Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/05/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The M3 has framelines for 50, 90 and 135. Wider lenses required the use of a separate finder or, in the case of some 35s, a lens with finder goggles to modify the field of view (still keyed 50 but the goggles modified the field of view to that of the 35 mm lens). The M lens mount is 1 mm further away from the focal plane than LTM lenses are. This allowed the use of LTM lenses on the new M camera by threading a simple 1 mm thick adaptor to the LTM lens. The M3 always displayed the 50 mm framelines and added the other framelines as their respective lenses were mounted. So the clearest and least cluttered viewfinder was when a 50 was mounted. Now, as there was no 21 mm lens yet, the adaptors were marked 135 (or 13.5), 90 (or 9) and 28-50 (or 2.8-5). With the addition of the M2 and a 21 mm lens, the adapters were marked 35-135, 90 and 21-50. Early wide M mount lenses (including the 35s with no goggles) brought up the 50 framelines. With the arrival of the M2, the 35s without goggles now brought up the 35/135 (135 only on the M3) framelines but the superwides still brought up the 50 framelines. As the M2 took over the sales lead from the M3, and all future finders were based on the M2's design, super wides were changed to bring up the 35mm field of view. With the addition of the 28 framelines to the 90 set, superwides were then changed to bring up the 28-90 rather than the 35-135 framelines. So there are there frameline positions: 35-135, 50-75 and 28-90. Depending on when a lens was made, if it is wider than 50, it may bring up the, starting from the oldest, 50-75, 35-135 and finally 28-90 framelines on a new camera (note: different mag finders delete one of the frameline sets in either the 35-135 or 28-90 pairs). The adapters are marked to suit the cameras that were manufactured at the same time. So the 135 adapter is marked (dropping the cm designation for a smattering of clarity) 135 or 35-135; the 90 adaptor is marked 90 as the 28 mm framelines didn't arrive until the production of adapters had stopped (I think?); and, the 50 adapter was marked 28-50 or 21-50 as again production had stopped before the 75 mm framelines were added (i think?). God that is way too much about framelines, John Collier On 10-May-05, at 11:18 PM, Ruben wrote: > I found an adapter from LTM to M from Leitz with the marking 2.8-5 cm > > My question: > > Will this adpater change the focusing range - the abillity to focus at > infinity etc. ??