from a previous year's Eeyore's Birthday Party.
I take too much for granted. When I bought the Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 M mount lens last October I just figured everything would work well with an inexpensive lens adapter to mate my new lens with a Panasonic S5. I looked for one that was guaranteed to work at infinity. It did. And beyond. The lens adapter maker compromised focus range for being able to reliably get to infinity. That meant that the adapter was a little bit "thin." Sure, I could always hit infinity focus but that thin-ness meant that the lens would happily focus beyond infinity and would do so by sacrificing both some of its close up performance and any semblance of accuracy for the lens's distance scale. Without a true stop at infinity and no accuracy to the focusing ring one loses the ability to just rack to the stop at infinity with any assurance of sharp focus and also results in the loss of hyperfocal distances focusing or estimated focus settings based on distance. The lens still worked with the camera and made nice images but the adapter took away benefits that I, for one, would have enjoyed.
When I got home I bought a couple other adapters in the lower price ranges and each delivered much the same results. Since I played with three different adapters I came to the (erroneous) conclusion that the Voiglander lens was out of calibration vis-a-vis focusing. I actually disassembled the lens (partially) to see if I could correct it but it was beyond my capabilities. I was luck to have taken photos during disassembly and luckier still to get it all back together and working as before.
This past week I got two (new to me) Zeiss M mount lenses and thought that they would show me once and for all where the focusing culprit lay. They did. The focused perfectly on a friend's M10R but once again, using my adapters gave me the same results I was getting with the Voigtlander lens.
I finally borrowed a Leica brand M to L adapter and tried again. Bingo. Right on the money. That adapter resolved the issues I'd encountered earlier. I was a bit deflated. I love the idea of $25 adapters but I loathe the idea of $450 lens adapters. One of our readers here suggested the Hoage macro M to L adapter which can adjust to closer focusing but also is known for accurate infinity focus. Another "feature" is the price of $89 instead of $450. I ordered one which came yesterday afternoon.
And it worked. It worked as well at infinity (hard stop) as the Leica adapter. I could choose just to use it there and be done with it but I also tried out the close focusing ability and was happy to see that it cut down the minimum focusing distance by about half. I don't expect to need that feature too often but it was nice to have.
It's nice to have that all sorted out. I have the one Hoage Macro adapter right now but will probably order a second one so I can have an adapter for both the 28mm and 35mm and use them on two cameras at the same time. But maybe I'll just be lazy and parsimonious and stick with one. .. ... ....
I am equally happy to report that neither the 58mm Voigtlander lens nor the 40mm Voigtlander lens (both adapter from Nikon F to L mount) don't suffer the same issues. They are able to go to a true infinity and then also to match up on the focus rings to estimated distances. Fiasco dodged by sheer luck, I guess.
Wanted to share this right away in case someone was toying with following my cheapskate example. $89 seems to be the baseline for accurate performance with M to L adapters... Tragic. But useful to know.
Kirk, Thanks for sharing info on the Hoage macro adapter. I just ordered one for my Panasonic S5.
ReplyDeleteBob Autrey
Bob, It actually works! It's a good compromise between price and ultimate performance. Just what I wanted.
ReplyDeletePerhaps my 10 Leica M lenses, none younger than late 60’s, have a difference in their calibrations. While they work with all my M to m4/3 adapters…hitting infinity at the hard stop, the 2 brands I have tried on my XH1 and the 2 I have tried on my S5 do not. On every lens, when focused to the infinity hard stop, I find it is actually focused at around 100 ft while more distant objects are fuzzwuzz. I do have a newer M lens, the 50 f2 for the Konica M film camera, but I hate to use it as it is in top mint condition and I do not want even a hint of a scratch on it. But, when the latest M to L adapter version arrives from across the Pacific, I might see if indeed it is something about the age of the older M lenses, possibly their calibration, that is the problem. Interestingly enough I have no such infinity focus problems with even the cheap L adapters for Nikon, Minolta, Canon, Topcon or Contax C/Y lenses. Pfui as Nero Wolfe would say.
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