[LRflex] Re: Leica insolvency temporarily cured.

David Young <telyt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> ... I tend to agree with the Luminous Landscape... If Leica were to
>  build their lenses in Nikon/Canon mounts, only a very tiny percentage of
>  those owners would ever buy one.  But it would probably double Leica's
>  lens sales! And lenses (not cameras) are where the money is!

This topic has been discussed a number of times on several forums.  In a 
nutshell:

If you want auto-diaphragm and  full-aperture metering, there are two paths to 
this: cooperation and reverse-engineering.

Cooperation won't happen, period.  Canon doesn't want the competition.  The 
interest in using Leica-R lenses isn't minescule.  Go to the Fred Miranda forum 
and see how much discussion there is on the subject.

Reverse-engineering is risky, because Canon can (and has) made minor firmware 
tweaks that "break" the compatability of third-party lenses.  As a lens 
purchaser you might be willing to take that risk if the lens offers you a 
significant discount but are you willing to bet the price of a Leica lens that 
it won't be turned into a doorstop?  I don't see a market here.

Foregoing the auto-diaphragm and full-aperture metering would be using the 
Leica lens in full manual mode, exactly like using an R-mount lens with an 
R-to-EOS adapter.  A manual-only lens in an EOS mount would lose the 
flexibility of using it on a Leica-R body.  I don't see a market there either.

Ditto for Nikon mount, with the possible exception of an AIS mount, except that 
many current Nikon bodies treat AIS lenses as though they're manual-only.  
Can't even use the camera's meter.


Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com
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