RE: [Leica] 2 x Converter

[Jim Laurel <jplaurel@microsoft.com>]

Funny...  I just completed an assignment and used Canon's EF 1.4x extender
quite a bit on the 70-200 2.8L and 300 2.8L lenses.  Got the results back
yesterday afternoon, and am quite pleased with the results!  I find it
difficult to imagine that Leica lags here.

- -----Original Message-----
From: m037iu00@cwcom.net [mailto:m037iu00@cwcom.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 10:57 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] 2 x Converter


Horst,
I have one of these devices (being of perverse mind that is interested in
the wierd and
wonderful stuff made to attach onto a Leica!) and will fill you in briefly
with its
performance.
Disappointing.

I tested it at several apertures and on 2 different lenses, 90/2 Summicron
and 135/4.5
Hektor. The Summicron would seem the ideal lens for this, longish and wide
aperture,
gives a 180/4, unfortunately the performance does not begin to approach
usability (on
10x8) until you stop down 3-4 stops!, therefore a 180/11, not good. You need
a very
bright day to be able to make use of it, stopping down also helps on the
focussing side
of things. Up until this point, corner imagery is swept with an imaginary
rotary
blurring brush!

Leitz were going to introduce a teleconverter for the M camera and cancelled
the launch
when they decided they would have to dedicate converters to specific lenses
to ensure
total focussing accuracy.
On a seperate point, the viewfinder is hardly inspiring in its not
very-brightline
finder.

The Russians also produced a 2x converter for the r/f Leicas, screw only,
and my tests
show this to be inferior to the Komura. Marc James Small owns of the the
others (not
many are known to exist) and he reports good results so be prepared for
variety of
findings in this area of experiment.

Komura had a long history of producing LTM lenses, I have 2, 28/3.5s; a
105/4 and a
135/4, all of these had seperate viewfinders and there was a more extensive
list
available. I suppose that with the success of the Komura Telemore 95 (II),
which was
widely regarded as the best of its day, they decided to see if they could
make it
available in Leica fit, something that even Leitz hadn't offerred for their
cameras.
The most impressive part of it, I feel, is the ability to mount it on either
M or screw
cameras and use either M or screw lenses! Terrific, er, or not...

best regards,

Jem
=====================
A.H.SCHMIDT wrote:

> I have a KOMURA 2 x converter. It comes in a Leather case. This contains
the
> converter and the viewfinder. The viewfinder is adjustable from 80mm to
270mm focal
> length.  the converter can be used for screw and bayonet viewfinder Leica
cameras.
>
> Has anybody ever used one. If so, Please let me know,  how it performs.
Maybe
> somebody has some info on its history.
>
> Regards, Horst Schmidt