Camera MX transforms the Leica M-mount lenses in E-mount lenses with autofocus!
The impossible has been made possible. Camera MX transformed a Leica Summicron 35mm f/2.0 manual focusing M-mount lens in a sort of E-mount version with full autofocus support! You may argue how the heck that can be done…so here is the text I got form the “inventor” of this solution (from Chinese companies MX Camera):
“We put a Leica M 35mm f/2 into a Contax G Biogon 28mm f/2.8. When use with our Contax G – NEX AF adapter, it will come a NEX-AF lens!! And the result is quite good! We will make a video for it very soon. We try so many different Leica rangefinder lens and the result, the best match is 35mm and 50mm f/2 or small aperture lens with Biogon 28mm lens body.”
And they are now going to test the same “technique” with the 35mm f/3.5 (here on eBay), Summicron 35mm f/2 (here on eBay), Summicron 50mm f/2 (here on eBay), Elmar 90mm f/4 (here on eBay). There is no plan yet to commercialize that kind of lenses.
James
3 months ago |On so many levels… WHY?!
Grev
3 months ago |PRETTY FREAKING COOL THEN!
Harry Lew
3 months ago |Well, that’s interesting. But according to info on MX’s web site, one can expect AF time of 3-4 seconds for Contax G lenses (except 90mm0, at f8 or f16. That’s IN GOOD LIGHT! Very disappointing performance, I’d say. Again, this is for the native Contax G lenses mounted via MX adapter, not this Frankenstein lens mentioned above. Sigh!
Fants
3 months ago |I wouldn’t say that’s disappointing at all. Slow, sure, but if you were expecting it not to be, you were only setting yourself up for disappointment! It’s an old autofocus mechanism driven by a simple screw drive, being coupled with a CAF system for which it wasn’t designed. It was always going to be slow.
HiNG
3 months ago |If it made you disappointed, why not try other? If they can make contax G Autofocus work!
misterfolkertsma
3 months ago |I guess it’s a start. But with focus peaking, why bother?
ageha
3 months ago |Indeed, even without peaking loads of people focus faster than that manually.
buffo
3 months ago |crappy thing
Mike
3 months ago |Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it makes a lot of sense. But nice experiment.
3dit0r
3 months ago |Haha, this literally made me laugh- why bother? Just focus manually, which is probably more accurate and faster, and you’re not butchering a Leica (and Contax) lens, for goodness sake! These people have waaaay too much time, and money, on their hands. The native Sony e-mount primes are fantastic if you want AF (and I speak as a former owner of a 35mm Summicron v.4… Or just wait til the native Zeiss primes arrive? Seriously…
Zony
3 months ago |What are YOU talking about ? The Leica 50mm F/2 is amazingly better than the 50mm Sony F/1.8 OSS. It’s worlds better in sharpness, bokey, CA, and correction. I have had both. This is a major accomplishment to get Leica lenses to AF. Sure, they may AF slow now, but this is just the beginning, the speed will come with time. Yes, you may manually focus faster- but again you are missing the point.
Bravo MX !
alan
3 months ago |Well, they didn’t say the SEL50 was better than your Leica, which I’m sure it’s not. F/1.8 in native mount with OSS at $250 is “fantastic” for a lot of people.
Zony
3 months ago |Yes, if one qualifies the statement by saying “Fatastic – for the PRICE” I could understand. But, if your comparing the two brands primes just on optical qualities, the Sony will suffer in comparison.
CTPhotographX.com
3 months ago |I wish someone would put these R&D dollars into fixing the flash system, instead of novelty lens mounts.
But congrats nonetheless, for creating something that I’ll never purchase. Hope it works out for them.
Rolleiflex
3 months ago |LOL, obviously this is not funded by Sony so I don’t see how it is relevant. The cost of this endeavor is not that much. It certainly took a lot of time, trial and error.
MariusM
3 months ago |Innovative! I applaud their ingenuity and spirit to draw outside of the lines.
refinedsystems
3 months ago |apparently the engineers worldwide know to the desperation of the sony users looking for decent lenses
DiBok
3 months ago |I’m always amused by these tinkerers. Also I’m pretty impressed ny the amount of people having interest in this crap.
I’m comparing this with putting steel wheels of a 356 Porsche onto a 997…
SonyCyberPunk
3 months ago |Must I always be the voice of reason? Yep…
Just purchase the Sigma 19 & 30 2.8′s. Done.
Joel
3 months ago |If only Sony would allow for third party support of the on sensor PDAF. That would speed things up as the PDAF could cut down on the CDAF focus hunting. You are right these old lenses were never designed with focus hunting in mind but the groundwork is there for faster AF, if not as fast as contemporary lenses.
SQLGuy
3 months ago |“Not designed with focus hunting in mind”? How does AF work on a Contax G1 or G2? There are certainly reports of the G’s hunting.
Joel Richards
3 months ago |I said CDAF focus hunting. Different. The G cameras (at least the G1 which I briefly owned) used a PDAF type single point system arrange in a rangefinder fashion instead of being TTL like an SLR.
AquilaN
3 months ago |Greetings,
I cannot forgive them to disassemble so pretty Zeiss Biogon to put some non-kosher Lenitz Lens. It is unforgivable
Best regards, WZ.
Jason
3 months ago |Call me crazy, but I enjoy manually focusing my older glass on my NEX.
Kevin
3 months ago |my MF adapter for Contax g is not smooth and difficult to work with. Strongly considering trying this one out.
Kevin
3 months ago |BTW I do like MF on my Nikon to NEX adapter, but those lenses were intended to manually focus, unlike the Contax G lenses.
byhyew
3 months ago |Please, some credits to the holy Kpling, the lone Chinese amateur who’s made us the Canon EF-NEX, Contax G-NEX and now Leica-NEX adaptors.