D3 plus Summitar, 50 Nokton - adapter madness!!!

[Benjamin Marks]

Well, springtime does funny things to a man's brain. It is probably common knowledge on the forum that you can adapt almost any lens to almost any camera, if you are willing to live with the limitations these Franken-kameras produce. In this case I took a Nikon-F to Pentax thread mount adapter and fitted it with a step down ring to put a Leica thread mount lens on a Nikon D3. This produces essentially a macro effect, because you have moved the lens further away from the sensor/film plane than it was designed to be. On a whim I decided to capture some Vermont forsythia and daffodils with a 50 Summitar, a 50 Nokton and a Pentax 105/2.8 screw mount lens. The Pentax has closer to an ordinary look, because all this adapter madness causes you to lose infinity focus, but not to the extent that you do with the RF lenses. Oh, and just for kicks I slapped a ND filter on a Noctilux an made an exposure wide open on an M8. Ain't spring grand?

Ben Marks

P.S. in keeping with the spirit of this thread, the image of the D3 was made with an M8 with an Amadeo Nikon adapter and one of Mr. Kobiashi's 50/3.5 Heliars in Nikon S-mount. 'Zounds.

So, with out further ado: the Franken camera, and a series of very yellow pictures.

The Summitar @ f:2:

Summitar @ f:2

The Nokton @ 1.5

Nokton @ 1.5

The Pentax 105/2.8

Pentax 105/2.8

And Just For Yoks, the Noctilux wide open with a ND filter on the M8:

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

My favourite: de 2nd photo made with the nokton

 

[Nikkor AIS]

Benjamin, very interesting combination. I must say, and it's hard for me to write this because I own two D3s and several Leica lenses, that while the results are impressive, the combo of the Leica glass and the D3 is not a pretty sight, verging on hideous 😛. Still, the results are very nice. Damn shame about losing infinity. Is there any way to get the Leica glass closer to the sensor? Perhaps a machined piece? I would love to use my Noctilux on my D3 without losing infinity.




Taken with Nikkor 300 2.0 IF ED AIS on D3

I posted a regular D3 to clean the visual Nikon palate 😀.

Gregory

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Benjamin, Very interesting combination. I must say, and it's hard for me to write this, because I own two D3 and several Leica lenses that while the results are impressive, the combo of the Lecia glass and the D3 is not a pretty sight, verging on hideous😛. Still the results are very nice. Damn shame about losing infinity. Is there any way to get the lecia glass closer to the sensor. Perhaps a machined piece? I would love to use my Noctilux on my D3 without losing infinity.

Taken with Nikkor 300 2.0 IF ED AIS on D3

I posted a regular D3 to clean the visual Nikon pallet.😀

Gregory

Rangefinder camera's have a shorter lens-flange to film/sensor distance (that's why Leica can make such nice tiny lenses), so not possible.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

I suppose if you were able to lock up the mirror you could seat the lens further in the body cavity and use the camera in LiveView. But the risk of the mirror coming down on this set up seems pretty great to me. When micro-4/3 matures a bit, I have hopes for that combo . . .

 

[Nikkor AIS]

Thanks Ron. I was thinking of an adaptor that would be recessed behind the mount. So, not satisfied with "impossible", I held my Noctilux on my D3 on Live View and you're right. Even though the Noctilux resided inside the D3 body, still no infinity. Great macro though 😛.

Gregory

 

[fotomeow]

nice work!! my faves are the Summitar #1, the Nokton #2, and the Pentax #1, with the solo nocitlux being gorgeous as well. I am especially impressed with the Summitar shots, since I currently have a penchant for my 1940 uncoated version. The lens is 70 years old!!

 

[Benjamin Marks]

There are a lot of possibilities with this set up, but mostly I find it interesting for what this sort of close-up photography can produce with older lenses. C/V has a wonderful assortment of LTM mount lenses . . . not sure what I would do with the 15 or the 21/4 in this setting.

Ben

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Ben,
I LOVE the first one. That flower looks almost liquid! Thanks for experimenting for us. What adapter do you use with the Summitar?
Jamie

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Ben,
I LOVE the first one. That flower looks almost liquid! Thanks for experimenting for us. What adapter do you use with the Summitar?
Jamie

Thanks, Jamie. It was a Nikon-F to Pentax thread mount adapter with a step down ring to make it work with a 39mm LTM lens. These adapters can be had off of ebay for very little money, but the ads tend to leave out the lack of infinity focus. Doesn't mean that they are useless, you just have to know what you want them to do. In this case, not bad for a 70 year old lens.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I almost never work at infinity anyway. So... I've got a D200, I've got a Summitar... now the adapter hunt. 🙂

 

[JonasYip]

I did something like this a long time ago, slapping a Noctilux on my D1x with an adapter made from a Nikon body cap glued to a Leica rear cap. I got a lot of extension with this crude method, so basically I was stuck with really really close shots:

j

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Awesome picture Jonas. Quite abstract!

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

(...) C/V has a wonderful assortment of LTM mount lenses . . . not sure what I would do with the 15 or the 21/4 in this setting.

Dear Ben,

in this case, I've chosen the other way round: I bought the Nikon-F-version of the Voigtländer 15mm and my "standard" 21mm is a Minolta SR-Rokkor. With proper adapters, I use them with M or even LTM cameras:

- 'Ƽ@

Ça, alors !

But, you are right, on every SLR without mirror lock-up device I need then an adapter again; e.g., for my Leicaflex SL the Ernst Leitz "14127" Visoflex Lens to R adapter -- again, the result is a macro of course.

 

[pvdhaar]

You could basically restore infinity focus again by attaching a negative diopter lens, such as a Zeiss-Distar..