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How do you select framelines on M9 with non-Leica lenses?

kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
A real Leica newby question, I know.

I may have an opportunity to borrow a friend's M9. I have a reasonable collection of CV lenses—I am wondering if the right framelines can be selected manually somehow.

TIA, KL
 

Brian S

New member
You can always use the lever on the front of the camera, but it does not latch into place like the Voigtlander bodies. You have to hold it in position, it was designed for pre-view.

If you have Screw Mount lenses, the LTM to M-Mount adpaters are keyed to bring up specific framelines. There are three different adapters, keyed for 50+75mm, 90mm, and 35+135mm.

For the M9: an 85mm lens matches the 75mm framelines using the inner portion of the frame and the 105mm lens matches the inner border of the 90mm framelines. Just figure 100% coverage, rather than the margin that you normally get.
 
P

Popey

Guest
I may have an opportunity to borrow a friend's M9.
Is that wise?
I hope you enjoy using it - it may become expensive...:D

Brian's spot on with his answer. Just make sure you use the correct LTM-M adapters and you'll be fine.

Cheers
 

kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
Hello Brian,

I have mostly LTM lenses; the ones I want to use on this camera are the CV 35/1.7 and the CV 50/1.5. These were sourced from Cameraquest, so I assume they have the right adapters.

I will have to see what lines these bring up! Is there a way of manually bringing up these lines and set them for that day's shoot? I have been looking on line, but have not found any more, so far.

And (@ Mark); if you had any idea how much I've spent on photography over the years... but can say I have made more, so all good. Mostly, I buy for specific jobs, and sell; this one's for me personally—but thanks for the heads up. It could have been a Phase body and back! Thanks.
 

250swb

Member
You need the appropriate LTM to M adapter for the lens and this will bring the correct frameline up when it is mounted on the camera. You don't need to adjust of set anything. The adapter for a 35mm lens is the 35-135 model, the one for a 50mm is the 50-75 model, and the other is the 28-90.

If however you don't have the correct adapter (say you find you have the wrong one and you have a 28-90 on your 50mm lens) you can still mount the lens and bring up the correct frameline by moving the lever to the left of the lens. This cannot be fixed in position however unless you jamb it with some blu-tak etc, the idea is that it is a preview lever to allow a 'what if I changed lenses' view.

Steve
 

Double Negative

Not Available
As mentioned, with LTM lenses it's solely on the adapter as to what framelines get brought up (there are three kinds). With M mount lenses, the framelines are brought up automatically... But may not necessarily be optimum as the case may be for some ZM lenses, especially on digital bodies like the M8/M9.

The preview lever on the front of Leica bodies is of a "momentary" type. You can diddle it to "preview" the scene with other framelines but it doesn't stick.
 

Arjuna

Active member
Aside from the framelines, the M9 has a menu where you can choose a lens from a list (of Leica lenses). If the adaptors have been coded this can happen automatically. If you set this whenever you mount a lens - presumably to a Leica lens of similar focal length and maximum aperture - you will get a) some information in the EXIF file concerning which lens was used, and b) some corrections for vignetting/colour casts, probably more useful for wider lenses.
 

kirio

Member
Those 2 CV lenses are excellent performers and both can be modified for close focus (about 0.7m). I have both and they perform very well on the M9.
 

mtomalty

New member
I think you should look into getting one of the cheap coder kits and manually
code the lenses you intend to use.
Failing to do this will likely result in color shifts that will tarnish your experience.
Another option to consider is to use the LCC (lens cast correction) feature if you're
familiar with Capture One.

Mark
 
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