# Not your off-the-shelf Canon 50/1.4 in Leica mount.



## BrianV (Dec 17, 2012)

This Canon 50mm F1.4 Fl mount lens started out life on a Canon Pellix. I put a 58/1.2 on the Pellix, sold the camera years ago. Remember when F1.2 Manual Focus lenses were $50 at camera shows? Before u43 cameras came out they were! Kept the 50/1.4 lens. FL mount lens are very well made, smooth operation, great optics. Stop-Down metering was their Achilles heel, which the FD mount corrected. I have the 50/1.4 SC on a Canon EF and the SSC on an F1.

Canon Camera Museum | Camera Hall - Lenses (FL Mount)

This one is now in Leica M-Mount, RF coupled. Stop-down metering is not an issue on an RF camera.





"Ingredients", 1 Canon 50/1.4 FL mount lens, 1 old leg from a broken tripod, 1 retaining ring from a parts Jupiter-3, a $40 FotoDiox Canon FD to Leica M-Mount adapter, and some tape.





Used a pipe-cutter to get the small extension tube, filed and sanded until it was ~14.75mm. Retaining ring fit onto the end of the tube, just the right diameter for an RF cam. This is the "Fit and Finish" part of the job. Required two iterations to get the thickness correct.


final "Shim" for focus to agree with the camera, two layers of industrial strength plastic tape (~0.08mm) between the tube and the cam.





Sharpie pen used to blacken the tape.


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## BrianV (Dec 17, 2012)

Dull, cloudy day today- not great for testing a "new" lens.

My fence-post is the first test target for my hacked lenses. Wide-open at F1.4, focus ~0.7m





Minimum RF coupled focus, about 0.65m. Also F1.4. It was really cloudy.





The 19th century graveyard in the Neighborhood, decorated for Christmas. No Poltergiest here...









All at F1.4. I'll stop down when it gets sunny.





The build quality on the FL series is "amazing". It is a big lens, uses 58mm filters. That is the hood from my 50/1.1 Nokton on it. It is about the same size.

Why do this?

It was easier than trying to make it meter wide-open on an SLR...


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## Patriot (Dec 18, 2012)

you have acquired many skills. Modding a lens seems like it takes loads of practice, and math. That wide open shots in the first and last photos are nice and smooth.


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## BrianV (Dec 18, 2012)

I found a comparison of "32 normal lenses" from the 70s. This lens matched the original Aspheric Noctilux 50/1.2 for Chromatic Aberration, and was 2nd to it for spherical aberration/focus shift. This is a big and long lens, I'm guessing the long optical path gave the designers this edge on performance. It will be interesting to use for black and white, given the very low CA.


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## BrianV (Dec 29, 2012)

Took the Canon 50/1.4 FL mount lens out today, on the Leica M Monochrom, model "10760". This is the first Monochrome digital camera made since the Kodak DCS760m, made over 10 years ago. I suspect the model number of the new camera is a namesake. This is the first week with the new camera, my first monochrome digital camera is 20 years old. This one is easier to use.

This is an expensive camera, no doubt. I paid for it be selling my "hacked lenses", mostly Jupiters and Sonnars. 

Wide-open, with a FL-B color correction filter to increase contrast for green.




M Monochrom with Canon 50/1.4 FL mount by 




M Monochrom with Canon 50/1.4 FL mount by 




M Monochrom with Canon 50/1.4 FL mount by 




M Monochrom with Canon 50/1.4 FL mount


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## BrianV (Dec 29, 2012)

Pictures taken at the marine Museum at Quantico, VA. The mannequins are modeled on volunteers at the Museum, from their younger days. Sometimes you look up and see the person that the mannequin is modeled after, from as many as 65 years before.


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## Balinus (Dec 30, 2012)

Nice pictures! tks for sharing.


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## gsgary (Dec 31, 2012)

BrianV said:


> Took the Canon 50/1.4 FL mount lens out today, on the Leica M Monochrom, model "10760". This is the first Monochrome digital camera made since the Kodak DCS760m, made over 10 years ago. I suspect the model number of the new camera is a namesake. This is the first week with the new camera, my first monochrome digital camera is 20 years old. This one is easier to use.
> 
> This is an expensive camera, no doubt. I paid for it be selling my "hacked lenses", mostly Jupiters and Sonnars.
> 
> ...




Damn you have a Monochrom great shots


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