Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2016/02/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In theory it should work just fine. You leave the lens on infinity, and the adapter does the rest. The adapter must: -Interface to the camera's AF electronics such that the camera can tell it "forward, back, stop"). -Be thin enough to allow infinity focus. -Contain motors and a mechanism that will rack the lens out sufficiently to focus the lens to a reasonable close distance. The mechanism must fit in the adapter. This is easier to do with SLR lens adapters. M lenses have a shorter back focus distance, and M to mirrorless adapters are quiet short compared to SLR adapters. Perhaps some of the mechanism could be below the adapter, or concentric to it.) The major problems with M lenses on other cameras would still be corner smearing and color shifts, unless the sensor's Bayer array was designed for M lenses. And would the autofocus be fast and accurate enough, and would using the adapter be convenient enough that you wouldn't get fed up with it quickly? Personally, I'd love to have an autofocus M that also did RF focusing. But as Larry mentions, it would have to be worth someone's while to manufacture. Most manufacturers have already passed on making their own rangefinder mechanism. Leica seems to be willing to make RF cameras along traditional M lines, but not to do anything radical with them. But what about something entirely new by a third party--an AF camera that also did some sort of visual rangefinder simulation in an EVF, and was designed to take M lenses. Ideally, the version for M lenses would have a Bayer array with microlens offsets licensed from Leica. The SLR lens version would have a more conventional sensor. All technically possible. The big question is whether there are enough legacy(*) lens fans, and in particular M lens fans, to make such a camera commercially viable. --Peter, who actually dislikes the word "legacy." On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 4:22 PM, Larry Zeitlin via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote: > About 40 years ago, give or take a decade, a precision camera make, > probably Zeiss. marketed a camera in which the focus was adjusted by moving > the film plane. This simplified lenses but had the downsides of increased > expense for the camera body and the difficulty of providing enough motion > for long focus lenses. The idea was abandoned after a few years but I > believe that with modern electronics it could provide automatic focus for M > lenses. But, of course, there would be little incentive for Leica to adopt > such a system. Maybe a third party could sell a universal camera which > would autofocus with all makers lenses. > Larry Z > > + + + > LUG: > > Any idea whether this would actually work or not? > > > http://www.thephoblographer.com/2016/02/11/the-techart-pro-lens-adapter-promises-autofocus-for-leica-m-mount-glass/#.VrywD_krJaQ > > Tina > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >