• Welcome to Photrio!
    Registration is fast and free. Join today to unlock search, see fewer ads, and access all forum features.
    Click here to sign up

Is the Leica R a "real Leica" and more questions


This sort of post makes me wish this forum would allow 'Likes', so I have to post to say I like it.
 
Reza, as much as we love cameras, they're really only lens holders IMO. Yes the Leicaflex & R series are real camera.
Here's a period photo of an R3 etc. I'm sure the Apo-Telyt 180 was worth more than my car, and what's hanging around my neck was certainly my entire net worth. Leica glass is brilliant....whether it's '30s, '50s, '70s or todays....
 
anybody services leica R in the usa. i can fix my R7
 

Where did you find those jeans? Fabulous
 

The photo is a masterpiece! Frank Serpico borrowed Jerry Seinfeld's pirate shirt and stole some mum jeans. Let me see if I can counter that with one from my own archives.
 
At Leica Classic, there are currently 2 R3s for less than 200 EUR each, and one nice-looking R8 in all its "If Glock made cameras" glory for 500. And a later version 50mm Summicron for another 500. Leica image quality for the price of an iphone.
 
Which lenses, are they different from the others?
Nothing special - Summicron 50 mm f/2.0, Elmarit 90 mm f/2.8 and 135 mm f/2.8.

But I have always liked solid heavy metal lenses like these (similar, but a bit less heavy: Zeiss C/Y and Zeiss pre-war brass lenses for my Contax RF, and Canon FD TS 35 mm f/2.8).
 
I consider my 90mm f2.8 Elmarit pretty special. I like it with film and on my Sony A7RII 42mp it's a total knockout. I can't see how it could be any better. Of course I could have a outstanding example of a good lens.
 
Well the R lenses are all cased in metal. Even the worn ones, the "baseball bat" bargain special 75-200mm Vario Elmars you can pick up for the price of a modest steak dinner, have that special sturdiness, while the bodies from R4 onwards have that somewhat plastic-y prism casing which might be metal but feels less robust than the squared-off R3 one.
 
Just using my R7 and R3 MOT, plus four lenses. 50 f1.4, 55 f2.8 macro, 35-70 f 4 and 80-200 f 4.
 
If Minolta lenses are so great why are all the film makers paying thousand the R glass (driving the prices up) instead of buying Minolta lenses for $100 or less?
Some filmmakers are paying silly money for a few particular Canon FD lenses too, like the FD 24 F1.4L. I have seen that lens sell for between $5-6,000 now.
 
One thing not mentioned is that R lenses made by Minolta were made to Leica specifications. Ditto cameras -- my CL was made -- yes -- by Minolta, but 50 years on and a couple trips to the shop and a cupla drops, hey it's still going strong. I was worried once it was wearing out so bought a second body and as soon as the first does, eventually, deign to wear out, I'll use the second but so far it just sits.

Meter still works too!

Some of the Leica lenses that started out in Japan ended up being upgraded by Leitz so much they could legally say they are made in Germany. The 24mm Elmarit R, for example. I saw one report by a Leica writer who saw a whole pallet of them sitting in Solms, being sent back to Japan because they didn't meet spec. They were probably sold as Minolta lenses.

So, yeah, they're real Leicas.
 
While some bodies and lenses had Minolta (and Kyocera and Seiko) DNA, many R products were thoroughbred Leica. From 1968 to 1990s many things changed.
 
While some bodies and lenses had Minolta (and Kyocera and Seiko) DNA, many R products were thoroughbred Leica. From 1968 to 1990s many things changed.

minolta bodies are more reliable by far compared to redesigns.
 
While some bodies and lenses had Minolta (and Kyocera and Seiko) DNA, many R products were thoroughbred Leica. From 1968 to 1990s many things changed.

Another reason I enjoyed my new book so much, as it outlines all these matters in detail, including the wider situation of the European camera market, the developments in Japan, Portugal and Canada.
 
I've used an R6/7, as well as the Leicaflex series (all of them) in the past. In my mind, R3-R7 were just like any of the Japanese counterparts. As a practical matter, an R7 is pretty just an F3, ect. Not surprising since there was some Minolta involvement with these R cameras. The really "true" Leica SLR's, with unique DNA, are the Leicaflex series and the R8/9 -- pretty unique from what was out there. The original Leicaflex is an M3 in SLR form, overbuilt to the max, the SL/2 have big, bold and beautiful viewfinders, and the hunchbacks are ergonomic masterpieces.
 

I enjoy shooting the Leicaflex CL. Great camera. After all those years speeds are pretty close. Even over 500 to 200.
But I am a sucker for 80-90s black cameras. The R7 paint is outstanding.
 
Not sure whether R series are "painted" (I doubt so). I think they are all "black chrome" (for want of a better expression), and Leica, if I recall from one of the R books, while not having "invented" the process, vastly improved it.
 
Not sure whether R series are "painted" (I doubt so). I think they are all "black chrome" (for want of a better expression), and Leica, if I recall from one of the R books, while not having "invented" the process, vastly improved it.

There is nothing wrong with calling it black chrome, it's chrome plating that is black, different from chrome that is silver, the change is made by modifying the electrolyte. Black chrome goes back to the 1960's so was being used long before Leica used it on their cameras.
 
It was in response to Radost's post. Rs are not "painted". Its black chrome which wears down differently than black paint.

Leica did not invent black chrome, but I am quite sure I read about the R series black chrome which was a new process which led to a more durable finish.