converting Contax G to Leica Mount

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dpap

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I know there is a company in Japan who performs this conversion

http://www.hayatacamera.co.jp/services/miyazaki.html

The problem is that they do not take orders outside Japan, nor do they seem willing to communicate in non-Japanese.

I think that given the quality of the contax g lenses, there would be substantial demand for their service in the US. The price seems high ~ $450, but for people who already own these lenses it is a good deal.

Can somebody help me communicate with them? Alternatively, I wonder whether there would be some benefits to a vendor like CQ or Popflash in establishing a 'franchise' of their service in the US.

Let me know what you think.
 
The only conversion I've seen has been with the 16mm Hologon. The other lenses as far as I know cannot be converted. How will you be able to focus those lenses? They are internally auto /manually focused by the Contax body. The Hologon is the only manually focused Contax G lens.

I bought into this system with the porspect that they were going to produce a digital Contax G body. At least that was the talk many years ago. Their N digital SLR body I had hoped was a harbinger of things to come.
 
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I've seen the 28 and 45 converted (at least in photos), I think by that same company you reference. It's been discussed a bit over on photo.net, you might try searching over there for more info. And I thought I remember soneone else doing it too but cannot remember details. A search of various Leica groups and forums should bring up a few discussions on conversion of G lenses to Leica M-mount. Not discussed a lot but I seem to remember it discussed heatedly (imagine that).

Yes, if you want to use on the M8 I see your need. Sorry.
 
From pnet;

"Akira Yamanashi, Jan 02, 2004; 11:35 a.m.
Dear Andrew Now I live in Japan. And I have recently gotten the Biogon 21mm f2.8 for contax G which is adapted to fit the Leica M mount. The vendor(=maker) of this excellent lens is a Japanese. The name is MS Optical R&D. This firm is managed by only one man whose name is Sadayasu Miyazaki. He can remodel many contax g lenses, Biogon 21mm, Biogon 28mm, Planar 35mm(from Feb. 2004) and Planar 45mm. Of course these remodeling is fitted the Leica L(or M) mount. (Exactly all remodeling is fitted L screw mount. But,as you know, we can use this mount as M type by means of a adapter.) The finish of his work is very nice. He makes originally fitted helicoids and connectotors for each lens. So the shape of lenses are considerably changed. The price is about \48000�`\55000(nearly $460�`$520). But I don't know whether he accepts the order from foreign countries and speaks(reads) English or not. He doesn't have Home-page. I introduce his address. (postal code)273-0005 4-25-22,Hon-cho,Funabashi-shi,Chiba-ken,JAPAN. Tel(fax)88-47-424-1653 If you want to contact him,the best way is using Japanese. Please excuse my poor Englsh. Bye. Akira Yamanashi"
 
As others have posted, the conversion offered by M&S via Hayata has been cited & discussed here & on photo.net. Here in the U.S., an optical shop like S.K. Grimes (http://www.skgrimes.com/) could also do it, but I doubt there would be any cost savings (on the other hand, it might not cost any more) & since it's not something they specialize in, you might have to provide a donor Leica lens for parts.

As far as your idea of franchising, I don't know about that, but it would be great if there was some outfit or individual in the business of acting as a go-between for Japanese optical/camera shops & non-Japanese buyers (they have so much cool stuff over there!). Maybe somebody already does, but I don't know of anyone. Perhaps 1 of our members like jonmanjiro or NIKON KIU would know.

dpap said:
I know there is a company in Japan who performs this conversion

http://www.hayatacamera.co.jp/services/miyazaki.html

The problem is that they do not take orders outside Japan, nor do they seem willing to communicate in non-Japanese.

I think that given the quality of the contax g lenses, there would be substantial demand for their service in the US. The price seems high ~ $450, but for people who already own these lenses it is a good deal.

Can somebody help me communicate with them? Alternatively, I wonder whether there would be some benefits to a vendor like CQ or Popflash in establishing a 'franchise' of their service in the US.

Let me know what you think.
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Add me to the list of people in the U.S. interested in having the opportunity to get a G to M lens conversion. Anyone who has used G glass can tell you that it's really special... and holds it's own next to leica M lenses and the new ZM line up. I have the G 45 planar and the G 90mm sonnar and the color is unbelievably good. Sharpness is ridiculously sharp and contrast is rich, especially wide open, but to my eye, appears less clinical than the modern ZM lenses. Since the 45 planar and the 90 sonnar can be purchased in optically perfect condition for about $140 dollars.... $140 + a $450 conversion comes out to around $600-700... which is about equal to the price you'd pay for a used Leica or new ZM lens of equal quality.

It seems a lot of times one of these threads get started most people say "don't bother." I'm guessing that people who say it's not worth the price of conversion most likely haven't used the G lens line up. I'd pay to get at least one of these lenses converted in a heartbeat. Alas, I know no one in Japan.

As far as modification is concerned, in a day and age when cameras become obsolete in 3 months, I think it's great that a company has the means and motive to provide any retro-lens conversion service. There are dozens upon dozens of older lenses that draw beautifully regardless of their micro-contrast, max resolution ratings etc. I'm sure the high cost of such conversion is due in no small part to the difficulty in creating such modifications on an in-house level. More power to them. I would love nothing more than to one day be able to use that Color Yashinon Dx lens on an M body... but since no such conversion exists... I keep my GSN. 🙂 Let me know if you can get in touch with Hayata, or know someone who can.
 
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But the 45mm focal length is nice, gives a little more air to your photographs. The cost of buying and retrofitting would be about $700 which is about the same as the 50mm planar.
 
JeffM said:
It seems a lot of times one of these threads get started most people say "don't bother." I'm guessing that people who say it's not worth the price of conversion most likely haven't used the G lens line up. I'd pay to get at least one of these lenses converted in a heartbeat. Alas, I know no one in Japan.
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NEW Zeiss lenses designed for the M mount are available with a factory warranty. Why on earth would you take a USED G lens, send it to Japan for conversion (and to someone not interested in communicating or doing business outside of Japan) and end up paying the same money that you can get a new lens designed for the M system? I would suggest anyone still pursuing this line of thinking is overly attached to a discontinued system and is in fact not really thinking at all.
 
nasmformyzombie said:
NEW Zeiss lenses designed for the M mount are available with a factory warranty. Why on earth would you take a USED G lens, send it to Japan for conversion (and to someone not interested in communicating or doing business outside of Japan) and end up paying the same money that you can get a new lens designed for the M system? I would suggest anyone still pursuing this line of thinking is overly attached to a discontinued system and is in fact not really thinking at all.
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You know, I looked into this at one time, and I recieved responses. Not sure if it is the same firm, as they had a home page...

As to why? Well, the focusing mechanism for the Leica Ms is a bit more workable that the G in some situations. In addition, the 21mm and 28mm couild seee a significant savings. THen again... you may just have a couple spare lenses. Heck, grabbing a backup G2 with a 45/2 and sending in the 45/2 for conversion does appeal to me. Haven't used a better lens.
 
nasmformyzombie said:
NEW Zeiss lenses designed for the M mount are available with a factory warranty. Why on earth would you take a USED G lens, send it to Japan for conversion (and to someone not interested in communicating or doing business outside of Japan) and end up paying the same money that you can get a new lens designed for the M system? I would suggest anyone still pursuing this line of thinking is overly attached to a discontinued system and is in fact not really thinking at all.
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... especially when the 50 ZM and 45 G Planars are virtual twins -- just look at the block diagrams. 😎

Even if you have an LTM-converted 45 Planar, you'd have to use the 50mm framelines anyway. I don't think you can easily obtain a 45mm finder even if such a thing exists.
 
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You will also have to send him your camera because he adjusts each converted lens individually for optimum performance.
 
JeffM said:
It seems a lot of times one of these threads get started most people say "don't bother." I'm guessing that people who say it's not worth the price of conversion most likely haven't used the G lens line up. I'd pay to get at least one of these lenses converted in a heartbeat. Alas, I know no one in Japan. ...

I would love nothing more than to one day be able to use that Color Yashinon Dx lens on an M body... but since no such conversion exists... I keep my GSN. 🙂
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People who want to convert their G lenses most likely haven't used the C/Y or ZM lineup from Zeiss -- and I'm not guessing. 😛

BTW, Mr Miyazaki does convert the 35/1.8 lens from the Electro 35 CC: http://www.hayatacamera.co.jp/services/miyazaki.html#09
 
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My 16mm Hologon on my G1 has a bad habit of doing iris images when the sun is in or on the edge of the picture if you use the centre filter.

I was going to have it adopted for the M2 but it is cheaper to buy a CV16mm.

Noel
 
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Xmas said:
My 16mm Hologon on my G1 has a bad habit of doing iris images when the sun is in or on the edge of the picture if you use the centre filter.

I was going to have it adopted for the M2 but it is cheaper to buy a CV16mm.
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The correct term is "ghosting." 😛

The CV 15mm is optically better in every respect. It's also faster and lets you use different apertures.
 
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