Voigtlander just made one of my dreams come true! They announced a new M-mount to E-mount adapter that will dramatically reduce the close focus distance of M-mount lenses! As you maybe know M-mount lenses usually have a close focus distance of 50cm on Voigtlander and 70cm on Leica lenses (the close focus distance is longer on tele lenses). By using that adapter this is what you get on [shoplink 22240 ebay]Voigtlander lenses[/shoplink]:
Here are the adapter specs:
The adapter costs 289 Euro and will ship in December! More info at Vogitlanders website.
Links: [shoplink 22240 ebay]Voigtlander VM lenses on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]
37 Responses
The Hawks L-M helicoid adapter to do this (without an infinity lock button though) has been around for a long time.
+1
now 3rd parties(high qualities for sure) in action!
I’ve got a Hawk’s helicoid M-E adapter. It works great to extend the close-focus capability of M-lenses!
I also have Hawk’s helicoid adapter, but it’s rather uncomfortable on my Nex7 because my fingers keep touching the lens release button in the adaptor, and that button is very sharp.
Agreed that the release is of poor design on the Hawk’s. I ended up filing mine down so that it’s a lot more flush with the adapter and removed the hard edges.
It’s a shame that Hawks changed the release button design with the third version of the adapter. The first two versions came with a release that was flush with the mount.
Very overpriced.
You can get these adapters from Hawk Factory via Ebay for half the money and they are available for some years now…
Nontheless nice that Voigtlaender is doing these too now.
Whether the price is fair, really depends on the build quality.
Not sure which would be a better build. And Voigt has an extension of 4mm, I wonder how much does these have.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAWKS-FACTORY-LEICA-M-L-M-to-SONY-NEX-E-mount-MACRO-TUBE-HELICOID-V2-5-/320909723077?pt=US_Lens_Adapters_Mounts_Tubes&hash=item4ab7b5c5c5
Take note, the Hawk Helicoid M to E adapter existed long before this fella here.
Voigtlander = Cosina
And Cosina manufactures manual focus SLR lenses for Carl Zeiss with Leica (ZM), Nikon (ZF), Pentax (ZK), Canon EOS (ZE), and M42 screw mounts (ZS).
Cosina also manufactures CSC lenses (Touit and Sonnar T* E for APS-C format such as Fujifilm X-mount and Sony E-mount.
So you can be sure it’s going to be pretty good. 🙂
That’s been around for a couple years already. I was one of the early adopters. Tho I’m sure voigtlander will be better built.
Now let’s see how these lenses (21mm Ultron!) perform on 7r.
What does this mean? Is there a bigger chance that the Voigtländer M-mount lenses will perform better with this adapter than with the adapter we saw earlier in Ron Scheffler’s samples?
With the A7(R) that is.
I have the photodiox pro adapter with helicoid and it’s solid and works well, I’ll have to see if this one is worth the money tho
Can i use this on my Nex-6 and attach a Distagon 18mm Zm f/4 ?
What kind of focal length i should expect ?
Brilliant idea. CV seem pretty optimistic that their lenses will work well on the A7R. Seems possible with the long focal lengths but does anyone see whay that should be the case for the wide angles ?
Would one still have infinity focus with one of those adapters?
exactly – my question as well, as this looks like a classic extension tube, albeit a very short one, thus the MFD will be closer but in all probability at the expense of the lost infinity, no?
No, you don’t lose infinity focus. It works like a retractable extension tube; when you don’t turn its ring, it’s like a regular adapter.
Hey admin, when will we be back to rumors?
Do you guys know about this site – http://www.lensrentals.com/for-sony -?
Sony.ca proclaims: “Full Frame. No Compromise.”
I wonder if they have actually made a significant compromise in order to achieve Backward Compatibility.
The FFD – flange focal distance (or register distance), that is: back of lens/front of mount -> sensor surface, for the E-mount = 18mm.
FFD for “the other” FF mirrorless – Leica M = 27.8mm (though sometimes quoted as 27.95mm).
The relationship between these numbers makes sense –
Leica M FFD ÷ Sony E FFD = 1.54 – very close to the 1.5 “crop factor” between FF and APS-C.
(Fuji XF mount also closely follows this FF -> APS-C relationship with FFD = 17.7)
Another value of the FFD relationship between Leica M and Sony E is that it allows a good 9.8mm for a solid – but not too thick – adapter ring for the various Leica, Zeiss and Voigtländer M-mount lenses. Certainly one of the reasons that adaptation of these lenses has been successful, in a number of cases, is that you are asking a full frame lens to cover a ~1/3 smaller image circle (rendering the light from the weakest area of the lens outside the sensor).
But does it make sense to carry this short FFD over to full frame? It obviously makes sense to Sony to be able to invite the great society of E-mount glass users to the FE party – however, in “crop mode” on a7/r, what is one really gaining over a (smaller and cheaper) NEX body?
There was some interesting – and heated – discussion here last week on the ultimate aim of the micro-lens optimization. To simplify the argument, it went something like: was it Sony’s intention to:
i.) make the a7/r able to adapt glass with the same success as NEX, Fuji & Oly before it, or,
ii.) give Sony/Zeiss a proprietary edge to make “special sauce” lenses that would, for these cameras, outperform/outsell third party comers?
We have some way to go before arriving at anything approaching satisfactory answers – final firmware, RAW conversion, etc. – though I am increasingly feeling the outcome may fall toward the latter view.
If anything, the compromise is the mount diameter but not the FFD. You could integrate a metal tube into your lens and use a Leica formula just as it is.
Interestingly, E-mount diameter of 46.1mm is already larger than M-mount 44mm.
True. But then again, there is most probably not a single optical engineer that would complain about having too much space.
I have said before there should be an a to e adapter wth variable extension to work like an extension tube that stays on.
There is a Chinese adapter that does the same thing for 66 USD. I do not see the justification of Voigtländer’s 300 Euro price tag.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171133530584?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
adapters have to be machined very precisely to avoid loosing too much quality (you always loose some quality) so it could easily be that the price tag of this one is justified, but of course it doesn’t have to be. but whether it is justified for us is impossible to say at this point.
Keep an eye on the reviews. I just purchased it and will be reviewing it compared to my novoflex adater.
I meant keep an eye on their feedback.
Wow, this could be huge for wide-angle macros. The big problem for most wide-angle macro enthusiasts is finding the lenses and extension tubes. Even most short extension tubes tend to be a bit too long for wide-angle lenses.
I’m thinking very much about getting the A7. Was going to get Canon 6D for my MP-E 65mm, but a Metabones adapter and an A7 might be better. The biggest difficult for me will be chosing between the A7 and the A7R. 1/250s synch speed and electronic first curtain shutters are both big things for me for macro photoraphy. But then the resolution and the offset micro lenses of the A7R are mighty attractive. These manufacturers don’t make it easy for you when you just want a camera as a tool.
Wide-angle macro? Like when you are too close to the subject that you would cast your own shadow into the image? Like it would force you into awkward position to get a similar picture as the telephoto one? You don’t have any advantage in term of DOF. I don’t see the point of a wide-angle macro. Now, if you mean wide angle close-up, that might make a little more sense.
He probably has a reason that makes sense, i’m sure “macro enthusiasts” understand.
Rollei, In today’s world..the term close-up is replaced by “macro”. There are “macro” attachments for iphones and ipads. 😉
im in serious need for this on my fuji. i will get one for my nex as well as i do plan to move up to a7r too!!! well done! (abit pricey tho…)