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Any suggestions on good adapter for M lenses to E mount

algrove

Well-known member
I am wanting to utilize Leica M lenses on my A7R3. Any suggestions? Will any of these adapters AF a MF M lens? Perhaps not possible, but had to ask.:grin:
 

pegelli

Well-known member
I've had good results with a Hawk Adapter. It's manual but the extra helicoid gives you a shorter MFD. Not always ideal when you have internal focussing with floating elements, but in most cases no problem.
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
Lou.... just some info regarding my experiences with Leica lenses on the Sony. I had/have all crons of which nothing under 50mm worked. Smearing and severe corner softness some of the anomalies. My 50mm had severe focus shift and even my 90mm had some. The lenses themselves were not as sharp as I would have liked so I don't use them at all anymore.

BTW just got my camera and love it.....

Victor
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
I’ve had good results with both Voigtlander and Novoflex adapters BUT the biggest factor IMO is the lens selection and the body it’s used on. Some lenses perform fine and some don’t.

Lenses that I had good results with regardless of the body are the Leica WATE, Zeiss ZM50/2, CV 35/1.2v2, Leica 90/2 Pre-AA, and CV 21/1.8. The Leica 50 Lux FLE and 24 Elmar worked okay at best with the A7 but were both a “no-go” on the A7R... I sold hem all prior to owning the A7RII. The 35 Cron ASPH was terrible regardless of body as it had a strong color cast and smearing... which was unfortunate as it was my favorite Leica branded lens overall.

Generally speaking I found non-ASPH Leica lenses (or CV/Zeiss) performed better than the newer ones but in general Leica R lenses (like most SLR lenses) worked better for the Sony FE camera’s than the Leica M lenses and in many cases are optically superior designs. In any cases test the lenses to see how they compare to modern native Sony lenses. You may find yourself dumping the lenses you want to adapt.
 

KeithDM

Well-known member
I am wanting to utilize Leica M lenses on my A7R3. Any suggestions? Will any of these adapters AF a MF M lens? Perhaps not possible, but had to ask.:grin:
What about the Techart link in post #2?

Have just ordered the Novoflex adaptor from Speed Graphic and hope it will arrive before the weekend. Be interesting to see how my 50mm Summilux-M ASPH & 135mm APO-Telyt-M perform on my new A6500!
 

KeithDM

Well-known member
Well, the Novoflex NEX/LEM adaptor has arrived. First M lens that came to hand was my 135mm APO Telyt and the adaptor feels very solid indeed, as does the whole assembly when fitted to the A6500 (see below - Leica Q photo). Just a couple of hand-held indoor test shots so far to how the focus and IBIS performs - looking good! Now need to figure out how to best set-up the A6500 for this and my 50mm Summilux-M ASPH.

View attachment 131751
 

picman

Member
I've had very good experience with the Novoflex adapter. In my case it is for Contax lenses (Contax Distagon 28/f2 -the Hollywood lens-, Contax S-Planar 60mm f2.8 (macro) and Planar 100mm f2, all West Germany made). It is for manual focusing, but all work perfectly, snug fit, perfect focus.

I have never tried the Techart, which with an extra adapter you can also use for Contax lenses and many other brands (http://techartpro.com/product/techart-pro-leica-m-sony-e-autofocus-adapter/).

Does anyone have any experience with the use of such two super-imposed adapters?

Cheers, Bob.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I've had very good experience with the Novoflex adapter. In my case it is for Contax lenses (Contax Distagon 28/f2 -the Hollywood lens-, Contax S-Planar 60mm f2.8 (macro) and Planar 100mm f2, all West Germany made). It is for manual focusing, but all work perfectly, snug fit, perfect focus.
I strongly suggest that you stick with that. Stacking adapters, especially a Leica M is better avoided to do away with vignestting and such nasties. Of course, for a cropped camera such as the A6500, it does not matter much.
 

thrice

Active member
I've had good results with a Hawk Adapter. It's manual but the extra helicoid gives you a shorter MFD. Not always ideal when you have internal focussing with floating elements, but in most cases no problem.
I also use the Hawk's adapter. Especially useful if using PCX filters per my reply to Victor below.

Lou.... just some info regarding my experiences with Leica lenses on the Sony. I had/have all crons of which nothing under 50mm worked. Smearing and severe corner softness some of the anomalies. My 50mm had severe focus shift and even my 90mm had some. The lenses themselves were not as sharp as I would have liked so I don't use them at all anymore.

BTW just got my camera and love it.....

Victor
Absolutely agree. The sensor coverglass stack is more than double the thickness resulting in smeared corners for all but the most telecentric lenses.
The way around this is to mount a specific (per lens focal length/design) planoconvex lens in front of the lens and then adjust the lens (via removing shims) and/or adapter for infinity focus. Or sending the camera to Kolari for a thin filter mod if only using Leica M lenses.

I have done this with my 35mm ZM Distagon and the results are fantastic. The effort was huge though. I chose to have my planoconvex lenses custom made so that I can still use filters on the lens but I appreciate that is not for everyone.
https://www.getdpi.com/forum/sony/61803-front-filter-corrects-corner-smearing.html
wide open sample with PCX:
Otertind-1.jpg
20180122_111255.jpg
 
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