Leica Noctilux-M 50/1

The legendary "Queen of the Night" lens that Dr Mandler created in the 1980s for Leica M cameras, can only focus down to 1 meter. Normally. (While the other one, the Summilux-M 50/1.4 V2 [Pre-ASHP, 1961-2004] made it down to 0.7 meter. As did the Summicron-M 50/2

But the Noctilux 50/1 - as i said, makes it only down to 1 meter.

The reason was/is likely because the optical quality with this lens starts slightly to degrade below 1.5 meter. If you designed it with a closer min focus distance, say 0.5 or 0.7 meter - it would drop very quickly further down the hill - to a level which for Leica back in the 80s wasn't acceptable. (The "Mandler" Leica Noctilux-M 50/1 from the 1980s has neither aspherical nor floating lens elements).

Despite the long min focus distance - doesn't mean you can't get closer. At least with other brand cameras it is possible via an adapter with built-in helicoid.

Suddenly - the lens becomes more flexible, and with certain motives you can get a flair of magic ! Which doesn't suit all kinds of motives, though. At wide open aperture ƒ1 - things can sometimes look cheap, tacky, or remind of a plain bad, cheap lens.

The motive, shape and light conditions are the crucial components. (Tips: Just test, play and have fun with it: And see what works, and what doesn't).

Affordable adapter with built-in helicoid

My option was an unusual affordable (39 €) Leica M to Canon RF adapter from Akirood, allowing me to adapt the Leica M lenses to Canon EOS R type of cameras. But this adapter also has a 4 mm helicoid built in - which means you can go closer than 1 meter (down to i believe 50 cm)

Guess what ? The adapter works very well (for the "loose" work i am doing, which isn't about clinical sharpness) But yeah, the adapter is cool. I bought a similar for Leica M to Sony (A7s) back in 2015 - which was much more expensive. It isn't unusual that you encounter prices around 200 €.

Yet, I don't really thing that is necessary.

The main photo above

showing a leaf of my funny looking Monstera - shows you that the otherwise very conservative Leica Noctilux-M 50/1 can focus much closer, and that magical ƒ1 aperture mystic continues and gets even stronger. In images where sharpness isn't the primary point - you can truly create some magical images.

In all its simplicity, you know.

Speaking of MIN focus (Noctilux)

It seems to me that the Akirood adapter goes even closer than 50 cm with the Leica Noctilux-M 50/1 mounted on my Canon EOS R6 camera. Kind of like 37-42 cm i feels like. Definitely closer than 50 cm !

Wow.