After the announcement of the Leica M and Leica R adapter M, the first thing that came to mind was that I needed to test it out with the Leica Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f2.8 ASPH we have here in the store. David and I spent the past week in New York City at Photo Plus Expo, and brought the lens with us to try. While we were not able to view the resulting images, we did mount the lens on the new M with the hand grip and EVF to see how it felt. Here are a few images:
The Leica Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f2.8 ASPH attached to the Leica M with the hand grip and EVF mounted.
David Farkas tests the combination out at the Leica booth.
The lens in hand. If you are used to any of the large Canon or Nikon 24-70mm zooms this feels just about the same.With the hand grip attached, the combination felt quite natural. Almost like using an SLR. Zooming the lens was very easy. This lens will also be very useful for video shooters. We are looking forward to testing this combination with a production M so that we can share images. Stay tuned in 2013!
sorry to say that, but in my opinion this is the worst of both worlds (exept you have still some R-glas and didn’t find another way to use them).
If I see some (limited) use using longer R-lenses on the M, I really doubt if this makes a sense for wide angle and zooms (again, the longer zooms may be an option).
The M is all about being compact.
stephan;3719 wrote: sorry to say that, but in my opinion this is the worst of both worlds (exept you have still some R-glas and didn’t find another way to use them).
If I see some (limited) use using longer R-lenses on the M, I really doubt if this makes a sense for wide angle and zooms (again, the longer zooms may be an option).
The M is all about being compact.
Stephan,
For me, the beauty of the new M is that I can have the best of both worlds. Take everything off, put on a 35 Cron and you’ve got a classically compact and discreet M. Put on the grip, finder, and an R lens and you have what amounts to a DSLR. As I originally wrote in my M coverage from Photokina, the EVF is really, really good, especially when combined with focus peaking. The flexibility of being able to use R zooms, telephotos and macro on the M is really awesome. For walk-around photography, I think it’ll be really handy to just carry the M with a 28-90 or 35-70 zoom. DSLR/zoom convenience with true Leica quality.
I agree that wide angles will see less use on M bodies. The latest M wide angle lenses (18, 21 SE, 21 Lux, 24 E, 24 Lux, 28 C, 35 FLE, etc) are just phenomenal lenses and very compact. I’d see very little reason to use a 19mm R over an 18mm M, unless you have a 19mm R collecting dust.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store Miamistephan;3719 wrote: sorry to say that, but in my opinion this is the worst of both worlds (exept you have still some R-glass and didn’t find another way to use them).
If I see some (limited) use using longer R-lenses on the M, I really doubt if this makes a sense for wide angle and zooms (again, the longer zooms may be an option).
The M is all about being compact.
Depending on which R lens, there are some of them that Leica will probably never reproduce them in M mount. These are R lens with an optical performance that the M lens could not matched…. IMHO.
The 35-70mm f2.8 ASPH is one of them, I would love to own one before I die… and yah, it cost more than the M 50mm f0.95, if you can find one…
Josh Lehrer;3703 wrote: Leica Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70mm f2.8 ASPH we have here in the store.
Is it for sale?
Michael Zeleny;3878 wrote: Is it for sale?
Michael,
Sorry, this is my lens and not currently for sale. 😀
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiAny idea why Leica appears not to support this lens on the new M?
http://en.leica-camera.com/news/news/1/9418.htmlThis lens is supported by the M, but there is not an in-camera lens profile for it. I believe this is because Leica did not have the lens available to test…although the lens in the above images (which belongs to us) has been loaned to Leica Germany by us so hopefully they will be able to make a profile for it.
Josh Lehrer;4234 wrote: This lens is supported by the M, but there is not an in-camera lens profile for it. I believe this is because Leica did not have the lens available to test…although the lens in the above images (which belongs to us) has been loaned to Leica Germany by us so hopefully they will be able to make a profile for it.
Thanks for your clarification. In view of the cost of the items in question, is there any chance of an official statement from Leica?
If you mean an official statement from Leica per the 35-70mm, I don’t know if that’s something they would do. Most likely, if it’s a lens they plan on supporting, a profile for it would be released in a future firmware update. It’s quite a rare lens and I imagine they have other items prioritized ahead of that, like shipping the M!
If you have a non-6-bit coded lens and use manual lens selection in the menu, then change to a 6-bit coded lens but forget to set the lens selection setting back to auto, you will get the wrong lens data. I would prefer that if you are in manual mode and mount a 6-bit coded lens, the camera would either override your manual selection, or pop up an alert asking if you would like to change to auto lens detection.
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