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I've read plenty about Leica's f/.95 noctilux lens, and the thing is, that Canon's f/.95 dream lens for whatever reason doesn't even come close.

I'd love to use noctilux one day, but I would hate to buy an M8/M9 body for it. I've seen canon adapters for leica R lenses, but as for noctilux, people are modifying the bodies to get it.

Is there any way you could use Leica 50mm f.95 noctilux together with canon 5d3 body without extensively modifying it? I'm mostly looking for some sort of adapter, which would let me do that

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You'd have to wonder why people would go as far as sawing off the front of their DSLR if there was another way to do it!

M rangefinder lenses are designed to sit closer to the film/sensor than an SLR body allows, hence the need to saw off the front to get them to work.

Any simple adaptor would place the lens too far away, and you wouldn't be able to focus on anything further than a few centimetres away, as the lens would be projecting a sharp image way in front of your sensor. You can correct the focus distance optically, but this would severely degrade the quality of the image.

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As per your question and the answer you already got, you know that the lens has to be mounted closer to the sensor and you show some reluctance in chopping parts of your body. So what remains is to consider how close can you get:

  1. Canon EF 50mm F/1.2: Same field of view. Pricey but not when you compare it to the Leica F/0.95. No need to break or buy a camera either. The quality is awesome. You do lose a slight amount of light gathering ability and gain a bit of DOF. Of you course the 5D Mark III has excellent low-light performance, so it is the shallow DOF that is the true loss here.

  2. The Leica F/0.95 you wanted on a Fuji X-E1. Sets you back $1200 including the Leica-M to Fuji-X adapter. You get to use your dream lens with a reduced field-of-view and slightly larger depth-of-field but same light gathering ability.

  3. The Voigtlander Nokton 25mm F/0.95 on Micro-Four-Thirds camera like the Olympus OM-D E-M5 which has the highest image quality of its peers. The lens sets you back $900 and the camera $1000 or down to $600 for lower-end models. With the 2X FLM of MFT, you get the exact same field of view as you would on the 5D and the same light gathering ability. You'll have to work out how the DOF compare but should be close since the lens is shorter but the sensor is smaller.

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    \$\begingroup\$ man the X-E1 with the Leica lens, that could be a sweet setup! (Let me check the bank account.... nope!) Hey Santa???? \$\endgroup\$
    – Paul Cezanne
    Commented Oct 15, 2012 at 15:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ Firstly, never before heard anyone talk about gaining depth of field in reference to the EF 50 f/1.2! Secondly it's only a matter of time before Sony release a full frame NEX mount camera, and everyone who's lusted after a Leica but couldn't afford one has their prayers answered! \$\endgroup\$
    – Matt Grum
    Commented Oct 16, 2012 at 0:02

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