[Leica] F3- was Eos 1

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

Hi

Larry wrote

>Seems like it was a few years ago I'd heard the U.S. Army bought 900 F3s. I
was told they saw a need for a rugged, reliable, professional camera but
not for autofocus or other bell-and-whistles. Assuming this story is true,
and assuming the U.S. Army isn't the only organization in the world with
such needs, it would help explain the F3's continued viability.<

Shortly after reading this encouraging news, I then get to Mike's post,
which states that the F3 has not been built for years. I think Mike knows
his onions on that, so now I'm depressed again.

Worse, we now know that Nikon will only stock spares for the F4 until 10
years after it was discontinued, that is, 2007. I recently had a repair done
to one of my F4s and Nikon (UK's) attitude was, "Why bother? Chuck it out
and buy an F5." When I said I didn't like the F5 they went all surly on me,
as if that point of view was just ridiculous. (And please don't jump on me;
I'm not saying the F5 is not a good camera; I'm just saying that I don't
like it. So I'm a stoopid smudger who likes knobs with numbers on.)

And that is why, to get back to the point, I'm depressed. Because I had
believed that when my trusty F4s die, I would be able to fall back on my
even trustier F3s, since Nikon, as part of their much-proclaimed ongoing
support for their manual focus customers, would always maintain production
of a top-line manual body. And now Mike tells me I won't be able to do that
after all. So much for Nikon's support. (Last year I had to scrap a
perfectly good Nikon lens because the aperture ring was damaged, and Nikon
UK had no spares. (!!!!!) Thank you so much, Mr Nikon.)

So, I've about had it. I have far too much money invested in my Nikon system
(5 bodies and 14 lenses) to get rid of it just like that, but they're
leaving me no option. I have no need for autofocus, so it's either Leica R
or Contax, and since I already have a Leica M outfit, I think I know which
way to go. I try to upgrade and improve on an ongoing basis, as it helps the
cashflow, so later this year I would plan to buy at least one SLR body.

Now the question that makes all this worthwhile: I know that I could buy an
adapter that would let me fit Leica R lenses to a Canon Eos body; can
somebody out there tell me if I can buy an adapter that will  let me fit my
Nikon manual lenses on a Leica R body and retain infinity focus, full
aperture metering, and auto stop-down? And if I can, where do I get it?


TIA

Cheers


Rod