digital reflex

[cdnguyen]

Leica DMR .

[fourfa]

You can use any Leica R glass on any Canon with an adaptor, with manual or stop-down metering. 5D + Leica glass is nothing to sneeze at. What's your budget?

[x-ray]

No better bokeh than the canon 85 f1.2 on a full frame sensor like the 5D. Actually the 85mm f1.2 and 135mm f2 are exceptional. If you want wide then the 35mm 1.4 and the 24 f1.4 are exceptional too.

 

Here is an example of the 85mm 1.2 at 1.2 on my old 1Ds.

[alessandro_dolci]

dear leica friends,

i need your opinion on my gear and i thankyou in advance for it.

i have leica m (m5 + 35 50 90 135) and leica reflex (sl-r8 + 21 28 50 90) all

old lenses, now i want a digital reflex for my people pictures, mostly my

children, and for b/w digital.

my intention is to trade the r8 because i prefer the sl,and for money reasons!,

with a digital reflex of similar price, nikon (d80), canon or panasonic l1,

even used. i already have a lumix fx01 that is good but is too different

from a 90 summicron or a 50 summilux wide open, i like narrow focus area and

leica bokeh. which dreflex is good for my purposes ? what about a summicron on

a lumix l1 ?

alessandro from italy

[x-ray]

One more example with the 85mm at 1.2.

[umut_arslan]

forget it with, leica bokeh and wide open. I can not recommend any dslr for this purposes.

[x-ray]

Here's another example of the 85mm at 1.2. It's tack sharp even at 1.2 and so is the 135mm at f2.

[x-ray]

Remember at 1.2 and close distance DOF is about 5mm. All of the canon lenses that I own are very sharp but not harsh and no double line OOF areas.

 

Exceptional lenses in the canon line:

 

24 1.4 L

35 1.4 L

85 1.2 L

135 2 L

200 1.8 L discontinued

300 2.8 L

400 2.8 L

600 4 L

 

Plus many more.

 

I have Leica M's and have shot them profesionally for 4 decades and feel the Canon L glass as a rule is as good or better than Leica glass. Of course there are exceptions on both sides. In digital I shoot only canon and L glass with a couple of exceptions like the 15 and 50 1.4.

[len_smith]

Alessandro Dolci wrote:

 

>i like narrow focus area and leica bokeh. which dreflex is good for my purposes?

 

 

I think the best choice for you would be the Canon EOS 5D, a full-frame 12.8 MP DSLR which will accept your Leica R lenses with an adapter.

 

Don Dudenbostel makes a strong case (above) for Canon L glass, however my own experience differs. I find Leica R and Carl Zeiss (Contax) glass far superior to anything I have used from Canon. However the Canon 85mm f/1.2 is a good lens that can bear comparison with Leica and Zeiss glass, although (in my opinion) it is not superior to either, except of course at f/1.2.

 

I think you will be very happy with a Canon EOS 5D and you will find a large Leica R lens/Canon EOS 5D user community on the Web.

[alessandro_dolci]

i'm afraid my budget is the r8 and a summarit to trade, a full frame is too much for me now, maybe i will go with panasonic just to remain in the leica glass stable, hoping some good news for the future. thankyou for helping.

alessandro

[len_smith]

I would not recommend the Panasonic DMC-L1 (nor the almost identical Leica Digilux 3) at this time because they will soon be replaced by upgraded models. The current models have a 7.5 MP sensor but this will give way to a 10 MP Panasonic sensor as used in the newly announced Olympus E-VOLT E-410 and E-510 models.

[fourfa]

With Panasonic you're looking at a 2.0x crop factor and poor high ISO. Using Leica R via an adaptor on these is the same as Canon, manual aperture control and stop-down or manual metering. There are a number of Canons in 1.6x crop factor for $500-1000 new, even less used. Advantage of the Canon would be good noise control at high ISO, and a better viewfinder on the 20D/30D than any 2.0x camera.

 

No brand loyalty here, just seems senseless to not to use the R glass. If that doesn't matter at all, the IMO the D80 is the best in class with a very usable viewfinder.

[jean_.]

Alessandro, ths is completely off topic ;-) Reading your name here I remembered we had

contact a couple of years ago via ebay about the 50mm! I'm glad to see you posting here,

and that you enjoy photography! Greetings from munich!

 

To answer your question: I'm afraid that there is just to much choice, and all offerings are

very attractive. Don't be to influenced by the usual "something better will come out soon"

talk, or that a megapixel more or less would actually matter. Frankly, I wouldn't bother

about 6MP vs. 10MP or full frame vs. smaller. Unless you sell to magazines it won't matter.

What matters is that you enjoy using the camera and lenses. Quality wise all current

offerings will be fine.

 

Anyway, here's my $0.02: looking at your present equipment I'd dare to guess that you

enjoy the look of older lenses, especially fast primes? In that case I'd give the Pentax a try.

The mount is backwards compatible and you can use any Pentax or even M42 lens on that

body, leaving endless room to experiment with fine old glass without having to mortgage

anything. Pentax also offers gorgeous new primes.

 

And I'd look into the 4/3rd cameras, among them the Panasonic/Leica offering. Here also

you can use a wide choice if lenses using adapters, including fine Olympus glass.

[alessandro_dolci]

it's a small world dear jean !!!! i'm glad to see you here. i always talk of your proper handling of our ebay big problem, thankyou again.

i think i will try the panasonic out even if it has a x2 ratio and the 4/3. i can put my old primes and compare with film to improve my digital skills, thanks god i still have a 2 years old child so i can easily experiment in my house .

you also gave me a good idea, my friend has a lot of old pentax glasses to try on the lumix.

thankyou again for answering .

alessandro