Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/09/20

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Subject: [Leica] 80-200 Vario ROM
From: telyt at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)
Date: Tue Sep 20 22:27:27 2005

I had been told the subject lens was one of only a few that couldn't be
converted from ROM to 3-cam but guess what, I was told wrong.

Last week I bought a cosmetically-challenged but optically and mechanically
perfect 80-200 ROM.  I've got a couple of R bodies but as most of you know
it's the SL that makes my heart sing and ROM and the SL is a no-go
combination.

So, what prompted this insanity?  Aside from the very favorable price, it
was an ebay item I saw a few months ago: a damaged 80-200 ROM lens.  The
photos of the lens showed that the lens mount was gone and on the inner
aperture control ring, where the Leicaflex metering cams are mounted, are
screw holes in exactly the right position to mount the cams.

Armed with a Leicaflex-compatible flange, a couple of Leicaflex metering
cams and a set of screwdrivers I started taking my "new" lens apart and
found that, lo and behold, the screw holes are indeed present and they're
spaced and threaded perfectly for the cams.

This conversion isn't exactly reversible 'cuz I had to snip the flex circuit
to remove the ROM contacts but I'm not worried, I don't intend to ditch the
SL any time soon.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com