Anyone tried those Chinese LTM-M adapters?

[Rob-F]

I mean the $19.95 ones on eBay. I wonder-- are they precision made? I'd rather go for the CV ones if there is anything cheap or inferior about the ones that come out of Shanghai. Who has tried one?

 

[javimm]

I haven't used them, but when facing the decision of buying my adapters, I decided to go with the CV ones. The chinese adapters have a lot of variance in their quality, and you can find one that works fine, but others that doesn't even mount the lens. Those who do manage to mount the lens can have the wrong thickness, and that'll lead to incorrect focus.

Bottom line, too much risk and hassle.

 

[Lilserenity]

I'm sure lots of people have success with the non-CV adapters but I have heard of plenty of people who have had trouble and then ended up having to buy the CV ones, which works out more expensive having had to buy both.

The CV ones seem a lot of money but they do work very well without any problems.

 

[noimmunity]

Somebody just posted an unhappy story with a "cheap" adapter on the ZM section of the forum.

Heck, there are people who won't even buy CV because of micro variations in the thickness of the adapters that do cause some focus problems on certain lenses...

But you could always buy one and try it cautiously...

 

[hans voralberg]

I was given one and use it on my Nikkor 85/2, amazingly it focus correctly

 

[photo4ls]

Adapters

Adapters

I have one of the CV units and I also have one from
Heavystar on ebay and it works just fine. Needless to say
I new going in that I was taking a chance, but I had dealt
w/this seller before and maybe I got lucky. I don't know if
I would risk it again if I needed another one. I have not
heard anything bad about the CV units and mine works just
as it should.

Nelson

 

[fidget]

I bought a couple of the adapters from China. I used them on my Bessa R2. They cost about $5 each, excluding post.
They worked fine, although I have no idea if the notch would bring up the right frame lines on a camera which used them. They were machined with sharper edges than perhaps a better variant, but they worked just fine.
If you're going to buy some from China/Hong Kong, get the cheap ones, even the dearer versions will probably be the same......

 

[Tom A]

I have a couple of the chinese adapters - and, yes, they are cheap compared to the CV/leica ones and out of the three I have, 2 worked fine and the 3rd one had the plating put on too thick and also flaking badly. I used it on an old Jupiter 85f2 and it did "kick" in the 90 frame, but it took some work with a files and a steel brush to clean up the threads enough to go on the Jupiter! Once on - it wants to stay there and I now have a m-mount Jupiter 85!! Oh, well, the total cost for the lens and adapter came to less than $25 - so who cares.
I would not hesitate to use them on wide angles as the depth of filed would more than offset the minimal focus shift imposed by the thicker or uneven plating. For long and fast lenses (85f1.5 Canon/Nikon, Summarex f1.5, 90f2 Summicron) I would spend the money for either a CV or a Leica adapter.

 

[John Lawrence]

I got some a while ago but the quality was very poor and they didn't bring up the framelines. In the end I went for second hand Leica ones. I understand that one of the top Leica repairers / restorers recommends the CV ones to his customers.

 

[Al Kaplan]

If you run across some used Spiratone or Accura adapters made in Japan back in the 60's
grab 'em. I've never heard of one that wouldn't focus correctly.

 

[raid]

I have several Leica made adapters, so I never had the problem to look for an adapter. When I bought a Leica outfit, the seller included several adapters with the M3.

In one of my lens comparison marathons, photos came out way too fuzzy [unsharp] when I used a Bessa T with 25 lenses. It turned out that the mismatched lens-adapter occured with a non-Leica adapter that somehow sneaked into my ownership. Since then, I exclude any non-Leica adapters.

 

[crawdiddy]

I bought a complete set of 3 off *bay. From Macau. The set cost about $18 including shipping. They seem to work fine.

I also bought a used Leica 50-75mm for about $80.

I approached it as a bit of a crap shoot. You never know if you'll get good ones or bad, but they're so cheap, it's not terribly risky.

 

[sanmich]

I have a couple of the chinese adapters - and, yes, they are cheap compared to the CV/leica ones and out of the three I have, 2 worked fine and the 3rd one had the plating put on too thick and also flaking badly. I used it on an old Jupiter 85f2 and it did "kick" in the 90 frame, but it took some work with a files and a steel brush to clean up the threads enough to go on the Jupiter! Once on - it wants to stay there and I now have a m-mount Jupiter 85!! Oh, well, the total cost for the lens and adapter came to less than $25 - so who cares.
I would not hesitate to use them on wide angles as the depth of filed would more than offset the minimal focus shift imposed by the thicker or uneven plating. For long and fast lenses (85f1.5 Canon/Nikon, Summarex f1.5, 90f2 Summicron) I would spend the money for either a CV or a Leica adapter.

I was recently wandering about this equation: Wrong adapter thickness = wrong focus. I reached the following conclusion: The wrong thickness moves the whole lens from its right position, including the ring that pushes the RF roller. It shoud thus still be indicating the right focus (the roller is pushed just by the amount coresponding to the lens optical position.). The only problem would be at the extremes: infinity or close focusing, the lens could stop before or after the point it was meant to.
Of course that suppose that the adapter thickness is at least uniform (or else the lens sits with an angle)
Does that make sens??

 

[peterm1]

I had a similar experience with M42 to 4/3 adapters I needed to mount my Takumar lenses on a Panasonic L1. I bought one cheap cast metal one and found it was the wrong thickness. So, dopey me, I bought another that looked different but was much the same price......And much the same story. So then I bought a proper fabricated one rather than the cheap castings. It was double the price but these things were so cheap that it was still really only a few bucks more. This one worked. It is pot luck but you probably do not have much to lose and you could luck out.

 

[whickus]

I was recently wandering about this equation: Wrong adapter thickness = wrong focus. I reached the following conclusion: The wrong thickness moves the whole lens from its right position, including the ring that pushes the RF roller. It shoud thus still be indicating the right focus (the roller is pushed just by the amount coresponding to the lens optical position.). The only problem would be at the extremes: infinity or close focusing, the lens could stop before or after the point it was meant to.
Of course that suppose that the adapter thickness is at least uniform (or else the lens sits with an angle)
Does that make sens??

the problem is that it doesn't affect the rangfinder focusing mechanism. it still indicates correct focus, but the lens is moved farther/closer from/to the film plane which throws off the focus. you can see this effect realtime through the viewfinder of an slr, but you can't on a rangefinder.

 

[Al Kaplan]

It's more complicated than just the thickness. A lot of lenses have a slanted cam pressing on the rangefinder roller. If the lens isn't screwed in to orient the cam correctly in relation to the roller it jes' ain't gonna work. Some of those adapters might not have their threads starting/ending in the correct place and it'll give a wrong focus. Some lenses have the cam inside and the surface contacting the roller just moves straight in and out. Then there are those that DO have the internal cam but there's still a bit of cam ground into the brass ring in the rear to "fine-tune" for the exact focal length of that particular lens. Those ain't gonna work either.

One big advantage of a bayonet mount lens is the precise way it will orient the lens to the rangefinder roller. You lose this advantage with any thread mount, whether in the camera or in the adapter.

 

[sepiareverb]

I had a Chinese one on a Summitar that wasn't quite right- it worked fine and focus was good, but never lined up right- the aperture mark was over to the left when using the camera.

 

[George S.]

I bought a couple of them (from China) and they all worked well, but one that I bought was supposed to activate the 50-75 frames and it would only bring up the 90 frame -IIRC - (on every body I tested it on). It WAS marked 50/75 but this marking was an obvious error. Researching the seller's feedback showed 1 or 2 others also had this problem. Must have been a bad batch. The seller offered to take it back, but shipping cost was more than the adapter's, so I sold it as a 90. I ordered a new 50, and the one that arrived was pure brass, no plating, and I was surprised, but it also works fine.

If you're doing ebay just be forewarned.