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Leica M Mount and lenses - How does it perform?

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Alberto Guglielmi

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I am considering getting the M mount, as I have a bunch of M lenses.
I wonder who has experience on them on a RED dragon.
I know there is plenty of Leica R use, but I haven't seen much on the M front.

Quality, usability?
Do you know which wider lens work on it?
Leica Summarit 35?
Voiglander 35mm?
Any of the wider (21/24/28)?
 
General rule of thumb, don't go wider than 28mm or 35mm.

I had Camera Quest modify my Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, chop off the rear fins, so it plays nicer with the mount and OLPF frame.

You can get wider lenses to work, but various optical issues exist even if they can be mounted. Purple-ish vignetting and edge/corner detail smearing can occur.

However, if you need compact, lightweight, and discreet you can't beat using this combo.

One of my favorites is the Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5. Scary sharp.
 
Too add to what Phil said be careful with wides. Though the new voightlander 15mm mkIII Is fabulous as are the not made any more Voightlander 90, 125, 185 app close focusing trio. As good as lenses get and available vintage m mount or any other mount they came in with m adapters. After Sony E mount, M mount is most adaptable to using other mounts.
 
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Good to know about going wider. I have 50-75-90 Leica M glass that I was planning to use.
I am undecided if getting the M mount and find some wider lenses, or go for the Canon/Nikon mounts.

Do you find the voiglander 35mm to be better than the Nikon / Zeiss / Canon 35mm's?
Defining my version of better: Sharper where needed, smoother bokeh, pleasant overall image feel similar to film.
 
Alberto Guglielmi said:
I am considering getting the M mount, as I have a bunch of M lenses.
I wonder who has experience on them on a RED dragon.
I know there is plenty of Leica R use, but I haven't seen much on the M front.

Quality, usability?
Do you know which wider lens work on it?
Leica Summarit 35?
Voiglander 35mm?
Any of the wider (21/24/28)?
Click to expand...

The 35mm Summarit-M vignettes on the Dragon sensor, down to about 4K, where the darkening of the edges is less noticeable and could be considered acceptable in some cases.

A couple of the wider Leica-M lenses will fit the Dragon cameras, but they'll vignette even worse than the 35mm Summarit and will also show a much worse colour shift and blurriness around the edge of frame.

The official word from RED always was that the Leica-M mount is recommended for use with lenses 50mm and longer.

So unless you're using the wider Leica-M lenses for black and white (to avoid the coloured vignetting) and/or using the effects of their incompatibility creatively, you're better off looking at alternatives. The obvious one being Leica-R, via R to M adapter.
 
hey guys,

I just have found this thread by chance and I was wondering something.
Phil you said that you could get the 35 f1.2 to work on your red camera right ?
How is it posible ? I thought the flange distance was too short and that M mount lenses would
not work on red camera.
I have the f1.5 Nkoton and I just love it, it's one hell of a lens and I shoot with most of the time with my a7s .

Is there any way to get this lens to work with red cameras ?
I also have the 21mm Ultron, I just love it as well, why do you guys don't recommand shooting with wide angle ?

thanks
 
Phil, do you think the Raven will be compatible with wider focal lengths (15mm heliar) due to the smaller sensor or is it simply a flange distance issue? Would it be worse to use an M to EF adapter?
 
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