Milich Adapter for Voigtlander lenses

[CrazyCatLady]

I am "kind of new to rangefinders" (long story). I just purchased two Voigtlander lenses, 15 f/4.5 Heliar and 50 f/1.5 Nokton Aspherical to use on my M8. In researching about screw mount lenses, I have learned about the adapters John Milich makes.

I was wondering if someone can help me with which size adapters I would need? and which adapters (WATE or LTM8)? I have not gotten any filters for the lenses yet.

Thanks 🙂
Jennifer

 

[Mazurka]

I assume you want the "6-bit encoding", which is specifically tailored to each Leica lens and any "corrections" are only applied when you shoot JPEG and not in RAW. (Leica also says it corrects "cyan vignetting" WHEN you use the IR-cut filter: http://leica.nemeng.com/004f.shtml)

Since the encoding cannot and does not communicate shooting aperture to the camera, light fall-off is not corrected. CA also depends on shooting aperture and I seriously doubt it is corrected either. Both parameters are specific to each Leica lens and obviously they are not the same with Japanese lenses.

There have been suggestions that the camera "estimates" the shooting aperture with the encoding. If that's the case, any correction is an also an estimate and can actually be worse than no correction, especially with Japanese lenses.

I strongly believe that providing the focal length to the EXIF is the only real benefit of the encoding, the lack of which has never impaired M-shooters. Alex Shishin (photo.net) is one of those who encountered no problems with un-coded lenses on the M8.

You need nothing more than the usual LTM-M adapter -- 50 for the Nokton. Since the M8 doesn't have framelines for the 15mm, any good adapter will do.

 

[harmsr]

Unfortunately I have to contradict the previous poster. Any adaptor will not due.

John's adaptors have the milled out slots which you can fill in with paint to get the six bit coding.

If you purchase the 28/90 adaptor from John, it will have material in the six bit coding area and slots to code the lens. Original Leica or Voightlander adaptors will not have this.

If you buy John's, you can code the 15/4.5 as the WATE 16-18-21 Leica and get excellent in camera correction for vignetting and cyan corners. The coding recognition is based not only on the codes, but also on the frame line activated. Using firmware 1.102 you will select the 16mm focal length for the Leica Wide Tri-Elmar.

Relative to the 50, I believe your only options are the Leica or Voightlander adaptors which can not be coded. I don't believe John has made on for the 50/75 frame lines yet.

Best,

Ray

 

[Mazurka]

My point is that you don't need the encoding which are NOT designed for Japanese lenses anyway. Of course, if you must have it, only the Milich adapters are professionally done.

The link I quoted before contains information on how to DYI and a list of the codes used by Leica for their lenses. All you need is a sharpie.

The list consists of different codes for different iterations of the same Leica lens like the 50/2. Like I said, each code represents a specific optical formula.

Mike Prevette: "With nothing more than a sharpie I was able to trick my M8 into thinking my Zeiss 21 was really a 50mm Leica lens. Of course this isnt for any practical purpose except to prove it's possible with little or no tools."

 

[furcafe]

Mr. Milich does offer adapters for the 50/75 framelines. He can also mill out the earlier Leitz adapters without the cutouts.

Relative to the 50, I believe your only options are the Leica or Voightlander adaptors which can not be coded. I don't believe John has made on for the 50/75 frame lines yet.

Best,

Ray

 

[maggieo]

Any idea on turnaround time for the adapters? Say, for the 35mm 1.7 Ultron?