The Franken-Leica
After the rangefinder patch in my Canon VT deluxe faded into oblivion and I realized I had a couple of Canon lenses that were not getting any use (50/1.4 and 50/1.8) I thought it would be a good idea to find them a new, temporary, body...queue Leica III (F) and what ended up looking like a Franken-Leica...
The Canon VT deluxe uses LTM-lenses natively so there was no need for an adapter in order to fit this lens on my III (F) (If I had wanted to use it on my Leica M3 I would have had to use a LTM-Bayonet adapter ring).
Now, it's not the best looking contraption I've ever seen - quite honestly it looks pretty horrible and really emphasizes how small the Leica barnack bodies are - but the Canon 50/1.4 is a great performer and I'm curious to see how well the lens will work with the body.
Some down-sides that quickly became apparent;
1) The lens and hood obstructs about 50% of the viewfinder. Ouch. An external 50mm viewfinder will definetively be needed. Luckily I have quite a few 50-finders lying around (Contax, Canon, etc), and
2) After getting an ORAKO for this body I've really learnt to like it (it really does make focusing easier) - but the size of the Canon lens requires you to remove the ORAKO from the rangefinder window.
Going to put a roll through it this week and see if it's a workable setup. As ugly as it is :)
The Canon VT deluxe uses LTM-lenses natively so there was no need for an adapter in order to fit this lens on my III (F) (If I had wanted to use it on my Leica M3 I would have had to use a LTM-Bayonet adapter ring).
Now, it's not the best looking contraption I've ever seen - quite honestly it looks pretty horrible and really emphasizes how small the Leica barnack bodies are - but the Canon 50/1.4 is a great performer and I'm curious to see how well the lens will work with the body.
Some down-sides that quickly became apparent;
1) The lens and hood obstructs about 50% of the viewfinder. Ouch. An external 50mm viewfinder will definetively be needed. Luckily I have quite a few 50-finders lying around (Contax, Canon, etc), and
2) After getting an ORAKO for this body I've really learnt to like it (it really does make focusing easier) - but the size of the Canon lens requires you to remove the ORAKO from the rangefinder window.
Going to put a roll through it this week and see if it's a workable setup. As ugly as it is :)
posted by Richard | 12:20 AM
2 Comments:
wow! love the last pic. truly a frankenleica!
I have the same 50 f1.4lens which I use on my M3 with an adapter. My brother owns both a IIIf and g, asks to borrow the lens to try out and hands back before leaving because its too big.
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