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Perfect camera for vintage lenses

,
A very interesting thought. Perhaps it would not be a "big" manufacturer. There are many companies making "niche" products.

If there were such a thing, what type of mount would you suggest it have? Perhaps a recognized SLR mount (even one not today very popular), on to which various kinds of adapters could easily be fitted?

I would suggest the shortest possible flange focal distance instead of using any of available mounts + making money from selling adapters for other mounts. Sell it as an open platform and marketing the adapters as fast and safe so one adapter would be for one lens.

Leica builds cameras for vintage MF lenses. What do I have to explain? A large proportion of their rangefinder lenses were designed in the 50s-60s and they are all MF.

But is a bit too old school (technologically): no IBIS, no sensor cleaning, no good EVF, optical finder doesn't work with adapted lenses, price. They look good but as a tool I would imagine something else these days.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Leica builds cameras for vintage MF lenses. What do I have to explain? A large proportion of their rangefinder lenses were designed in the 50s-60s and they are all MF.


............



...........But is a bit too old school (technologically): no IBIS, no sensor cleaning, no good EVF, optical finder doesn't work with adapted lenses, price. They look good but as a tool I would imagine something else these days.


Then you would love my favorite camera: a curved film plane simple camera with just two engraved lines indicating “angle of view” and no viewfinder at all. It does have AF! However, as you wish, the following, (without regret), are boldly dispensed with:



  • Viewfinder
  • IBIS
  • AF
  • Sensor Cleaning
  • Battery
  • Modernity


......but it does take surprisingly good pictures



27860001MyBestTree.jpg


© 2007 Asher Kelman My Favorite Tree, Los Angeles 2007



It’s a simple camera made by Mottweiller, and a pleasure to use!

.......but try as I might, I have found no way to add vintage lenses

Asher
 
Not exactly cheap, no evf (focusing by guessing distance with 1.4 lenses on medium format hell yeah ;-) ) and I think that Medium Format is a bit too big for some FF lenses so vinieting might be a problem.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Not exactly cheap, no evf (focusing by guessing distance with 1.4 lenses on medium format hell yeah ;-) ) and I think that Medium Format is a bit too big for some FF lenses so vinieting might be a problem.

Dawid,

These choices by Jerome are fabulous! No EVF, but really, you do not need it! You haveceyes and a steady hand and a brain that easilly can form a pretty accurate set of angle and position forcyoyr camera thatcaligning tgecshot you will learn to be second nature.

I literally used to shoot, surreptitiously, from the hip, pretending to be interested in something else. Most of my framing was close to perfect.

As to vignetting, that is not necessarily a problem as you can correct in the darkroom by dodging and burning, or else in Photoshop, built for that task!

Actually, in many impressive images, some minimal vignetting helps to focus attention on the main subject. Even, uniform lighting and focus is the enemy of great photography, in many circumstances!

Asher
 
Dawid,

These choices by Jerome are fabulous! No EVF, but really, you do not need it! You haveceyes and a steady hand and a brain that easilly can form a pretty accurate set of angle and position forcyoyr camera thatcaligning tgecshot you will learn to be second nature.

I literally used to shoot, surreptitiously, from the hip, pretending to be interested in something else. Most of my framing was close to perfect.

As to vignetting, that is not necessarily a problem as you can correct in the darkroom by dodging and burning, or else in Photoshop, built for that task!

Actually, in many impressive images, some minimal vignetting helps to focus attention on the main subject. Even, uniform lighting and focus is the enemy of great photography, in many circumstances!

Asher

The thing is that I'm not looking for a new camera. It's just a fantasy project ;-) "it would be great if..."

With Fujifilm XT2, speedbooster and manual Minolta MD (IV) 50mm 1.4 I'm able to shoot my (fast moving) kids without any problems and on single shoot.

kyZ1oRU.jpg


r170GKU.jpg
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Not exactly cheap, no evf (focusing by guessing distance with 1.4 lenses on medium format hell yeah ;-) ) and I think that Medium Format is a bit too big for some FF lenses so vinieting might be a problem.
and
The thing is that I'm not looking for a new camera.

Then the price of that alpa-phase1 combination is not a problem, is it? BTW: I just tried to find a camera that would fit your description, especially the "shortest possible flange focal distance" part... I hope you don't mind if it was not exactly what you had in mind.
 
and


Then the price of that alpa-phase1 combination is not a problem, is it? BTW: I just tried to find a camera that would fit your description, especially the "shortest possible flange focal distance" part... I hope you don't mind if it was not exactly what you had in mind.

But if such camera would exist for lets say 1000€ I would buy it this second.

;-)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I have not checked, but I suppose that if you need to ask the price you should not buy that camera.



Jerome,

You are a witty fellow!

I recycle my camera inventory and right now I am going to be choosing certain vintage lenses to sell. I was thinking of having a more portable camera for a more active romance with a few beloved exotic lenses.

I can buy whatever I want, if it’s available at a price that sort of matches what I plan to sell anyway! In this class of camera gear, one is not really spending money so much as making it temporarily unavailable!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Dawid,

I am grateful that you brought this subject up as I have neglected a lot of really special lenses and your challenge, albeit a dream, got me thinking of doing that myself!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
David,

I have adapters for an Eos Mount on the backnof my 4x5 Large format cameras. This allows either single frames with the lens projecting to the center of the 4x5 frame or overlapping stitching of multiple adjacent frames.

I could also acquire the same kind of adapter to be able to mount my 50MP GFX camera instead. The advantage is that the diameter of the MF lens mount is larger than the analogous Eos opening and the sensor is higher up in the well. This decreases that shadow caused by the angle of the light rays when the back mounted camera is shifted to one side or other of the LF frame. With the Eos, one has to crop a large penumbra, (shadow of the ring edge), from each frame taken in an extremely lateral shifted position.

This issue should be greatly ameliorated with the use of the MF camera!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Revisiting this thread, I believe today that the Sony A7 FE Mount with full frame sensor offers

  1. Image stabilization
  2. Can be used with almost any vintage 35 mm camera lens
  3. Leica lenses can acquire AF with a newly available adapter, Eos lenses with Metabones adapters
  4. An A7II is now available used or newxat reduced prices

Vintage lenses can be adapted today to many digital cameras including Canon, Nikon, Fuji XT and GFX and even the Ricoh GXR with its Leica module.

So I doubt we need to have an entirely new camera for vintage 35mm lenses!


Asher
 
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