teleconverter any experience?

M

mad_boy

Guest
Hi Guys,

I have my first rangefinder (M6TTL) for 3/4 of a year now and I love it.
I have not touched my SLR since !
The one thing that I miss are the long focal lengths. As far as I am aware there are a two ways of increasing focal length on a Leica M.
- Use of the visioflex system
- Use of a teleconverter.

There are 2*teleconverters out there that would turn my 135 into a 270mm.
Since I have the 0,85 finder I hope that it will still focus accurte enough.
Does anyone of you have experience and could provide following information.
- Which brands are there apart from Komura?
- Are these LTM or M mount front and back?
- Does the range-finder focussing still work correctly?
- How Much light gets lost 135/3,4 will become 270/??
- How much does the picture quality gets degraded?
- Any other experience???

Any information is appreciated.

Regards,

Mad_boy
 
How would you frame the shot?

I've never seen an M teleconvertor in the flesh but every reference I've seen to them has said that they're terrible.

There are some things that an SLR is better at than an M, and telephoto work is one of them.

Steve
 
The most significant problem with using a long lens on a rangefinder camera is accurately framing the image, even with an auxiliary viewfinder.

A 135mm lens is probably the upper limit to practical shooting with a Leica RF - with longer lenses, a SLR is the preferred camera type. With wide angles, rangefinder cameras have the advantage, particularly when focusing in low light.
 
As others have said, a teleconverter and a rangefinder camera are a poor mix. I can't imagine that you would get accurate focusing and framing with a teleconverter mounted on a rangefinder.
 
Ok, I'll respond because I actually own one of these teleconverters, a Komura (the only brand I've ever seen). Mine has M female flange in front and male screw mount flange in back, which then has a screw-M adaptor. It is well-made. Optically it isn't at all "horrible", but stopping the lens down to the middle apertures (and usually that means using a tripod because the converter costs 2 stops of shutter speed) is advised if you're critical.

The bad news is that the rangefinder coupling is pretty inaccurate. Most of the time I'm using it with a 135mm focused at infinity, so that's not an issue. For shorter distances, I focus without the converter first.

The finder that came with it was foggy and dim. The rangefinder patch itself is about 50% of the f.o.v. of the 135mm frames so I don't even bother with the Komura finder. The screw-M adaptor I chose for it brings up the 90 framelines, so if I ever use the converter with a 50 I'm ok there also. Using a 90mm lens I just do a mental crop midway bewteen the framelines and the rangefinder patch.

I should mention that I bought my converter at a camera flea market for $10 because the seller had no clue what it was. I've seen them advertised for $200-400 and no way on earth I'd pay that much for it.
 
Another way to go is to shoot with slow-speed, fine-grain film and judiciously crop. Shooting at 135mm is often a bit loose anyway because of inexact framelines. A 2X teleconverter, by its very nature, is demanding that a lens perform at twice its designed limits, so there is inevitably some image loss if you go that route. Cropping preserves your faster aperatures and focusing capability.

I'm attaching an example that's a crop of about half the full negative, ie., about 250mm equivalent. Nikon SP with 135mm Nikkor probably f/4 on 100-speed film. The background's too distracting for it to be a really good picture, but cropping helped.
 
How about a Komura 200mm F4.5 lens instead? It is in Leica Thread Mount and is RF coupled. Use it with the M-Adapter for the 135 lens. Get a 200mm external finder if you need. On the Canon Vt, the RF patch alone at the "RF" setting (135mm FOV) just about covered the 200mm FOV. Sharpness is about the same as a 200mm F4 Nikkor-Q. You should be able to find them for ~$100 on Ebay. It will be sharper and faster than the 2x convertor.

Aside from that, go with the 135mm lens and crop, or go over to an SLR with a 200 or 300.
 
Thanks to all!

I Think I'll go with cropping untill I find a converter for 10 dollar :D

Once again thanks for your time and advice,

Mad_boy
 
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