Does anyone have experience with using Chinese made 6-bit flanges? Not sure if they are built to good enough quality and tolerances to use on Leica lenses. I was planning to remove and mail out two lens mounts to have the coding machined (in USA) and then saw the Chinese one's on Ebay. My gut tells me to have the stock mounts machined but I wanted to get some feedback on this other option. Many thanks.
Andrew, nice set, beautiful bokeh.
Gary, Nice set. the 2nd one looks farmiliar to me, you have similar picture before by different lens. You might want try your question again out of this forum, as I am not sure how many can really answer you! I guess for the price, it worth to try and not much to loose. For M9 user, I create a profile for each lens uncoded, it way fast than I manually enter it.
Ron, I really like the pretty lady in subway/train station shot, you compose guide me to her. very nice perspective. your photes in this pg really show different rendering between modern lens and classic. I especially like the first 5cm one, very dreaming effect.
Stop for Wuzhen for a while Now let move to another city: Qingdao (Tsingdao, the beer?) a beautiful city has not only beer but also some largest electronics company in China like Haier, Hisense. Like many cities in China, it has seen rapid development during past 20 years. It is also a tourist city famous for red building, green trees and blue sky and sea.
Gary Clennan wrote:
Does anyone have experience with using Chinese made 6-bit flanges? Not sure if they are built to good enough quality and tolerances to use on Leica lenses. I was planning to remove and mail out two lens mounts to have the coding machined (in USA) and then saw the Chinese one's on Ebay. My gut tells me to have the stock mounts machined but I wanted to get some feedback on this other option. Many thanks.
At one point in time I was thinking of doing that for some ZM lenses.. But it was easier to find a local CNC shop that was willing to machine them for me, then it was to just buy ebay ones... In the end I didn't go through with the machining as I sold my most of my ZM lenses..
So you could go the local route, or you could just wait a few days for yours to ship out and ship back in.. I think tolerance wise, you might be off by a bit here and there, I've bought enough cheap adapters to realize china factories that build items on the cheap for ebay shops just don't give a damn about that sort of thing.
Michael - looks like a nice place and this sort of urban geography is something I haven't yet seen of China...
airfrogusmc - great set and really like the first and last. The last one has really nice tonality. BTW, I'll be in Chicago for the Bears game and will probably be in the Millennium Park area Saturday & Monday...
LL - wow, so much detail in that first image. Lovely tonality in all of them!
Gary: depends on which image you're thinking of... so, yes, it's likely the same model.
Carsten - there is a slight groove in the newer ZM lenses suitable for hand coding with a marker. I guess paint could also work. The problem I had with this, in particular the ZM21/2.8, was that when shooting in direct sun, enough light could leak into the lens mount to mess with the code reader on the camera's lens mount, resulting in non-coded images. This was really annoying until I figured out the solution was to hold a finger or two against that area of the lens mount to block the direct sunlight. When I first got started with the M9, I didn't think proper Leica-style coding would be a significant factor... but I have to admit, it is now one reason I prefer to use Leica lenses. The coding always works and it's for the actual lens, rather than trying to match up a code to work sort of OK with a ZM or CV lens.
A few more 50 Lux ASPH vs Nikkor 5cm f/1.4 images... just for fun... Lux first, then Nikkor, all at 1.4:
The character differences in the reeds images isn't so great, though at full rez it's pretty obvious the Lux is a lot sharper, which is the case with all of these. At 1000px wide, it's perhaps not so obvious..
I'll likely be offline for a few days, so Happy Thanksgiving to our US friends
Michael, those are some nice landscape shots. I had to send my camera to Jersey to get the focus patch aligned. I'm getting use to the sonnar although I tempted to try other 50s now =)
Edward, I like the shot with the 3 chiefs.
Airfrog, that last portrait is nice, there is a lot of detail in the guy's jacket.
Andrew, nice set, I want a Noctilux now =)
Ron, interesting comparison, the lux may be sharper, but from some of your other images, the nikkor almost looks as if it has a very characteristic glow in the images.
While trying to build up a kit, I was shopping for a 90 Elmarit when I stumbled upon a Pre-asph 90 Cron for a good price, so I took a chance. So far I like this lens.
carstenw wrote:
Don't the ZM lenses have a groove in the mount where you could put the paint? Or is that the CV lenses?
rscheffler wrote:
Michael - looks like a nice place and this sort of urban geography is something I haven't yet seen of China...
airfrogusmc - great set and really like the first and last. The last one has really nice tonality. BTW, I'll be in Chicago for the Bears game and will probably be in the Millennium Park area Saturday & Monday...
LL - wow, so much detail in that first image. Lovely tonality in all of them!
Gary: depends on which image you're thinking of... so, yes, it's likely the same model.
Carsten - there is a slight groove in the newer ZM lenses suitable for hand coding with a marker. I guess paint could also work. The problem I had with this, in particular the ZM21/2.8, was that when shooting in direct sun, enough light could leak into the lens mount to mess with the code reader on the camera's lens mount, resulting in non-coded images. This was really annoying until I figured out the solution was to hold a finger or two against that area of the lens mount to block the direct sunlight. When I first got started with the M9, I didn't think proper Leica-style coding would be a significant factor... but I have to admit, it is now one reason I prefer to use Leica lenses. The coding always works and it's for the actual lens, rather than trying to match up a code to work sort of OK with a ZM or CV lens.
A few more 50 Lux ASPH vs Nikkor 5cm f/1.4 images... just for fun... Lux first, then Nikkor, all at 1.4:
The character differences in the reeds images isn't so great, though at full rez it's pretty obvious the Lux is a lot sharper, which is the case with all of these. At 1000px wide, it's perhaps not so obvious..
I'll likely be offline for a few days, so Happy Thanksgiving to our US friends ...Show more →
Just got a new Sonnar and it didn't have the grooves. It's a new batch of ZM lenses as far as I know.. Also oddly enough, it seems to focus fine @ 1.5 on my M9p all of a sudden??! Oh and my other lenses doesn't seem out (so I don't think my camera body shifted).
BTW Ron, the top images are all sharper, it's noticeable in web viewing.. Both instances the images are pretty nice aside from the lake shot. I feel the lux did that a lot better then the nikkor. Good captures, I like the first image and the last image (from the lux).
zhangyue - The second shot's nice.. I think what I like best about your 50cron is when you shoot something close and the bokeh is clouded a bit. When you take an infinity shot, it seems like the lens doesn't excel.. But good captures non the less!!
Jabberwockt - I like your shot with the pre-asph cron.. Ain't nothing wrong with it! You having good luck with all the photos that lens takes?
So far, the only gripes i have with it is the weight and the long and weighted focus throw which is precise but takes longer to focus. Images are not razor sharp at f2, but not terrible either.
adamdewilde wrote:
zhangyue - The second shot's nice.. I think what I like best about your 50cron is when you shoot something close and the bokeh is clouded a bit. When you take an infinity shot, it seems like the lens doesn't excel.. But good captures non the less!!
Adam, thanks for comments. Actually, the lens is very sharp once stop down and do infinity quite well. I did several infinity test compare it to 50lux, 50sonnar and Cron consistently give me biggest file size at f5.6 and f8 if I shoot JPG, though virtually, I can't distinguish any difference between it and 50lux at most of the frame. Extreme corner 50lux seems has slightly edge, but from1/3 to 2/3 of frame, Cron rigid seems perform better. (not too surprise as 50lux has FC)
To me, all are enough as I am not that picky for sharpness given how decent they are already. To be honest, I might do care f1.4 to f2 sharpness and bokeh but after f5.6, $200 35mm 1.8G I give to my father and $250 50mm 1.8G I have will do fine in most case after f5.6.
I mentioned else where that old leica lens optically perform great but coating is one area to be desired. It give low contrast, wash out color (to put it seriously) at some condition, flare can be crazy for my 35cron V1. Though most case, some clarity, vibrancy boost usually can help/hide, but I loose sharpness by doing that in LR without PS visit.
What you see/feel might have something to do with my re-size and sharpening. I am lazy to do multi-stage sharpening and keep track of different size file. I usually just load full size to Flickr and let it take over from there. for 10lp/mm, or 20lp/mm, it seems fine (that is why you feel it is better for close distance, most pics doesn't have detail/microcontrast in those cases), but not good for fine detail, which supposed to show up in my first sample in Qingdao. I will see if I can upload a 100% crop later.
Thanks for all the comments.
Airfrogusmc, I alos like the last street portrait the best.
LL, nice BW set. I like the #1, I might shift histogram to right side more if it was me
Ron, Nice illustration, I actually like 5cm for the lake shot better.
Andy, That is a fine picture. Nice use of DOF and lighting. Color is great too. Is that WO?
Now some random picture from Suzhou by 50lux
And here is one from last week Golden Gate park SF. 50lux WO
I might take off for a few days as well. Happy thanks giving for all FMer.
Yeah, that shot is wide open, the lens is not super sharp or contrasty but nonetheless I rather enjoy it. I did tweak the contrast but not the colors in the shot, the M9's colors seem slightly different than reality and i haven't figure out how to make it otherwise.
zhangyue - Was talking less about sharpness and resolving power, and more about rending of the image.. I think the 50rigid seems better suited for shots of people and objects. The images look more interesting because of the lenses character.
When shooting things at infinity, it seems like you said, almost any lens can do.. Just need to find a lens that has the right balance of contrast that you like to see in your images. That's why I liked your second shot the best, it had the most character, and I like your lens when it's producing a lot of character..
BTW, dog shot = awesome.
Jabberwockt - I'd say it's similar if not the same in size and weight to the 90APO (without me looking up the specs). I used my friends for a bit, and honestly, it's a steal of a lens if you can get it at a good price. I find the 90summarit or 75summarit to render more to my liking, but the 90cron is faster, and lacks the rubber focusing ring, which makes it more Leica in looks/feel (although again bigger/heavier). Again, a great lens if you get it at a price you can be happy with.
