@antst This lens weights 450 gram - just like Summicron M 90 f2 or Sonnar 85 f2 ZM. TAP works well with these two but useless with Sonnar 135 f2.8 HFT. Best results I have are with lighter lenses (up to 350-380 gr), mostly 50mm.
For me the main issue is reliability. Everybody is aware of these TAP limitations but i think that when we bought the TAP , we all decided to live with them.
I personnally have no issue with using this TAP with light-weight lenses (frankly spealing, below 300 g because I'm just afraid of damaging the TAP), or use AF centered mode (with AF memory) only. For me it is great when it works.
But what I cannot accept is the lack of reliability. The first issue I had was when travelling far away from home and when this TAP went damaged and stuck to my Sony body. You can waste your entire vacation because of this.
Techart should improve reliability (before trying to increase functionnalities) and should improve communication when things get wrong (no e-mail response from my damaged TAP). It's too bad considering the price I paid paid.
Kressouille wrote:
For me the main issue is reliability. Everybody is aware of these TAP limitations but i think that when we bought the TAP , we all decided to live with them.
I personnally have no issue with using this TAP with light-weight lenses (frankly spealing, below 300 g because I'm just afraid of damaging the TAP), or use AF centered mode (with AF memory) only. For me it is great when it works.
But what I cannot accept is the lack of reliability. The first issue I had was when travelling far away from home and when this TAP went damaged and stuck to my Sony body. You can waste your entire vacation because of this.
Techart should improve reliability (before trying to increase functionnalities) and should improve communication when things get wrong (no e-mail response from my damaged TAP). It's too bad considering the price I paid paid....Show more →
I'm with you. I took it on a trip about a year and a half ago, and auto focus with my ZM 35 worked about 30% of the time. So from what I'm reading, it's still pretty much junk and not worth the price if you want it for auto focusing of lenses.
I never owned a TAP but I’ve been watching this thread since the beginning because the general idea behind this adapter is very interesting but, I concur with you guys, it’s far from a well finished product. Quite expensive, reliability not great and customer service seems spotty at best. What they should do is a total redesign of the mechanical part to make it able to withstand heavier lenses without wobbling and it needs a better quality control as well. Also, to overcome one the most obvious limitation of the adapter with lenses above 50mm. -i,e. the short helicoids extension- they could release a TAP in different SLR mounts. i.e, versions for Canon, M42, Minolta, etc. No need for separate adapters from Leica-M to SLR and specially a thicker adapter would allow for a much longer helicoids extension.. maybe up to 15mm. instead of 4.5mm. Of course, I understand that Techart is a small firm with limited resources and it’s very likely that we’ll never see further developments and variants of the TAP.
SophCat wrote:
@antst@ This lens weights 450 gram - just like Summicron M 90 f2 or Sonnar 85 f2 ZM. TAP works well with these two but useless with Sonnar 135 f2.8 HFT. Best results I have are with lighter lenses (up to 350-380 gr), mostly 50mm.
Which lens? Zeiss 135/2.8? Can not be 450 gram. It is more like 600g. Even rolleinar MC 135/2.8 (which is lighter than zeiss) is more like 500g. AFAIR.
artur5 wrote:
I never owned a TAP but I’ve been watching this thread since the beginning because the general idea behind this adapter is very interesting but, I concur with you guys, it’s far from a well finished product. Quite expensive, reliability not great and customer service seems spotty at best. What they should do is a total redesign of the mechanical part to make it able to withstand heavier lenses without wobbling and it needs a better quality control as well. Also, to overcome one the most obvious limitation of the adapter with lenses above 50mm. -i,e. the short helicoids extension- they could release a TAP in different SLR mounts. i.e, versions for Canon, M42, Minolta, etc. No need for separate adapters from Leica-M to SLR and specially a thicker adapter would allow for a much longer helicoids extension.. maybe up to 15mm. instead of 4.5mm. Of course, I understand that Techart is a small firm with limited resources and it’s very likely that we’ll never see further developments and variants of the TAP....Show more →
having more than 4-5mm extension automatically brings a lot of additional technical problems, because you have fixed retracted size 4.5mm is dictated by flange distance difference between LM and E mounts minus space lost for mounts. Can be solved in different way, but price/weight/ugliness will go seriously up, most likely. And speed will go down.
Kressouille wrote:
For me the main issue is reliability. Everybody is aware of these TAP limitations but i think that when we bought the TAP , we all decided to live with them.
I personnally have no issue with using this TAP with light-weight lenses (frankly spealing, below 300 g because I'm just afraid of damaging the TAP), or use AF centered mode (with AF memory) only. For me it is great when it works.
But what I cannot accept is the lack of reliability. The first issue I had was when travelling far away from home and when this TAP went damaged and stuck to my Sony body. You can waste your entire vacation because of this.
Techart should improve reliability (before trying to increase functionnalities) and should improve communication when things get wrong (no e-mail response from my damaged TAP). It's too bad considering the price I paid paid....Show more →
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brick33308 wrote:
I'm with you. I took it on a trip about a year and a half ago, and auto focus with my ZM 35 worked about 30% of the time. So from what I'm reading, it's still pretty much junk and not worth the price if you want it for auto focusing of lenses.
Although my own experience suggests that "pretty much junk and not worth the price" is an excessively harsh judgement, I agree that the TAP is a deeply flawed product. Even so, many of the best pictures I have taken over the past couple of years were made with a TAP mounted on an A7RII, bounded by a number of constraints:
* I follow Kressouille's recommendation and stick with lenses weighing no more than 300g (including the X->M adapter, if needed). I've achieved my best results with small light lenses such as the Minolta MD 45/2, Contax C/Y 45/2.8, Contax G 45/2, M-Hexanon 50/2, and C-Sonnar 50/1.5 -- all of which fall under the 300g limit.
* I also agree with Kressouille's advice to use center AF, which plays to the TAP's strengths since autofocus accuracy diminishes as the AF point moves away from the center (this, somewhat perversely, makes the A7RII work like a Leica).
* Although I have not yet have a TAP fail, I insure against what appears to be its inherent unreliability by a) having three copies of the TAP and b) always carrying a Voigtlander Close Focus M->E adapter as a backup in the small pouch that holds my spare batteries and memory cards.
Why do I tolerate the TAP's evident deficiencies when the A7RIII and Sonnar FE 55/1.8 provide me with almost flawless AF speed and accuracy? Because I love the way those vintage lenses render and also, as Jack White says in It Might Get Loud, sometimes you have to "pick a fight" with the guitar.
Although my own experience suggests that "pretty much junk and not worth the price" is an excessively harsh judgement, I agree that the TAP is a deeply flawed product. Even so, many of the best pictures I have taken over the past couple of years were made with a TAP mounted on an A7RII, bounded by a number of constraints:
* I follow Kressouille's recommendation and stick with lenses weighing no more than 300g (including the X->M adapter, if needed). I've achieved my best results with small light lenses such as the Minolta MD 45/2, Contax C/Y 45/2.8, Contax G 45/2, M-Hexanon 50/2, and C-Sonnar 50/1.5 -- all of which fall under the 300g limit.
* I also agree with Kressouille's advice to use center AF, which plays to the TAP's strengths since autofocus accuracy diminishes as the AF point moves away from the center (this, somewhat perversely, makes the A7RII work like a Leica).
* Although I have not yet have a TAP fail, I insure against what appears to be its inherent unreliability by a) having three copies of the TAP and b) always carrying a Voigtlander Close Focus M->E adapter as a backup in the small pouch that holds my spare batteries and memory cards.
Why do I tolerate the TAP's evident deficiencies when the A7RIII and Sonnar FE 55/1.8 provide me with almost flawless AF speed and accuracy? Because I love the way those vintage lenses render and also, as Jack White says in It Might Get Loud, sometimes you have to "pick a fight" with the guitar....Show more →
Thanks for the hexcellent points being made that I basically agree with, although I have used the TAP with heavier lenses like the Leica Summilux-R 80/1.4. Here the lens needs to be supported way more than the camera. Also manual pre-focusing is necessary. But I find the results worth the effort and risk.
However, one of my favorite lenses on the TAP for general photography is the Nikon Micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 Lens. It weighs 10.23 oz (290 g).
@antst Just weighed - 452 gr without adapter, 535 gr with QBM - LM adapter.
Either way, it does not focus with TAP unlike 85 or 90 mm lenses of similar weight.
hello
can someone help.
recent brought TECHART LM-EA7, AND UNABLE TO UPDATE FIRMWARE V.4 TO V.5 .
Follows every steps, but still fails, it stops during the process. was it the bluetooth signal? or was it the updater has a problem. Phone is right next to the camera.
can someone help for this issue?
KKHA wrote:
hello
can someone help.
recent brought TECHART LM-EA7, AND UNABLE TO UPDATE FIRMWARE V.4 TO V.5 .
Follows every steps, but still fails, it stops during the process. was it the bluetooth signal? or was it the updater has a problem. Phone is right next to the camera.
can someone help for this issue?
I would try from another device entirely. If not careful, you can brick your unit.
My android phone was iffy, so I updated from an ipad. I've heard the reverse scenario being bad as well. Make sure you follow the instructions, dont allow the device to sleep and clear all apps before running.
anyone using the Techart with heavy lenses in combination with AF-ON focussing?
I'm a bit afraid that let the camera moving while at the same time pressing the button in an opposite direction will just damage the adapter.
Maybe sounds a bit silly, but not having the adapter yet and being used to back-button focusing I was wondering..
I would not rely on the theoretical weight limitation of the TAP.
Frankly, and as recalled by Genji, it would be more wise to take some margins.
If you use the TAP with a 700 g lens, it will work, but with time, it may (I'm pretty sure about that) damage the TAP, that would begin to wobble until a possible failure.
With the Elmarit 90/2.8, I use a manual focus adapter, because I found it too heavy for this tap even if under the specs limits.
Kressouille wrote:
I would not rely on the theoretical weight limitation of the TAP.
Frankly, and as recalled by Genji, it would be more wise to take some margins.
If you use the TAP with a 700 g lens, it will work, but with time, it may (I'm pretty sure about that) damage the TAP, that would begin to wobble until a possible failure.
With the Elmarit 90/2.8, I use a manual focus adapter, because I found it too heavy for this tap even if under the specs limits.
+1
I have a limit of 350g (including the weight of any secondary adapter needed for SLR lenses). Almost all the lenses I use with the TAP are less than 300g so this is in no way an imposition. And, whenever I use the TAP, I always carry an additional manual focus adapter (in my case, a VM-E Close Focus Adapter) as a backup.
What firmware version are you using? According to the Techart PRO website, Version 6 is supposed to "improve performance and compatibility of the adapter with A7R3 & A9. Do NOT recommend update for other cameras."
It's not a connection/contact issue. It's a firmware problem. Despite what Techart says, I found that v6 is unreliable with the A7RIII so I wouldn't be surprised if it's even worse with the A7III. I've given up on using the TAP with my A7RIII but am happy to use v5 with my A7RII bodies. As you seem to be. You could try updating to v6 but then your TAP won't work well with your A7RII. In your situation, I'd forget about using the TAP with your A7III until Techart is able to release a firmware update that works reliably with the new III series bodies.
genji wrote:
What firmware version are you using? According to the Techart PRO website, Version 6 is supposed to "improve performance and compatibility of the adapter with A7R3 & A9. Do NOT recommend update for other cameras."
It's not a connection/contact issue. It's a firmware problem. Despite what Techart says, I found that v6 is unreliable with the A7RIII so I wouldn't be surprised if it's even worse with the A7III. I've given up on using the TAP with my A7RIII but am happy to use v5 with my A7RII bodies. As you seem to be. You could try updating to v6 but then your TAP won't work well with your A7RII. In your situation, I'd forget about using the TAP with your A7III until Techart is able to release a firmware update that works reliably with the new III series bodies.
