Re: [Leica] 24mm alternative heresies

[Stephen Gandy <leicanikon@earthlink.net>]

Whether the adapter is a good idea for your style of shooting, I have no idea,
but I think you are missing a few of its advantage:

#1 the SLR to Leica M or LTM adapters work quite easily for  ALL wides:  35,
28, 24, 21/20, or wider.  Sure, some shots wide open at the closest focus
distance may not be right, but from 6 feet on out, you will have a hard time
getting your subject badly focused.   If you have several wides for your SLR,
this is a quick easy and inexpensive way to get wides for your Leica.  Suppose
you have a hard time convincing yourself a 21 Aspherical is worth $2,000 plus
to you.  Fine, shoot the $400 Canon or Nikon 20 you already have.   Of course,
this especially makes sense if your SLR wides are Leica or Zeiss glass.   Want
a 20 to 35 Zoom for your Leica M ??  Take if off your SLR!!

#2 it's best to use an auxiliary finder with the SLR lenses on your M.    The
lens barrel of SLR lenses will indeed often block the built in Leica finder,
but not when you mount the finder on top of your camera.

#3 Suppose you want to bring BOTH your SLR and your Leica, but don't want to
break your back carrying camera bag.   Use the adapter to cut the weight in
your camera bag by using the SLR wides on your rangefinder.

#4 As you know, the 135 is the longest RF coupled lens for your Leica.  Suppose
you want to take your Leica, but you know some shots at infinity will still be
too far away for your 135.   Bring your SLR's 200 with the adapter.   Scale
focus your 200 at  infinity and shoot away.  Hedge your bets by shooting at
medium to small apertures if you feel the need.  Yes, it's preferable to use an
auxiliary top mounted finder for this, and you should test it out to make sure
of framing before you blow some important shot.

#5 In answer to your question, only the 25 Voigtlander has a clicked stopped
focus scale that I know of:  Not having a click stopped focus scale on the
other 15 billion wide angles is  no problem to me.  The only framing problems
you are likely to get into is if you don't use a top mounted accessory finder.
You can buy Voigtlander's excellent finders FAR less than what new Leica
finders sell for.

Whether any of this SLR wide strategy sense for what you shoot, and how you
shoot, only you can decide.

Stephen Gandy


Paul Chefurka wrote:

> Given that many people are now using the 25/4 Skopar, and that others are
> using 24mm Elmarits on .72 cameras without an accessory vf, I was wondering
> if any of you have tried an SLR 24 on your M by way of one of Stephen
> Gandy's adapters?  It seems to me that if one already had a good Nikkor or
> Canon 24 this might be a viable approach.
>
> Is anyone doing this?  If so, how has it worked out - is the lack of both
> click-stops and RF coupling a problem?  How about viewfinder blockage and
> framing problems?
>
> Paul Chefurka