Leica lenses with the Canon 1ds mark II

Hello,

 

Just was wondering if anyone plans to use Leica R lenses with the

novoflex adapter for the new 16mp Canon DSLR. I am seriously

considering buying this DSLR to go with my Leica R lens collection.

The 16MP full sensor just seems amazing, and will likely blow away

the competition (Likely even the Leica DMR).

 

Regards,

Steve

I originally did think that the DMR back would be better, but I can expand my capability with the Canon instead. Indeed, most of my picture would be taken with the Leica lenses and the adapter. However, It would be a great idea to have the ability to go autofocus in certain situations with a Canon L lens in the future, for most of my other work I would definately stick to the Leica lenses.

 

Regards

Steve

The Canon L lenses are plenty good. I wouldn't go into the hassle off doing anything else.

Certain R lenses can not be used on the R to EOS adapters, not sure which ones though. I believe the 35 1.4R is one, a real shame as this is the very lens I would like to use on the EOS bodies.

JJ

Why cripple the wonderful functionality of a Canon with the clunky

Leica R lenses? You'll lose way more than you'll gain.

Canon had some posted samples from the MK II, but I can't remember the URL. I do recall one shot being a night city shot from the top of a building.

 

Judging by a 1:1 crop from this image, and several others taken with Canon wide angle primes, you don't need to use Leica lenses on a 1Ds to get an improvement. Just call Fisher-Price or Tonka.

The only Canon EOS Digital which will accept every Leica R lenses are the 300D/Rebel and

the 20D.

 

More information here.

 

http://www.nemeng.com/leica/002f.shtml

I may get a Digital Rebel and an adaptor to use my R lenses on in the interim while I wait for any bugs in the DMR to surface and get worked out, and for demos to come to market. I can see spending the $700-800 and having to manually stop down and open up the R lenses for each shot, but not $8000 for the 1Ds MK-II. Also I already own an R8, so the DMR is a lot less expensive.

 

I am not a digital know-it-all, but if you take the 1DS-II's 16.7MP and apply the 1.37 crop factor of the DMR you get 12.2MP, which is not (according to people I know who _do_ know a great deal about digital)very significant. However (again, coming from my digitally-proficient sources)the DMR uses the same CCD technology from the Kodak digital backs which they say gives a bigger dynamic range than Canon's CMOS chips. And, the DMR will not have the strong anti-aliasing filter that Canon uses on their high-end DSLRs that produces (again, according to the experts) softer RAW images that require more post-processing. So I would not write off the DMR as being inferior to the 1Ds-II on the basis of the specifications. Not to mention that nobody outside of a few beta testers have had the opportunity to use either of them!

"I am not a digital know-it-all, but if you take the 1DS-II's 16.7MP and apply the 1.37 crop factor of the DMR you get 12.2MP, which is not (according to people I know who _do_ know a great deal about digital)very significant."

 

Not sure I was very clear. I meant, 12.2MP is not very significantly more than 10MP.

I'd advise against it.

 

Stop-down metering sounds OK but in practice it does slow you down. I have an adaptor that allows me to mount a zeiss makro-planar on a 10D and for shooting plants, still life etc its fine but for anything else Canon glass is a much better bet.

 

(Ben : I'd recommend you check out using the adaptor on the R8. The viewfinder on the 10D/300D is tiny and I find you really have to open up the lens to focus. The viewfinder on the 1Ds-II is bigger and brighter and this should be less of a problem).

I'm aware of the viewfinder in the Rebel Digital compared to the 1D. I don't consider this option as the final destination, only a stopgap, and later an emergency backup. Plus I'd probably get a Canon 300mm F/4 with image stabilizer and a 1.4x teleconverter (would give me the equivalent of 480mm and 670mm lenses)as I can't afford any of the Leica R teles other than the 400 f/6.8 and I can't get along with the handling of it, I've tried. I've been renting a Canon 300 f/2.8 with IS and a 2x for winter months when I'm down south and do bird photography on weekends but the dealer who was giving me a great deal sold out to another store. Anyway, I have checked out manually focusing Canon lenses (like my Leicas in speed and focal length) on the Rebel Digital and I have no problem. In fact quite surprisingly the Rebel's finder is easier for me to determine sharp focus than the R8's, except for the microprism and split part.