Here is a 1.4X APO with a somewhat reasonable buy it now price on ebay, from what looks like a reputable dealer. No endorsement at all and buy at your own risk, but it is an option.
Doug,
Nice Dowitcher and Sandpiper shots, but I prefer to shoot them in nice Golden Hour light when they really pop out against the darker color water at that time.
I had a great time in Alaska in Kenai National Park and Denali. Saw lots of bears,Dall sheep, moose, caribou, wolves, a porcupine, arctic hare, and a Ptarmigan in Denali. Saw bears,tufted and horned puffins,muirres, sea otters, stellar sea lions, rhino and parakeet auklets, oyster catchers, and humpbacks in the waters of Kenai Peninsula. Oh, and the famous bald eagle nest near the McDonalds in Homer with two baby eagles ready to fledge. We lucked out on the weather and got to see the complete Mt. Denali top to bottom for two consecutive days. The 2nd day the Mirror lake was perfectly calm and provided the perfect classic reflection shot of Denali of which I really hoped on getting. Saw a dead caribou in the river which the wolves had killed and stripped clean. Unfortunately, my wildlife shots are all with my 500L and thus I can not post them here. Forgot to mention that we saw a bear swimming in the ocean near shore and another bear on shore with two giant salmon in its mouth.
@Ajay, I have the APO 2x extender and it works very well with my 180/2.8 APO. Much better performance than the 2x Canon extender. Hope you find one soon!
Krosavcheg wrote:
Never thought I would be posting here...but here it is. Something a little more than completely ordinary which doesn't showcase the lens at all... http://www.3byk.org/gallery2/d/6568-1/IMG_2236.jpg
Love the way the whole thing came together. Excellent and different.
Here's my first Leica photo posting. True to form, these are dull, banal comparisons.
Leica R 60/2.8 Macro (with barrel lugs).
Two different outdoor subjects here. Both shot hand held on 1Ds2 in Av mode at f/2.8 and f/8.0. No attempt was made to influence exposure or to adjust exposure or color balance in PP. Only slight sharpening and clarify were used in PP in LR. The light falloff at 2.8 and the added brightness at 8.0 are evident.
Each shot is followed by two 100% detail shots from center and corner (or edge).
So far, I'm very impressed with the lens! Although slightly dark, vignetting, and soft on edges, the lens is very good at 2.8 within those limitations. Very little fringing or CA evident in high contrast areas, including edges.
D700 + Elmarit 180/2.8 @ 2.8 or 3.2, sllightly cropped. Taken from a 60meters high tower of Diocletian's palace in Split/Croatia. Shot through the tower construction.
My adaptor seems to reset the date on camera and drain the battery every time its attached...hmm...might need to cello tape the pins on the camera body....
I received my Leica R 28/2.8 yesterday. The lens is beautifully made and the finish is top notch, with very few marks. It has the matching bayonet hood that is in like-new shape as well.
From the test shots, the color seems excellent, and the vignetting at 2.8 is as expected. What I didn't expect was the focus range, specifically, that I can't get infinity focus with the Fotodiox chipped adapters, which work fine for infinity on my Leica R 60/2.8 macro.
Does anyone know if the lens has adjustment to bring it in closer to the sensor/film for infinity? Bushings? I had a problem infinity focus on a lens Nikon rebuilt for me, and taking it back, they adjusted the lens to achieve infinity focus correctly at all the zoom focal lengths. I think they mentioned "spacers".
I'm hoping it is simple to do, as I like the lens very much from what little I've seen. Stopped down to f/11-16, the lens image looks beautiful, and barrel distortion and CA are corrected with the Zeiss ZE 28/2 profile in LR3 (with 60 on the CA slider in profile). So, there is very good potential here, once f/5.6 is used to eliminate almost all vignetting. Maybe fixing the infinity will reduce the vignetting a little too? (too hopeful? )
I'm thinking of using Steve's Camera in Culver City, California, for the repair. Any other great Leica repairmen in the L.A. area?
Here are a couple tree portraits at f/2.8, along with a four-shot pano at f/11.
Given the shorter focal length, distance from the focal plane becomes more critical. An adpter that might cause no complaints use with a longer lens can be a few fractions of a mm. off and prevent infinity focus with a wide angle.
Leitz lenses are usueally extremely well calibrated so if they do not focus to infinity, suspect your adapter.
Paul -- Thanks. I know what you are saying regarding short focal lengths being more sensitive to misalignments. The only thing is, both these Fotodiox adapters work fine with the Leica R 60 Macro -- both provide infinity focus, and I don't consider that a sloppy or out-of-spec lens. I don't think one lens should be fine with both adapters and the other lens fail on both. I've never had this problem with my Pentax, Nikon, Zeiss Contax or Mamiya manual lenses on adapters with Canon bodies. So, the suspect is the 28mm lens that needs adjustment.
BTW -- the central target area of these trees that is in focus is about 15 feet away, but the lens is set to infinity. That is quite a difference!
It would seem calibrating focus is not so unusual, and possible that the infinity stop is out of adjustment. Perhaps that is fix. Has anyone had this adjustment made on Leica lens (or other brands) with similar symptoms to what I'm experiencing?
28/2.8 update: I continued testing and determined the focus was not reaching infinity. To complicate matters, this lens design has strong curvature of field, what I call "reverse horseshoe" with the edges coming forward in focus when the subject is centered at distance (Zeiss 50MP is the opposite -- side focus flows away toward infinity).
The good news is that I researched L.A. area Leica repair shops and chose Steve's Camera Service Center in Culver City. The repair took three days and $120. Steve himself worked on the lens, adjusting the infinity throw. He even spoke with me on pick up about the condition of the lens and Leica in general as Alt lenses. Works on Zeiss and even "regular" brands like Nikon and Canon -- and medium and large format. Specializes in Leica and has all the proper tools.
www.stevecamera.com
310-397-0072
All in working order and I'm happy with the service and price. Pictures look good, but may be best suited to APS-H size sensor, compared to FF. FF at f/5.6-8 looks very good, with slightly soft corners. f/11 looks best for edge to edge sharpness. Color is awesome.
Gunzorro wrote:
To complicate matters, this lens design has strong curvature of field, what I call "reverse horseshoe" with the edges coming forward in focus when the subject is centered at distance
Which Leica R 28/2.8 are you referring to?
Leica released two 28/2.8 version 1 and version 2.
To my knowledge version 2 does not have such "curvature of field" and there is a marked optical difference (2 stops) with version 1.
So which one are you referring to? The serial number of version 2 starts at: 3664831 with an integrated hood.
Almass wrote:
Which Leica R 28/2.8 are you referring to?
Gunzorro wrote:
I received my Leica R 28/2.8 yesterday. The lens is beautifully made and the finish is top notch, with very few marks. It has the matching bayonet hood that is in like-new shape as well.
