What Leica R should I get?

[Fuchs]

If you can live with stop-down metering, convert the R lenses to Nikon F mount (google Leitax) and use whatever Nikon camera suits you. The FM2n, FA, F2, F3, F4, F5 are rock solid workhorses easily found and repaired anywhere in the world.

 

[ktmrider]

I have the R6.2 and get a manual SLR in a camera the size of a Leica M. Having both spot and averaging metering is great and the only thing the battery powers is the meter. Don't use it much as I prefer the rangefinders but it is a great camera.

 

[mkvrnn]

Thanks for the tip about Leitax, Fuchs.

A couple of years ago I bought a fairly large R4 outfit in pristine condition, almost all of it still in its original boxes. Even the soft leather Universal Holdall is still in its original Leitz cardboard box.

It's unlikely that I'll ever get around to using the camera but I'd quite like to try the lenses to see if they are as good as people seem to say. Ideally I'd like to try them on my Nikon DSLR if I can find a suitably cheap adaptor.

Alternatively, did I read somewhere that one of the modern Leicas will accept R lenses?

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks for the tip about Leitax, Fuchs.

A couple of years ago I bought a fairly large R4 outfit in pristine condition, almost all of it still in its original boxes. Even the soft leather Universal Holdall is still in its original Leitz cardboard box.

It's unlikely that I'll ever get around to using the camera but I'd quite like to try the lenses to see if they are as good as people seem to say. Ideally I'd like to try them on my Nikon DSLR if I can find a suitably cheap adaptor.

Alternatively, did I read somewhere that one of the modern Leicas will accept R lenses?

The Leica SL is the ideal digital body to use with Leica R lenses. Its EVF/LCD viewfinder is far superior when using adapted lenses stopped-down than any optical reflex viewfinder, and Leica supplies lens correction profiles to in the SL to optimize the lens-sensor relationship. I once had a couple of lenses with Leitax mounts so I could use them on Nikon bodies, but I've since swapped the R lens mounts back; there's really no point to doing that anymore now that the Leica SL body is available.

The lenses can be fitted either by using the R Adapter M stacked onto the M Adapter L, or by using the new R Adapter L. With the two adapter stack, you manually assign the profile to the R lenses when fitted, and you can also use your M lenses with the R adapter removed (the SL has profiles for the M lenses included in it as well). With the R Adapter L, R lenses that have ROMs are automatically recognized on the SL. (One caveat is that this adapter is not compatible with one- or two-cam R lenses as the cams could damage the ROM contacts. I believe it is fully compatible with 3-cam and R-only lenses, although with those you'll need to assign the lens profile manually.)

You can also use R lenses on Leica M/M-P typ 240 and Leica Monochrom typ 246 bodies with the R Adapter M. With these bodies you can use the LCD and Live View, or the optional EVF, for focusing and viewing.

R lenses perform every bit as well as their reputation suggests. After many many years shooting with Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Olympus, and enjoying their best top grade lenses, the Leica R lenses that I had always wanted have not disappointed me one wit. I picked up a good set of R lenses over the course of a couple of years at very reasonable prices, they are the mainstay of my photography today with the SL. Even the older ones that might be considered to have technical flaws produce some of the most beautiful imaging I've seen out of any of my previous equipment.

G

 

[ktmrider]

If you want to try a R6.2, pm me.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

....<snip> Leica supplies lens correction profiles to in the SL to optimize the lens-sensor relationship. <snip>.................I picked up a good set of R lenses over the course of a couple of years at very reasonable prices, they are the mainstay of my photography today with the SL. Even the older ones that might be considered to have technical flaws produce some of the most beautiful imaging I've seen out of any of my previous equipment...<snip>
G

Godfrey,
A couple of questions: With the newly released R to SL adapter, what, exactly, are the lens corrections which are applied in camera? Vignetting, LOCA, spherical aberrations? And can you turn those corrections off if you want to?

The reason I ask if you can turn them off is related to the later sentence in your post; "the ones that have technical flaws produce some of the most beautiful imaging". Exactly. Sometimes I desire the SA, and the vignetting.
Any help you could provide would be welcome as I have tried to find the answer elsewhere , without success.

 

[Godfrey]

Godfrey,
A couple of questions: With the newly released R to SL adapter, what, exactly, are the lens corrections which are applied in camera? Vignetting, LOCA, spherical aberrations? And can you turn those corrections off if you want to?

The reason I ask if you can turn them off is related to the later sentence in your post; "the ones that have technical flaws produce some of the most beautiful imaging". Exactly. Sometimes I desire the SA, and the vignetting.
Any help you could provide would be welcome as I have tried to find the answer elsewhere , without success.

I haven't done specific testing to determine specifically what the lens profile adjustments provide, and it seems to be on a per-lens basis. Some get corrections to minimize light fall-off, others to minimize color shifting, some might get lateral chromatic aberration correction, etc. I'm not so sure about rectilinear corrections. It would take some testing and comparisons to determine the precise nature of the corrections per lens. But yes: you can turn off manually-assigned lens profile settings for both M and R lenses.

The reason I qualify 'manually-assigned' is that, with the M Adapter L mount and six-bit coded Leica lenses, the indicator in the menu shows the current lens but is grayed out and does not allow you to change it unless the lens can have more than one profile setting (like the WATE, MATE, and Summilux 35v2). Stacking the R Adapter M onto the M Adapter L, all R lens profiles are manually selected and so can be turned off, but I am assuming the R Adapter L will work similarly to the M Adapter L with ROM-equipped R lenses. (The R lens profiles are the same whether you use the two adapter stack or the single R lens adapter.)

Leica's take on these lens corrections seems to be that they are considered a part of providing users with the performance they intended for the specific lens. So if a lens has a small amount of rectilinear aberration with the film cameras they were originally intended for, the profile is designed to reproduce that imaging character on the SL as best possible. Imaging issues introduced by using the lens with a digital sensor is what they are looking to correct, without changing the basic character that the lens was designed to produce. So I doubt that you'll see radical changes between what you're familiar with on film when you put that lens on the SL.

I should probably do some testing, both with film comparisons and by turning the profiles off. It's just so time consuming to do that properly, and I haven't had a good reason to do it. The SL works extremely well... 🙂

G

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Very helpful, thank you.