FSU lens incompatibility?

A

alternatve

Well-known
Local time
6:05 PM
Joined
Jan 26, 2007
Messages
215
Location
Singapore
View My Gallery
Hello all,

I have managed to get my hands on a Leica IIIC, and I was thinking of using a Industar 50 and a Jupiter 3 on it, one for it's compactness and the other for it's low light capability. Trouble is, I have heard distrbing news that the flange distance of the other makes of LTM lenses and the FSU lenses are not the same! Can I still use my FSU lenses on my Leica? I have an option to buy VC lenses, as I know the local distributer of their products, but the cheapest lens costs more then both combined. Does reshimming cost a lot as well? Please advise...

Regards,
Samuel
 
alternatve said:
...I have heard distrbing news that the flange distance of the other makes of LTM lenses and the FSU lenses are not the same!
Click to expand...
I'm not exactly sure who the "other makes" are you're referring to. Except for some very early FSUs, Leica and FSU LTMs are 28.8mm lens mount to film plane. I use FSU lenses on two old Leica.IIIs.

If you get a camera or lens that's been taken apart and not put back together properly, you could have problems - it happens. And it doesn't really matter where or when it was built.
 
There can be issues with FSU lenses, whose registration isn't always the 28.80mm it's supposed to be. Saying that, I've not had any problems yet. Not enough that I've noticed anyway...
 
There is a still-unresolved question whether FSU lenses, although mounting correctly on Leica cameras, couple correctly with the Leica rangefinder. The issue is whether FSU lenses were designed to work with a rangefinder that assumes a slightly different focal length normal lens. No one is actually certain of this, and some FSU lenses either work well with a Leica or can be made to work. Brian Sweeney of RFF collimated two FSU 50mm lenses (a Jupiter 8 and a Jupiter 3) for my Leicas and they work well. The 85mm f:2 Jupiter-9 is supposed to be very troublesome, but Oleg Khalyanin made mine work fine on my Leicas. So assume there is a little--not very expensive--work to do, but they do operate well if adjusted right.
 
The lenses you mention should couple with the rangefinder without any problems. They might have issues with the focal registration being a little different; they might not -- there can be quite a bit of variation between samples, and most of them have "histories." If they do have a focus problem, you should buy a Fed2 or Fed3 to use with them.
 
I have more often used Leica lenses on FSU cameras, but the issues should be the same in either direction; I have never had any problems with focus accuracy.
 
rick oleson said:
I have more often used Leica lenses on FSU cameras, but the issues should be the same in either direction; I have never had any problems with focus accuracy.
Click to expand...


Hi Rick

Nice to see you here! 😀

Never had problems with FSU lenses too at least most of the time, despite what has been written about them. In those instances where there were indeed problems, the faults were due improperly repaired lenses or those (such as the early non-standardised ones) which were never meant to be used in a Leica to begin with.

Assuming that these lenses were received in the state they left the factory in, a Jupiter (3, 8, 9, 11, 12) or Industar (some collapsible 22, 50, 28, 62, and late 10) should work well in any Leica.

Jay
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom