I'm ready to receive a huge flaming for this question...

Has anyone here ever used a T4 mount on a Leicaflex SL to allow third party lenses to be used. I'd love a decent size telephoto but money isn't in abundance at the moment. If anyone has and is willing to admit it what lenses did you buy and were they any good?

Hope I haven't offended too many of you with this outrageous suggestion

-- Philip Woodcock (phil@pushbar.demon.co.uk), January 28, 2002

Answers

The tele's from the T4 era are pretty lousy, and that mounting system is a bit on the flimsy side. How about a Tamron adaptall with Leica adapter instead? They made some decent lenses, including the excellent multicoated SP series ones that seem to always be available on ebay for a decent price. I use a 35 to 85 Tamron adaptall SP on my Nikon that I had bought for a Leica reflex. After I got rid of the R camera, I sold the Leica mount, and got a Nikon AI mount. Lovely lens with real 1/2 lifesize macro. Their 300mm f5.6 is a good (but slow) compact sharp tele.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 28, 2002.

I agree with Andrew. Those old lenses are pretty bad. I had a vivitar 400f5.6 with the T4. It was pretty bad. I also agree with his Tamron assesment. I used an 80-200f2.8 for some time when money was tight. It was my primary racing photography lens for a few years, with a Nikon F3. It isn't a bad lens at all, and you can get one for about $300.00 used. You can see one of the photos taken with this setup at...

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=546228

-- Lance Goins (goinsphoto@hotmail.com), January 28, 2002.

I have the Adaptall R mounts and they are basically "3rd-cam-only" so do not meter on the Leicaflexes.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), January 28, 2002.