Bessa L with Nikon lens?

[KarmaToBurn]

I'm thinking of picking up a Bessa L and am curious to know if anybody is using one with a Nikon F --> 39mm screw mount adapter and a Nikon lens? I have a Nikkor 24mm f2.8 non-ai that I would like to try on the Bessa body. Is there any reason not to do this or why it wouldn't work? Will the body be able to meter as usual?

 

[FrankS]

All good. Go for it.

 

[BillBingham2]

Should not be an issue in any way.

B2 (;->

 

[Larry H-L]

Meter should work, I can't think of a reason it wouldn't.

 

[KarmaToBurn]

Good news 🙂 Thanks for the confirmation so I can fuel my GAS 😛

 

[KarmaToBurn]

Sooo. Got my Bessa L and a Fotodiox adapter and there were a few issues.

First the Nikkor 24mm would not mount with the adapter because the tab near the rear element was hitting the inside of the adapter. I fixed that problem with a little bit of grinding on the inside of the adapter.

The current issue is that the screw thread is super tight in the Bessa body. I can't screw it in all the way and that's after stripping the powdercoating off of the adapter threads and making sure everything was super clean. As it is it still has two full threads outside of the camera body. Will this work ok as is or will there be any issues based on the increased distance of the lens to the body?

Here's a shot of how it looks now...

 

[FrankS]

That's a problem because it throws off the focus. If it were an sir, it would be okay.

edit: with the large DOF of a 24mm lens, slightly off focus is ameliorated.

 

[rfaspen]

Problem if you want to (a) use the focus distance markings on the lens for scale focus, and (b) want to be able to focus to infinity.

In my opinion, this is very much a problem because the whole endeavor is to have a fully functional scale-focus camera.

Obviously, you've thought of this, but can you check the Bessa's threads with an LTM lens? Determine if the problem is with the camera's mount or the adapter...

Likely the problem is with the adapter. Needless to say, the Chinese adapters are known for substantial variation, so the solution might be another adapter -- perhaps try a different "brand" too.

 

[KarmaToBurn]

Thanks for the quick feedback guys!

Using a thin lubricant on the adapter threads I managed to get another full rotation tighter (actual 1.5 rotations but that put the aperture and focus distance readings on the bottom of the lens so I backed off a half rotation).

I wish I could try the camera mount with an LTM lens but I unfortunately don't have one or access to one. I do agree that the problem is likely to be the adapter and I may order a cheap one off of ebay to see if it has the same issue.

I'll put a roll through this setup this weekend and report back with the results 😉

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

I'll put a roll through this setup this weekend and report back with the results 😉

And? Did it work?

AFAIK, if one wants to use Nikon SLR-lenses on a Leica mount body, an old Novoflex «LeiNik» is the most reliable adapter solution that doesn't cost a fortune.

edit: see also http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1287764&highlight=LeiNik#post1287764