ph.

I use a stack of my old Leitz lenses on my Nikon Z7 wthout any problems. The excellent R- apochromatic 100 and 180mms work well . My M lenses have the advantage of not being burdned with auto-aperture closing mechanisms and light meter cams and are smaller and lighter.Normally I would use my R 21-35 for wide snaps, but today I used the Minolta CLE 28mm to see if there were any strange corner colours due to the close rear element. No problems. . Light metering is set to coincide with the center focus.magnification spot, so provided the spot stays put and one decides which part of the picture is most important and forgets about dynamic range, snaps turn out well. Even though prices have gone up since the demise of the Rseries, R optics are far less expensive than similar M constructions. p.

in my reading old potentially interesting posts I found this on page 328 which reminded me that perhaps 25years or so ago I met mr. Krogvold when I was snappng pictures inside a medieval wooden church here in Norway. He cast a quick glance at my M3 and its Hologon 15mm and probably assumed that I had more money than knowledge of photography, so he asked me what exposure settings I would use outside. Having measured this a short while ago, I was able to give a sensible answer, so he smiled and agreed. p.

sir, itis a major shortcoming with many autofocus cameras. My z7 misbehaves the same way moving both focus point and spot metering point. Totally unacceptable for a camera in this price range. an option to disable the "no joy stick" is overdue. p.

The early Praktiflex (the Practica precursor) did have a narrower thread mount than 42mm.my early Victar measures 39,7mm: close enough to 40mm p.

For speed of operation it is convenient to use one of the front "Fn" buttons since loosening the grip on the camara body to reach the killjoystick slows one down -. Also, when focussing and reframing it helps to know that the plane of focus and spot metering stays where you originally wished it to be. p.

Not relevant with the very flat field Zeiss and Leitz optics I use , especially with the z where one can easily focus with the actual expposure aperture p.

In the time of horse charges the light brigade was no match for machine guns, Leitz mechanical prowess was no match for robotic plastic, so morphing into a fashion -trade-accessory still helps to shift their lesser merchandise- Nevertheless their optics remain cosistently highly desirable. Although their useless digital -camera-trendy equipment frippery can only be avoided by using silver halide. p.

superglue is normally a good solution for useless and annoying buttons, but the focus displacement button can actually be useful. so this solution is out. p.

thanks for kind advice., the offending focuspoint-movement-button can be pushed to rectify matters, but faffing around with buttons is not the ideal distraction when trying to take a picture. p.

keeping the focus and spotmetering point in the last place befor switchoff is of no use if it has been moving around at random. A stay-put-in-the middle (even with manual lenses) would be far more useful although the voice memo might record swearing at gthe point being off again. p.

The spirit of Luddism long live! MFmode does not prevent the idiotic movement of focus point AND spot metering point The menu ought to have a "do nothing" option for all potentially pernicious buttons . In this mornings`walk in the local forest to picture the spring, the movie switch happened to be switched on when I took the camera out of my rucksack and "nothing worked" . I discovered the offenidng switch when I was home again, sat down and fiddlled with the menus. In the days of analogue apparatus Leitz at least added a locking button to their too easily misadjusted control wheel on the R8 (and after some more changes renamed it R9) Nikon is almost as bad as Olympus. It cannot just be some peculiar Japanese button fetish. Some ancient mechanical cameras were devoid of buttonry An uncluttered ideal is the Zeiss Werra 1,but the Leica Ms are not far behind; The many opptions that digital allows must have had a bad influence on designers. When I recently tried a Leitz TL instead of my M6, Its combination of inscrutable touch menus and control wheels turning without clear references to shutter speeds was quite frustrating even if its focus point remained centered . p.

I have used some leitz M lenses on my nikon Z7. The advantage compared to using z optics is that one can avoid autofocus so that in the local forest one does not get just the nearest twig sharp.- Almost as bad is that The Z has too many buttons and a very unstable focus point so if you do not watch where it has moved, ghe focus will be off. The results with summicron50, Elmar C-90 , minolta 40 and Voigtländer 25 are quite good. but normally I prefer the grip on the more voluminous R lenses or my similar Zeiss glass since the camera body is quite large and unwieldy. The stabilization works well and as long as gthe spot-metering point stays put the auto exposure is reasonably good. p.

praising the results is well deserved, however, despite its compactness and optical quality I found the electron-mechanics to be quite unreliable. My first one went back for reapairs ,but conced out again after the guarantee period finished. MY second one also had a shutter failure, so I switched to a Rollei 35 which still works as long as the meter battery does not run out, Not quite as lightweight and more fiddly to operate however.. p.

the mount to film plane distance will be so long as to only allow for macrophotos. The M-mount was intended for using the 65mm or the lensheads of the 90 and 135s with the appropriate focussing adapter in order to focus to infinity. Also you will find that the shutter and mirror release is designed to fit different positions of th e release buttons as well as the prism sitting higher to accomodate the M bodys increased height. Otherwise ,the viewfinder is commendably bright and far better than most SLRs. p.

Sensors do not behave very differentl from film, so the final picture will depend on the characteristics of he lens if set correctly. An advantage is that one does not have to wait for development and printing to judge the results. A special problem woth digital autofocus SLRs is that their screens are not designed to facilitate fmanual ocussing. This is why for instance Canon offers a special screen for focussing manually with some of their digital cameras, Mirrorless devices rely on electronic rather than optical viewfinders. In my experience joystics for moving the central focussing and light metering point usually leads to difficulties in placing focus and exposure exactly where you want. I gave up on Olympus PenF for that reason and switched to a Nikon Z, but it has the same problem. Easy to anlarge in order to focus, but one sees a random part of the motive . Peaking works for the entire picture, but is less precise and the peaking colour needs to be st according to the motive in order to get enough contrast (no red or yellow for autumn leaves for instance).

slide frames with glass work well on all the leitz autofocus projectors I have tried,. one caveat ad older less frequently used pradovit "Color", "2000CA" etc- projectors is that the drive belt which runs from the motor to the fan cooling the device tends to slacken, and the grease on the rapid -change mechanism rails can stiffen so much as to stop the enire machine frlom working.. The lens barrels of the later (leica - aquired ) "zett werke" 150, 600 etc projectors have another lenght than the barrels of the earlier "battleship" grade projectors. p.

Sir, You may find it equally enjoyable to ferret out why the manufacturers changed their designs. Your newly aquired Rollei 35 can provide one example of mutations over time (production in Germany and Singapore, different lenses, light meter or not plus some versions to lure well paying collectors, The Canons you started to take an interest in ,are equally interesting. The Leika\Contax-challenging rangefinders were supplemented with a mirror box rather like the German competitors,, followed by the Canonflex . There is even a special version of the F1 for phone companie, rasther liike the Leica -"Post". Later, canon met the autofocus challenge by producing some lensdes containing the distance measuring mechanism. A canon collection might encompass all these. p,

i found my Leitz M version interesting, but not sharp enough in the corners for landsacapes, so I got rid of it a long time ago for a suitable compensation. p.

No need to buy new optics if the earlier excellent nikkoNs are available for free, Undoubtedly computerized design, automated assembly and plastic parts + computerized correction of optical faults have enabled cheaper and sometimes better performing recent designs.At the expense of longevity and serviceability. In my experience, the old 105\2,5, the 180 /2,8 ED , as well as a heap of good older glass that I used on previous cameras from other makers do very well on the Nikon Z7 in spite of its high pixel count. Focussing manual lenses is also easier since one has an enlargement option and avoids the less accurate matte screens and light loss used by the mirror and autofocus systems of DSLRs, p.

Many autofocus shots work,but it is the failures are remembered. Current autofocus systems including Nikon & Canon do actually set distances fast and as accurate as the camera can measure. Yes undoubtedly enough attention to what the camera is doing is important even if such attention take time while the motive goes away. I recently set aside my trusty 5yr old Olympus PenF because the focus and spot.metering point kept moving at random when using heavy optics & squeezing the camera body. It could not be fixed by the software, nor would superglue suffice without blocking access to the menu. The Nikon Z ´s variety of moving focus point is not quite as bad, but it has some of the same tendencies. As to Canons plastic and glue methods, yes their plastics does not easily break, but such constructions do not take welll to being dropped. I do not recommend dropping Leitz lenses either, but have inadvertently experienced both, Leitz survived, Canon did not. As to the merits of first generation Correfot which came to nothing at Leitz,, and current systems .fattening lenses while crowding the sensors with sites for measuring distance , I am convinced that the contemporary systems act fast but remain less convinced of robustness , real long term reliability and value for money. p.

Apart from the usual brilliant ethnography picturing a city in transition towards the too common conemporary state of urban desert, the brief survey of praktica versions above deserve revival of this thread that i just discovered p..

In my case I try to avoid autofocus which will pinpoint the nearest twig rather than what I wish to focus on. The successors to the Leitz Correfot system may well have advanced in speed and selectivity, but even when i specify spot measurement for the focus and with some annoying button pressing finally manage to center the focussing spot on my Z-7 screen, I can get sharp backgrounds but mushy subject, or a perfectly sharp branch of the tree in front of a local deer. WIth manual optics and 100%enlargement , the distance setting may require more care, but will yield better results. In the past I used Canons substandard SLR viewfinders plus their special manual focussing screen and experienced canons shortcut technology with their plastic lens design when a 50mm fell to the ground and split open. A reasonably robust autofocus camera was the little Olympus something with pop-out lens that I once bought for my elderly mother when she found her Retina IIc a bit cumbersome. p.

Using the Walther Zapp method, one might instead extend the original measuring chain. Admittedly, having 10 yards of metal chain with bumps every yard might cancel the advantages of carrying a very small camera, but one should be grateful that it is not extended to infinity. The purveyors could always use the standard excuse of high tech inconvenient innovation.... "It is designed to improve user experience". p.

These posts from page 323 deserve resurrection. The somewat"timeless" question is whether a collector or user should modify venerable equipment in order to keep it operational. If a user, it is absolutely necessary (although in the case referred to above, a Japanese shop (kanto?) provides a ready- made insertion solving the voltage problem ) and camras like the Alpas and the earlier Praktica meters have a bridge circuit that is not fussy about voltages. But for any camera, nin use, issues with gears , springs, expired light sensors and lubrication can easily require repairs. A collector merely interested in monetary gain will have to pander to current fashions, but I doubt that a triotar with stuck aperture and helix will fetch more than one serviced by Adrea Schønfelder in Görlitz. Collectors motivated by interest in technology history and aesthetics will realize that users of are part of the history of cameras. this is why documented provenance sometimes lifts prices in auctions. Ordinary maintenance and necessary modifications to maintain usability documents both the history of the device as well as its contemporary use and both are absolutely worthy of preservation- An example from classical cars; valve seats tended to get destroyed when Lead in petrol was replaced by less damaging substances. Many engines were modified with hardened valve seats- Besides being invisible i doubt that this subtracts from the vehicles collectability. A current parallell to the need for battery replacement; One is avoiding GL5 spec. gear oil which will destroy some gearbox parts another is the ethanol additions to petrol which in the longer term tends to destroy some fuel system tubing and membranes, so using GL4 and filling up with alkylate or non-mixed "super" can be used as an alternative.These substitutions although they form part of car history. do not make an indelible mark that can be detected in the future, but still deserve to be noted. in the log of the collector-. p.

thanks, i will switch off all security precautions on my machiine and try- p