an RF lens, i.e. stopped down all the time. Both bodies meter fine in aperture priority or manual mode, but focus can be difficult if it's dark or the lens is stopped far down. With the focus confirm chipped adaptor I get focus confirm blinks up to f5.6 or f8 depending on body.

Overall, useable, but I'm looking forward to the ef mount versions!

Mike

 

[martygerman]

Leica VLux 7.4-88 mm f/2.8-3.7 glass

Leica VLux 7.4-88 mm f/2.8-3.7 glass

I've used my Leica R lenses on my 4/3rd's L1 camera for over a year, now. Nice results with most of the Leica character preserved.

Having used Leica lenses since the 70's I recently stumbled upon the Leica vlux built by Panasonic.

I'm interested in the bokeh and subtle color fidelity seen only with Leica glass.

I didn't expect to see this in the vlux but, it is there!

It's two years old and being discontinued with a $250 close out mail in rebate to Leica.

My intent was to give it to my wife to use for her bird watching as the lens is the equivalent of a 35-420 mm macro zoom.

It turned out to be so good that I just sold my Contax G2 and Nikon D200 outfit with 4, f/2.8 ED Nikkor zooms!

Don't take my word for this ... check out this photo here:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2876846713_87250ee8df_o.jpg

Here's the small version of it ...

Here's another that shows some more of this amazing lens's character!

Leica designs it's lenses to have less distortion in the out of focus parts of the image.

In so doing, they trade off the in focus sharpness, slightly but, the images just look better as a result.

This DC Vario Elmarit lens stands with any of my previous Leica lenses.

Better still, their improvements in their firmware to the jpegs (which Aperture uses for it's starting points on it's raw files) makes a huge difference, too!

I can't wait to see the new Summicron f/2 on the DLux 4 which is replacing the Vlux, soon!

And don't let the small sensor size put you off. I made duplicate 13" x 19" prints shooting with my Contax G2 against my Nikon D200 against the Leica Vlux (both 10 MP) and nobody could see any differences other than better, subtler colors in the Leica prints.

In the end, at least for me, it comes down to the print.

The better glass designs result in better looking prints.

I believe that all of the companies reached the limits of the lens design back in the 60's. Since then it has been their trade off's that have set the various lens designs apart from one another.

My Nikon glass was the sharpest, as long as you ONLY look at the in focus part of the image. But the out of focus areas showed distortions.

Leica choose to minimize distortion in both the in and out of focus parts of the image. They traded off some sharpness to achieve this.

Since most of my photos include in and out of focus areas, I personally prefer the Leica lens designs.

It is interesting to note that recently, they've taken on the jpeg and made similar changes in it's design to reflect their goal of subtle color and even tonality.

This doesn't seem to get much press!

IMHO I think that it is the combination of their lens designs and their firmware/jpeg design which has effectected the quality of my prints more than anything that any other manufacturer has yet accomplished with digital photography!

I also like the way the Vlux feels and works ... like a 'real' camera!

 

[ywenz]

Hmmm the examples don't look very sharp, even at web reduced resolution... misfocused perhaps?

 

[gavinlg]

Nice pics - the R lenses are really nice. The 5d is really nice too. I went through a period when I bought a Zeiss ZF 50mm 1.4 and a few manual focus lenses - zuikos and nikkors for my 5d thinking they'd be better to use than canons own lenses.
I got sick of manual focussing as soon as I had to do actual paid work with them, too unreliable and slow.

3 weeks ago I said "screw it" and bought a Canon 50mm 1.2L for my 5d.
Best 50mm lens I've ever used. Fast and reliable focussing, high hit rate wide open, stunning rendition wide open, stunning contrast/colors/bokeh. Blows away that ZF 50mm 1.4 I had.

And then once I'd established how good the 50 1.2L is, I went and tried an 85mm 1.2L. Holy sh*t!

I can post some samples from the 50mm 1.2L in 3 or so hours if you guys would like... heading out now for some nice afternoon pics.

 

[gavinlg]

5d + 50mm 1.2L, all wide open

My point is if you're looking for ultimate lens performance in fast primes don't look past the fast canon L primes, or even their normal primes. If you're looking for something fun and interesting to play around with with potentially excellent results (with a bit of work) the leica/zuiko/zeiss primes are great. I wouldn't mind having a play with some leica R lenses on my 5d myself.

 

[M. Valdemar]

105mm f2.5 Manual AI Nikkor on D700

Yesterday.

 

[gavinlg]

Nice! - got any shots with that 105 wide open?

 

[M. Valdemar]

Wide open. High ISO

 

[nobbylon]

5d + 50mm 1.2L, all wide open

Ido like this shot, very nice fdigital

 

[mfogiel]

Nick,
Well, first of all, second party lenses on Canon bodies, is an antire school of thought - you can find the hub of this on fredmiranda forums, where they have tested the possible and also the impossible...
Secondly. digital is actually quite a leveller for lenses, because the resolution can only get to the point where the COC (circle of confusion) covers a single pixel, so it well might be that your Leica lenses are not showing the entire potential on the 5D
Third - with most lenses used for the 24x36mm frame, f8.0 is already cutting the resolution due to diffraction - if you want to compare the lenses, compare them at an f stop where they are not diffraction limited
Fourth - you are a lucky guy, because you will be able to try Zeiss lenses on your Canon soon - I bet the Distagon 21 will blow your socks off, and not only because of the resolution and colour rendering...
Fifth - personally, I love to shoot using good equipment, but frankly speaking I find it much more rewarding to shoot B&W film, and let everybody else throw their money at the latest digital "uber" pixel peeping product...

 

[nksyoon]

Stopping down manually - there is no electronic connection between the body and lens, so if you don't want to shoot wide open, you have to manually adjust the aperture ring to the aperture you want. In aperture priority mode the body will adjust exposure according to what is coming through the lens, ie the manually set aperture.

Other drawback - for the 5D there is no focusing screen with microprisms and split image, only matte screens - there is a replacement screen which is slightly darker than the standard but shows focusing adjustments more clearly - this screen is too dark to be used with lenses of max aperture f4 and below.

I've found that a 90mm lens is much easier to focus manually than a 50mm on a 5D.

Lowlight focusing? More difficult than on an RF, lots of trail and error - some samples with Summilux 50 on 5D:

 

[boy_lah]

5D + 50 1.2 L - extremely reliable AF even in low light, high success rates @ 1.2 and great one lens setup.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

OK, time to get back to how the thread got started (5D + Leica glass)













All w/Canon 5D + 50mm f/2 Summicron-R (3-cam)

 

[gavinlg]

Gorgeous! I love the tonality and I love the 50L @ 1.2

 

[gavinlg]

OK, time to get back to how the thread got started (5D + Leica glass)

-----

All w/Canon 5D + 50mm f/2 Summicron-R (3-cam)

I always love seeing your shots - It seems to me that leica glass lends itself very well to your processing style. Your shots have a near slide film saturation and a subtle rounded sharpness to them.


Can someone post a pic of a 5d with leica lenses or maybe a d700/d3 with old nikkors?

 

[meven]

This is superb!