surprise: unofficial (inbetween focus) use of Tri-Elmar on MFT digicam with VF-4

<p>Someone ever tried the Tri-Elmar f4/35-50-28mm (at the time, it was my favorite on M6) on a MFT camera? it was not conceived as a macro- nor zoom-lens but works brilliantly as such ... surprise - at focus position about the middle between 50 and 28mm, see results: <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/109835740008203764793/20140412MFTLeicaMAdapterTriElmarBetween5028mmFocusMacroTestNoBellowsNoDistanceRings">link</a></p><div></div>

Very cool. Now that the M has live

view, I wonder if it would give good

performance between the nominated

focal lengths. According to this guest

review on Steve Huff's site by Ashwin

Rao:

 

"Many have questions as to whether

the MATE’s design is a true continuous

zoom. Erwin Puts has stated that the

MATE is in fact a true optical zoom

lens."

 

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2010/11

/11/the-leica-mate-lens-review-

medium-angle-tri-elmar-by-ashwin-rao/

 

Perhaps this lens was always

redundant. IOW, according to some

people's tastes, it replaces only two

focal lengths, not three. When you

have 28mm and 50mm, do you need

35mm? Some say yes, some say no.

Either way, I wouldn't mind giving this

lens a try.

<p>your link doesn't work due to the spaces; this leads to the same page (with different title):<br>

<a href="http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/tag/tri-elmar/">http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/tag/tri-elmar</a><br>

I did my tests with a E55 MATE. it is not a zoom since the focus isn't continous. turning from 50 to 28mm, close to 28mm it suddenly snaps into 28mm and the macro-mode is gone.<br>

The easiest, fastest, reliable way to get good results in shooting macro with TriElmar is to set aperture priority mode, ISO to 320 if sunny, distance to 1m, f/4 to provide for precise focus through electronic view finder while turning focal length between 50mm and 28mm, shoot (great bokeh), optionally stop down aperture for more DoF, shoot again.<br>

(For someone like me who worked a lot with Visoflex, it is puzzling that the VF doesnt dimm down when closing the aperture.)<br>

works great on any MFT-cam. with right eye on VF, the left eye sees the f-stops. I shot all photos in the album without tripod. you only need a EVF, MFT/LM-adapter (I use panasonic/lumix). should also work with Leica M240. only a little bit more expensive than a PEN. ;)<br>

> When you have 28mm and 50mm, do you need 35mm?<br>

from my experience, yes. and even or more so with MFT' crop factor 2. used both in the album's sheep photos.<br>

*<br>

I also tried (without Visoflex!) Leitz Bellows ii with Elmar 3.5/65mm [and extension tube] on MFT with VF-4. great results. but heavy and less suitable since when bellows moves to get the object closer, one needs to move the position of the camera too to get focus back. (this problem is not related to MFT)</p>

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<p>e-p3 and tri-elmar can also be used in combination with lm-lm adapter to get even more close-up</p><div></div>

<p>photo of e-p3 & lens as used in first post</p><div></div>

<p>since I can't figure out an easy way how to post several photos inline, I'm adding some more example photos in album linked in first post of this thread.</p>

 

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<td align="center"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/109835740008203764793/20140512MFTLeicaMAdapterTriElmarBetween5028mmFocusMacroTestNoBellowsNoDistanceRings?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3J5t0WJzChw/U3FP7whoRiE/AAAAAAAA37s/aHEfyAsvgys/s160-c/20140512MFTLeicaMAdapterTriElmarBetween5028mmFocusMacroTestNoBellowsNoDistanceRings.jpg" alt="" width="160" height="160" /></a></td>

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<td ><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/109835740008203764793/20140512MFTLeicaMAdapterTriElmarBetween5028mmFocusMacroTestNoBellowsNoDistanceRings?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">20140512 MFT-LeicaM adapter-TriElmar between 50-28mm focus macro test (no bellows no distance rings)</a></td>

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