What lenses can be adapted to Leica M mount, and will the rangefinder still work?
Asked 6/25/2018
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I’m trying to understand which lenses can be mounted or adapted to a Leica M camera. I know native Leica M lenses fit directly, but I also see M39/LTM adapters mentioned often. Can M39 screw-mount lenses be adapted to M mount, and do they still couple to the rangefinder?
I’ve also seen adapters for mounts like M42, which is an SLR mount. Since Leica M has a much shorter flange distance than SLR systems, does that mean many SLR lenses can be physically adapted, but only used scale-focus or with live view (on newer digital M bodies) rather than with the rangefinder?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
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When it comes to adapting lenses with simple ring adapters so that they'll still focus to infinity, the issue is merely one of image-plane to lens mount depth. Because a ring takes up physical space, you can really only adapt from a thicker mount to a thinner one without requiring a glass element to act as a teleconverter (and possibly diminishing image quality). The only other caveat is that the image circle of the lens needs to cover your sensor/frame of film, so adapting from a smaller format (half-frame, 4/3"-format, 16mm motion picture, etc.) will result in vignetting, so you want to start with a 135-format (35mm film/full frame) lens.
The Leica M mount is roughly the same size as most mirrorless mounts, so is thinner than SLR mounts, and can adapt all SLR and medium format lenses. That's why M42 will work: that's the old Pentax screwmount. M39 will work because it's the old Leica screwmount and they designed the M bayonet mount to still work with the older Leica lenses in the older mount (much as Pentax did with M42 and K mount).
Rangefinder coupling is a different issue. The lens itself must have some form of physical focus mechanism that can be translated via the adapter to how the Leica M mount does rangefinder coupling. So, this will depend not just on the mount, the adapter, but also on the lens. Chances are good though, that most SLR lenses won't rangefinder couple and you will have to use scale focusing instead. And you'll want to stick to film-era SLR lenses, because the newer dSLR lenses typically lack an aperture ring (so you won't have aperture control, either), and as autofocusing lenses will have focus scales that are more or less useless for manual focusing with any accuracy.
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
7y ago
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In general, simple mechanical adapters work when the original lens mount has a longer flange distance than the camera mount. Leica M has a short flange distance, so many SLR and medium-format lenses can be physically adapted to M with a simple ring and still reach infinity focus.
The limitation is focusing: the Leica M rangefinder only works with lenses designed to couple to it. Native M lenses do this, and M39/LTM rangefinder lenses can also be adapted with the proper M39-to-M adapter while retaining rangefinder coupling.
By contrast, SLR lenses such as M42 lenses are not rangefinder-coupled. They may mount with an adapter, but you generally must focus using the lens distance scale, an external finder setup, or live view on newer digital Leica M cameras.
Also, the adapted lens must cover the full 35mm/full-frame image area; lenses made for smaller formats may vignette heavily.
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