[wanderography]

Ah man, I have been wanting to create some leitax lenses for awhile, saw this thread and wow, exactly what I thought I would see with an R lens on a pentax. A couple questions to anyone who knows, when converted does teh lens behave like a M42 or K/M lens where I'd have to shoot manual with the green button. I much prefer the M42 mount and being able to use the aperture ring to set aperture so I can use AV mode for a little more speed.

[DanielT74]

If any of you guys are looking for used Leitax mounts, give me a shout as I am only keeping the APO Macro-Elmarit 100mm and APO-Telyt 180/3.4 for now. The others have been reversed to original mount and sold. So I have a bunch of Leitax mounts lying around.

[renor27ss]

Am down sizing my camera gear ... selling my 35mm f2.8 Leica Elmarit R with Leitax mount and also the Leica R mount ... asking $425 plus shipping from Reno Nevada ... its a great lens am just going in a different direction with my photography ...

[olimatt]

Hello,

I am considering investing some money in an R lens (24 or 28mm) for my pentax k5 and a leitax mount.

1. What would be the performance of such a lens with this leitax mount ?
2. Are there optical problems ?
3. What about the IQ?
4. Focusing ? Is it possible to focus at 2, 4 10 meters? What about the minimal focusing distance?
5. Which modes are supported? I have read that the lenses would meter in AV and M mode. Right?
6. Do you have any suggestions or any experience feedback to share?
7. How are the leica R zooms? Worth trying?
8. Ever compared such a converted lens with a modern Zeiss ZK lens?

Thank you for your replies!

[zzaletel]

I have an earlier Elmarit-R 28/2.8 lens and can relay the following experiences with it on my K-r -

When carefully focused, the results are gorgeous (though I don't have lots of great examples readily at hand) - I have a number printed in my office currently -
















I find the 28 difficult to focus quickly via the optical viewfinder on my K-r, so it works much better for a well contemplated shot. (Note, I don't have a katz-eye or other split-prism focusing screen installed) While I can focus other vintage pentax manual glass quickly and accurately, I don't know if it's the wide angle, narrow focus area wide open, or what exactly on the 28 that usually trips me up. Using live view, it is much easier to perfectly nail the focus, but again, you're not going to capture a fast-action shot this way. Prefocusing helps as well, of course.

The conversion is not difficult - the directions at leitax.com are good.

I don't have experience with the newer Zeiss K-glass, though have seen it around a bit and it looks nice.

There are two different versions of the 28mm lens - an earlier design (which I have), the 'series 1', which in r-mount has 2, 3 or 'r-only' cams in back, and the newer 'series 2' ROM lenses which are post-1994, uber sharp, and uber spendy. They've both found quite the cache with the FF DSLR crowd for cinematography, but the ROM-lenses much more so. Prices for good copies of the earlier lens are in the $400-800 range on ebay. I just added an entry for this lens to the third-party lens database this morning, though have yet to specifically review it.

[DanielT74]

Hello,

I am considering investing some money in an R lens (24 or 28mm) for my pentax k5 and a leitax mount.

1. What would be the performance of such a lens with this leitax mount ?
2. Are there optical problems ?
3. What about the IQ?
4. Focusing ? Is it possible to focus at 2, 4 10 meters? What about the minimal focusing distance?
5. Which modes are supported? I have read that the lenses would meter in AV and M mode. Right?
6. Do you have any suggestions or any experience feedback to share?
7. How are the leica R zooms? Worth trying?
8. Ever compared such a converted lens with a modern Zeiss ZK lens?

Thank you for your replies!

The Leitax mount just means that everything is manual (although in Av mode the metering is automatic - you set the aperture on the lens and the camera adjusts the exposure time). Manual focus is not too hard at all with this focal length, the depth of field is not too shallow.

If 31mm is not too close, I would strongly suggest to stick with the Pentax 31ltd. Excellent lens.

Leica zooms in that range were traditionally not spectacular (not many zooms are).

From the Leica R range I've used 35/1.4, 35/2, 50/1.4, 60/2.8 macro, 100/2.8 macro, 180/3.4 and 280/4. All of these are/were superb but also expensive (except for 60/2.8 and 180/3.4). In most cases people are quite right in choosing Pentax equivalents which are not far behind, have AF, are much smaller and cheaper.

[Piotr]

Hello,

I am considering investing some money in an R lens (24 or 28mm) for my pentax k5 and a leitax mount.


7. How are the leica R zooms? Worth trying?
8. Ever compared such a converted lens with a modern Zeiss ZK lens?

Thank you for your replies!

re 7. I can recommend one Leica zoom. It is Vario-Elmarit 4/80-200 designed in Solms in 1996 and produced in Japan. According to "Leica Lens Compendium" it is similar design to Vario-Apo-Elmarit 1:2.8/70-180 and from f5.6 of similar picture quality.
According to Photodo it is better than Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM (MTF score 4.2).
I like this lens, it is versatile, has build-in hood - classical stack of prime lenses.

Two pictures through my window at 200mm, ISO 640, f5.6 and f6.3





re 8. I have Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2/28 ZK . For sure it has better contrast and better coating.

[ErZi]

Nice tit Piotr! Those can be fast ones.

Here is Siberian Jay taken with R 90mm.

[mattb123]

I've had a couple of these beautiful lenses for a while that I inherited as part of a deceased friend's collection. The R4 body that came with them has flaky electronics so I decided to convert them to K mount. I bought a couple of Leitax knockoff mounts on eBay and tried the conversions myself. The 135/2.8 went very smoothly and I have been enjoying using it on my crop gear for about a year. It can be hard to focus but I really like the rendering. I recently tried to convert a Summicron 50/2 and wound up stripping a screw so I sent it to Eric Hendrickson who extracted the screw for me and changed the mount while he was at it for a very reasonable fee.
The result is now I have a couple of K mount Leica lenses. I love the rendering and just how solid they feel. Now that I have a FF body I'm excited to use them on the FOV they were designed for. Focus peaking on the K-1 or K-S2 helps a ton for nailing focus.

Anyway, I think I'm not alone with these lenses on Pentax bodies. Who else is enjoying these beautiful lenses on K mount gear?

First K mount shots with the Summicron 50/2 on a K-1 were of my dependable and cute model, Luna. I'm looking forward to using this combo more!



K-3 & Elmarit 135/2 in an engagement shoot last summer

[mattb123]

Shot some live music last night in a small dark theater with the K-1 & Elmarit 135/2.8

[mattb123]

One with the 135/2.8 on crop gear, a K-S2.

[bscott]

Matt, I enjoyed you photos with Leica lenses. I have a few M and R lens that I would like to use on a digital body but I am not sure which body to use. I really don't want to change the mount so do you have any suggestions for me as to the camera body to use with my R lenses? Thanks

[mattb123]

Matt, I enjoyed you photos with Leica lenses. I have a few M and R lens that I would like to use on a digital body but I am not sure which body to use. I really don't want to change the mount so do you have any suggestions for me as to the camera body to use with my R lenses? Thanks

Thanks.
I know for Pentax K mount bodies you can't use the lens as intended without changing the mount because of the registration distance gets too long with an adapter between the lens and camera. Since I wanted to use these on my K mount gear a mount change was my only option.

Mirrorless cameras generally have shorter registration distances which should theoretically allow enough space to have an adapter involved. I don't know the specifics but you may be able to adapt them to a M43 or Sony body. Maybe even a Leica digital body would work but I really don't know and can't afford a Leica digital body anyway.

---------- Post added 09-02-16 at 07:47 AM ----------

Here's a Leica R to Sony NEX adapter for a pretty reasonable price.

[bscott]

Matt, thanks for your comment and it gives me a direction to look.

[blan01]

R50 f2
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