Canon 50mm F0.95 "Dream Lens"

My dream is about to come true. Just waiting on the M adapter to try it out...

 

Heh... That thing is going to dwarf the 5n. Not only need pictures from it, need pictures of it while on the camera!

 

I can imagine. The 7 was still an LTM camera. But this big honkin' f0.95 lens would put a strain on the threads, and the lens dwarfed the mount point. Even then, the lens being so heavy, if you turned the focus to the end, all that weight would probably start to turn the lens off the camera. So instead of a thread mount they added a bayonet type mount, and the original lenses have a set of tabs on either side that need to be hooked into the camera, which added stability, and kept the lens from twisting. But the lens could only be used on the 7 series. They did also make a TV version of the lens.

This lens has been converted to M-mount already, and appears to still have the RF coupling (But not 6-bit encoded). I don't have an M-mount RF camera to test that part out. I'd take it to the local camera store, but they don't let you try out the Leica's in the store like you can with the other cameras. I wonder why?

So I await my Hawk's adapter with bated breath. I looked at the other M-mount adapters, including the cheaper helicoid clones. But with the f0.95 being so big, I thought I'd better go with the adapter that has the extended tab when dealing with close focusing. I ordered both the adapter and a cheap-o lens cap last week (Can't believe the guy didn't have a lens cap on this when he shipped it). Both had an earliest estimated arrival of the end of next week However, the cap arrived today, so maybe the adapter won't take as long either.

 

Got a note from the Post Office that I have a package I need to sign for. Looks like I get to pick up the adapter tomorrow morning! Yay!!

 

Bad news. The lens won't mount on the adapter. Haven't figured out what's going on just yet. I doubt it's the adapter, but you never know.

 

OK... Here's what I think I have figured out. Helps to have a picture of an unmodified lens...



The inside barrel of the lens has four little "tabs" that appear to go inside of the 39mm LTM opening of the Canon 7/7s/7sz cameras they were originally designed for. The outer bayonet locked onto the lens mount ring on the camera.

What I was seeing was those four little tabs hitting the edge of the adapter. I took both the lens and the adapter to a local camera store that occasionally has some Leica gear, to see if they had either an M-mount lens, or a body I could try it on. They had neither. But they did have a M-mount->MFT adapter, and my lens wouldn't mount on it either.

I was looking around the net for adapted f0.95 lenses, and some seem to still have that ring with the four tabs and some don't. So they don't appear to be necessary. I was wondering if I could possibly grind them down, or cut them off, but the odds of doing that and not ruining the back element didn't sound very good. If I had the tools and knowledge to disassemble the lens and work on that individual part, maybe.

But if the adapter is mimicking the original mount, perhaps the tabs on my lens are just a little too far out. So I wonder if the safest fix is to take a pair of needle-nosed pliers and bend the tabs in to clear the opening on the adapter. I will give that a try when I get a chance this week. So little time for the fun stuff... sigh.

 

No - It's definitely an M-mount. The bayonet dropped in right where it should, but it just wouldn't go in deep enough to allow the bayonet to turn and lock on. I could also see where two of tabs were slightly inside the edge and scraped against the adapter. The other two are just inside the edge. It's hard to tilt the adapter once the bayonet slides in, but I looks like the tabs would go inside the mount if they were a mm or less closer to the lens.