peter_sorantin Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Folks,I have a Leica M8 and M7 and also a Mamiya-7 system, the latter including thelovely Mamiya 43mm wide-angle lense. I am wondering if there is a way to put the Mamiya lens on a Leica M? Did anoybody do that, is there an adapter available? I checked cameraquest.com, but did not see anything like that.Maybe the lens mounts are too different, maybe they are not... Regards,Peter--Leica M7, M8Mamiya 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_evans4 Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 It ought to be possible, yes. You'd end up with an admittedly unusual but expensive, and I'd imagine large and awkward standard lens, with, I suppose, no rangefinder coupling. If you're really keen on that focal length you can get the Pentax 43/1.9 for a lot less than its original silly price, or you can get one of several 40mm lenses, or you can get the fascinating-looking Super Rokkor 45/2.8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart_richardson Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 I cannot see this working. The rear element of the 43mm lens is wider than the lens mount in the Leica. I don't have them in front of me right now, but I am pretty sure that is the case. Even if it was not, it is very close and would probably cause a lot of vignetting. As good as the 43mm is, I strongly doubt it is better in the center than a 50mm summicron/summilux, not to mention the fact that it is slow at f/4.5. In any case, as much as I love the 43mm lens on the Mamiya 7II, I just don't think it would make any sense to use it on the M8. If you could get the same angle of view that would be one thing, but as Peter said, it would just be an awkward standard lens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew robertson Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Just get a CV 40 f/1.4 lens and be done with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 With all due respect to others, it depends on what you want to accomplish. If you used a makeshift bellows (which could be nothing more than a piece of dark cloth) between the camera body and the lens, and if you not only don't worry about perfect orientation between the body and the lens but look for imperfect orientation, the resulting photographs will be very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross_macdonald Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Another difficulty is that the Mamiya lens has a lens shutter which is normally closed, and it requires, I think, a suitable electric signal, normally from the camera body, to trigger it to open, and how long it should stay open (I believe that the shutter speed dial is on the camera, not on the lens). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 If you want to pursue this, see the July 2005 issue of the magazine published by the American Society of Cinematographers, pp. 79-81, about a Canadian film, shot in Havana, called Tongue Bully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 27, 2007 Share Posted March 27, 2007 Why is it that so many posts on Photo.net are about telling people that something can't be done and/or fail to take into account that an experiment might be pretty much cost-free? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart_richardson Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Robert -- I got the impression that Peter was looking to use the lens in a normal way on a Leica body, not to use it to create special effects. Assuming that is the case, he would have a very rough time of it and it makes sense to let him know that, since his question was whether there was an adapter. And Ross's point is not one to be brushed off...even if you do want to use it for special effects, you would need to find a way to keep the shutter open, as it defaults to closed...<P>In any case, if Peter is out to experiment, then by all means, give it your all, but if he is just looking to put the Mamiya 43mm lens on the M8 for the sake of it, there are probably much more productive ventures.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Stuart, yes, but there are two ways to look at a question like this. The first is to see the problems, the other is to see the opportunities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 As for how the Mamiya 7 lenses work (I have a couple in front of me as I write this), you know, there are barrel lenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart_richardson Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Could you explain what you mean by barrel lenses Robert? I am not familiar with what you are referring to. As for the problems vs. opportunities line, you are of course right. I just got the impression from the first post that Peter was not a tinkerer or very familiar with the technical hurdles of this sort of thing, otherwise he probably would have phrased the question in another way. In any case, I guess we just see different sides on this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_c1 Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 >Could you explain what you mean by barrel lenses<P> If only people bother to read what they wrote ... he means the lenses are mounted on a built-in <i>bellows</i> of the camera and thus collapsible into the body, which is not true. Unlike the Mamiya 6, the 7 does not have the bellows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clyde_rogers Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 > If only people bother to read what they wrote... I expect Robert meant what he wrote regarding barrel lenses. The 7's in-lens shutter wouldn't have to be used for timing the shot if you could get the electronic shutter to simply stay open (yes, that would require electronics). Then the 7 lens would act just like a barrel lens. Stuart, a barrel lens is a large format/repro or other lens that can either be mounted in a shutter (like a Copal) or in a plain tube typically with an aperture diaphram (called a "barrel"). People have often used LF barrel lenses (or even enlarging lenses) on a bellows for macro work with smaller formats. At the risk of naysaying, I agree that this combination seems unlikely to be much fun, but to each their own. Now maybe getting that beautiful 43 onto a funky 35mm body that could actually infinity focus it, and use the coverage for movements... Later, Clyde Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clyde_rogers Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 To be clear on why I don't expect it to be fun---I don't think you could get the rear element of the 43 close enough to the film to get reasonably distant focus. If it could focus even at eight or ten feet, however, Robert's thought of a dark cloth bellows could make for a fun afternoon. I think this sort of thing would be more fun, though, with most any SLR 50mm (and, at least for me, used only on the M8). Then you'd be sure to get infinity focus, still have room to move it around, and have quick feedback on results (you could compensate for the unpredictable nature of focus and framing in such a beast). And ditto others, if you don't want a project, or if all you want is another lens, getting the Mamiya to work on the Leica seems like too much effort. --clyde Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keirst Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 It would be easier to use an enlarging lens with an ltm-M adapter and some ltm extension tubes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Hey, I know that the original poster was probably talking about a conventional link between the camera and the lens :) The post just brought something to mind a technique that I think is interesting. I hesitated about offering a link, apart from the ASC article about a technically unusual film that was presented at the Sundace Festival, because I know of only one example on the net, and some people may have a problem with the content. However, here it is so that people can see that the technique is perhaps technically and artistically interesting: http://www.chucksmithphoto.com/fineart/index.html The photographs are not a product of Photoshop. They are a product, in part, of a camera body and lens that are not in normal alignment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 "It would be easier to use an enlarging lens..." An enlarging lens would work just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_edge Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 The silence is truly funny. My hat is off to Clyde Rogers for being the only person who was able to visualize what might happen if one had a camera body in one hand (or maybe on a tripod) and a lens, separated from the body by a flexible homemade bellows, maybe connected electronically, in the other hand. A good enough concept for the American Society of Cinematographers magazine to discuss, but apparently not here, at least with the example that I posted :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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