Close focussing LTM Nikkor SC 50mm f/1.4?

[vdonovan]

Hi friends,

I bought a Nikkor SC 50/1.4 LTM to use on my Leica iiiF.

Of course it's great, but I see that this lens has the ability to focus all the way down to 18 inches. The Leica iii rangefinder doesn't seem able to focus this close.

Is the Nikon S2 rangefinder camera able to focus down to 18" with this lens? Is there an accessory (like for the dual range Summicron)? How is this lens used?

With thanks,
Vince

 

[dourbalistar]

I'm not sure about the S-mount version, but I have the 50/1.4's LTM sibling the Nikkor-H.C 5cm f/2, which shares the same close focus ability. I believe that in the close focusing range, it's not coupled with the rangefinder, so you'd have to measure the focus distance. Adapted to digicams, you can use live view. Here's an adapted digital example, used with the Voigtlander VM-E close focus adapter for a bit more macro extension.


2016-03-30 11.41.18 1 by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[jonmanjiro]

Is the Nikon S2 rangefinder camera able to focus down to 18" with this lens?

Is there an accessory (like for the dual range Summicron)?

How is this lens used?

The Nikon S2 is S-mount, not LTM. Your lens cannot be mounted on an S2. FWIW the Nikon S2 can only focus down to 0.9 meters (3 ft) and the limitation is on the camera, not the lens.

No accessory.

The lens is used by... guessing. That detent at about 1 meter is there to indicate you're about to lose focus coupling as you focus closer.

That said, the lens can be modified for closer focus coupling on M-mount cameras that can focus couple down to about 0.7 meters (your Leica IIIf maxes out at about 1 meter - hence the detent on the lens for LTM cameras). See here:

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163042

 

[WJJ3]

One trick is to adjust your camera strap to measure the minimum focus distance of your lens. I adjust mine so it’s 45cm (the Nikkor 5cm LTM’s MFD) from the base of my camera to roughly where the film plane would be in front of my face when I hold the camera straight out in front of my face. Then when I want to take a close up photo I just put the base of my camera on the subject to get my distance, bring my camera’s viewfinder back to my eye (lens already prefocussed to MFD), adjust for parallax, and shoot. 😉

 

[vdonovan]

Many thanks for the comments friends. I didn't realize the Nikon S rangefinder had it's own mount - I'm glad I didn't impulsively buy one.

That lens modification looks amazing, but a little beyond my DIY pay grade.

I have another close-focussing camera where I'm using the camera-strap method, so I'll give it a try.

Thanks again!

Vince

 

[bluesun267]

There are a couple LTM cameras that natively focus closer than 3ft...the Canon 7 comes to mind (it allows coupled RF focusing to about 2.5ft). You would still need to file a bit of the mount of the Nikon lens to allow the roller to contact the lens cam.

The close focusing limit of 3ft or 1m on LTM cameras is usually due to the roller arm hitting the back of the lens mounting flange and/or front plate of the camera. If you're ambitious about customizing, you can remove the flange on a Leica IIIF and file a little depression where the roller arm sits, allowing it to move forward a few more millimeters when the flange is re-installed. This will give you close focusing down down to 2-2.2ft.

The other Canon Rangefinder cameras (such as IVSB and L1/VT) require both the flange and body plate to be filed to allow additional roller movement.

Accuracy on these cameras will be somewhat compromised if modified to focus below 3ft, due to the design of the RF system (that is, 'reading' the RF patch takes a bit more practice at these distances, not to mention the rather large parallax error). I imagine the designers of the cameras chose to limit close focusing for these reasons. I have modded my L1 and even my IIIG for close focusing the Nikkor, and though it's not a perfect solution, I'd much rather have it than not.

 

[wardcheese]

Nikon LTM lenses

Nikon LTM lenses

I recently got a Nicca/Tower model 45/46, and in the manual there is a section entitled Close Up Photography where they describe just this. Pg 15 in the manual. Mr Butkus has it online.

These cameras were originally sold with Nikon lenses, and I had been wondering if that close-up feature was a function of the camera or the lens. If it was a function of the lens, I wondered if all Nikon lenses of the time could do this, or if it was just a subset of the lenses.

Of course, if it was just a subset of the available Nikon lenses, I was hoping to learn how to identify lenses with this capacity.

And finally, Hello. I'm new here.

w

 

[filmtwit]

You can literally "hack" these lenses to keep focus/RF Coupling with your leica down to .7 meters (but only .9 on m3 and m2).

 

[Dez]

There is one way I have found to use the close focusing range efficiently, but it will take some hunting to find the necessary accessory. The fabulous Kodak Ektra featured a close focusing range for its 50mm lenses, and a special accessory rangefinder that provided two close focus ranges: one with the lens in its close range, plus a second where a +3 diopter lens was added!

DSC_0179 by John Desmond, on Flickr

The distance scale on the finder is the same as the close focusing scale on the Nikkors, so it works out well. These things can occasionally be found on ebay. They work very well, but usually need to be cleaned after all the years since it was made in the '40s to have a clear image. The image is excellent, and the automatic parallax correction works well.

Cheers,
Dez