Well if Epson says it wont work, I would tend to believe them. But the rear element has to REALLY stick out into the camera body to interfer with the inside of the camera body. Thats the problem, its not like its to close to the film plane. My 15mm Heliar and 21mm Kobalux both stick out a lot but they con't have a huge diameter.
Incidently, don't worry about vignetting to much. The 15mm Heliar vignettes worse than any lens I have every owned and yet it is correctable in photoshop with a little more noise in the corners. The Kobalux vignettes some and is easily corrected in Photoshop if you decide to even go to the trouble.
Vignetting was a major defect in the old days of film. It was not easy to correct in the darkroom. With digital, it is very easy to correct. Vignetting issues that would bother me in film, i'll live with in digital. It's a good thing too, because the nature of a digital sensor amplifies vignetting especially with regards non-retro focus wide angle designs which are the hallmark of rangefinder cameras. Leica is trying to procees the vignetting out of the lens IN the camera with firmware software communicating with the new "dot" ID system engraved on the lens. I don't think I am fully in favor of letting the software determine the amount of vignetting reduction. I prefer to do it myself in post processing. But leica is trying to appeal to the masses (the rich masses) on this issue.
Someone needs to start a digital vignetting thread on the Digital forum. As this effects both The Epson and Leica, maybe Jorge could set up a third subgroup under Digital Rangefinder.
Rex