Mounting Nikkor SLR-lenses to M

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Rodluvan

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Hello!

Is there any adapter which I can use to mount my Nikkor's (Ai and Ais) to my Leica M3? I'm guessing I can only use 50mm, 90 and 135.

Cheers,
Daniel
 
Rodluvan said:
Is there any adapter which I can use to mount my Nikkor's (Ai and Ais) to my Leica M3? I'm guessing I can only use 50mm, 90 and 135.
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There are actually a number of adapters. One of them is the Novoflex LEINIK adapter from Nikon F mount to M39; use this with a LTM-M adapter ring and you can mount any F lens on an M Leica. Another adapter directly to M mount is (or used to be) sold by Cameraquest.

You can use any focal lens, but there are framelines only for 50, 90 and 135. Focusing is possible only using the lens' focusing scale, the rangefinder won't work, which may result in rather tedious operation.

Philipp
 
Rodluvan said:
Hello!

Is there any adapter which I can use to mount my Nikkor's (Ai and Ais) to my Leica M3? I'm guessing I can only use 50mm, 90 and 135.

Cheers,
Daniel
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I have a very nicely made mount that allows you to mount any Nikon SLR lens to the M body. I bought it a number of years ago and it was quite useful. Since then I have acquired all the M lenses I need (or want). I think I paid $200 USD, if your interested you can have it for $150 plus shipping.
 
I had a friend in college in the 60's that had one for his M's and used the circular fisheye. Worked great. There are plenty of superb wide lenses in Nikon mount like the 13mm ( ultra expensive), 14mm 2.8, 15mm, 16mm full frame fisheye, 18mm, a great 20mm and the finest fisheye lenses ever made including the 6mm f8 and 2.8 ( ultra expensive). Scale focus on the wides is no problem and finders for most would be easy to find.

Nikon bodies are so cheap now why spend more money on an adapter when you can buy a really nice body and focus your lenses accurately for less money. You can probably find a nice FM or something similar for well under a hundred dollars. I bought a nice clean and working FTN Nikkormat with a soft case and a very nice 24mm 2.8 nikkor for $60. By the way the 24mm 2.8 is a stellar lens by any standard.
 
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x-ray said:
Nikon bodies are so cheap now why spend more money on an adapter when you can buy a really nice body and focus your lenses accurately for less money. You can probably find a nice FM or something similar for well under a hundred dollars. I bought a nice clean and working FTN Nikkormat with a soft case and a very nice 24mm 2.8 nikkor for $60. By the way the 24mm 2.8 is a stellar lens by any standard.
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I have a Nikon FM and the 24mm 2.8, but I want to go rangefinder and Leica. But since this is a hobby (in which I've spent far to much money buying the Nikon gear), I can't justify spending the amount of money a Leica/Zeiss-lens is demanding.
 
Beemermark said:
I have a very nicely made mount that allows you to mount any Nikon SLR lens to the M body. I bought it a number of years ago and it was quite useful. Since then I have acquired all the M lenses I need (or want). I think I paid $200 USD, if your interested you can have it for $150 plus shipping.
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Sound interesting. Where do you live?
 
I looked up info on these adapters, they were all quite expensive. I thought I could give my Nikkor 28mm f/2 a try on my Leica, but for $250 I can just buy a nice VC wideangle.
 
I own several adapters to mount Nikkor AI/AIS lenses both on Leica M or LTM mount. In Italy there are some artisans that built these lens adapters. In any case, they allow only the hyperfocal focusing distance (with infinity focus capability) and work well only with the wideangle lenses.
Ciao.
Vincenzo
 
Like I stated earlier I have a nicely made Nikon AI to Leica M adapter for $150 plus shipping. I take Paypal and will suck up the fee. The only drawback is that it doesn't RF couple but I used it with wide angle lenses where focusing isn't much of an issue. I used it with my Nikon 20 (with a 21 finder) and a 16 fisheye which is pretty much point and shoot.

Email is either Beemermark@hotmail or Mark.Bergman@ge.com in the US of A.
 
It's probably still easier to use a Nikon SLR body. The size is more or less the same (the adapter is as thick as the mirror box by definition) and you get little amenities such as focusing, exact field-of-view control and eventually light metering.
 
I've got a Nikon F to Leica L39 adaptor, made by Voigtlander so I can mount my 15mm Heliar SL on my Leica.

As rxmd says, it is indeed rather impractical to use. You have to scale focus, so it is only realistically worthwhile with ultra wides. With the Voigtlander SL, it is fairly comfortable to use because the lens projects so little from the body. In my case, at the time I got the lens the SL was much cheaper than the L39 Heliar, and I wasn't sure if I'd end up keeping a Leica system, so it made sense to get the lens and the adaptor.

With any other Nikon lens (maybe not the 21mm Nikkor-O, which is similar in form to the Voigtlander SL? But then if you own one of those, a black paint F to mount it on is going to be nothing..), the lens is really out of proportion with the body, plus you need to get an external finder, etc. I would say the value for money is incredibly low, I paid I think 60,000 yen for mine, about £30 then, and I wouldn't pay more, especially when good Nikon bodies are so cheap these days.
 
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I can't imagine why you would want to put Nikon F lenses on a Leica. It sort of defeats the purpose with no rangefinder coupling.

You can probably get a gorgeous Nikon FE or FM on eBay for around $100. A classic, small, beautiful camera.

I wish they'd put a full frame digital sensor in a recreation of the Nikon FE2 and just leave it at that, with no further gee-gaws or embellishments.
 
I got a FE2 a few years ago, and it became my workhorse camera for Nikkor lenses. There is a place for certain things.
 
seems like a good deal for specialty uses, but a novel solution. Just a few weeks ago I got a user F3, and 28/2.8 Nikkor for less than the adapter prices, but it would be fun to try an adapter with my first generation 43-86 zoom, if such a finder were available.
 
Thank you for all the advice and offers.
I've thought some about it and looked up some prices and I'm leaving the idea. Too many drawbacks really.

I love using my Nikon FM (and a FM2n is on it's way) so I get the film feeling anyway. Now I want to find a lens for the leica.

I've been looking into the 90mm Elmarit, they really don't cost that much (which is strange). The length is somewhat awkward though, but I figure I can use it for candids plus the extra length gives me somewhat of a shallow DOF which I like.
 
A few years ago, Cameraquest was selling adapters with non coupled rangefinder focusing to mount Nikkor lenses on Leica M bodies. The adapter was equipped with a distance ring coupled to the camera the rangefinder through the usual cam. In order to focus, one had to rotate the adapter's ring until the rangefinder image was in coincidence, then the distance read on the adapter was reported to the distance ring of the lens.

Clever contraption! Maybe these adapters are now available elsewhere?

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
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