Leica M4-P, cheap L39 adapter does not lock, incorrect focus.

[MihaiMalaimareJr]

Hi David,

thanks. This is a great forum, glad I found it.

The adapters have the same peg as an M body but I think the fotodiox pegs are slightly narrower. That's why the m39 to m fotodiox will lock into the m to nex fotodiox but not into the Voigtlander M body or voightlander adapter.
I found a Voigtlander m39 to m adapter but not the 50mm/75mm so hopefully it will work on my R3M but won't display the right frame lines on a Leica body.

Mihai

 

[xayraa33]

Why waste your money on cheaply made adapters?

A quality camera like a Leica M4-P at least deserves a quality adapter.

 

[MihaiMalaimareJr]

Hi,

Welcome aboard.

I'm not sure what you mean by lock on to the adapter. They will lock on to a Leica M body because there is a little peg that fits into the lens or adapter but how one could be put on to an adapter escapes me. So I'll wish you luck finding what you need. Perhaps others can help.

Regards, David

I'm actually using 2 adapters to put the Summitar onto the Sony a7m2 - the Voigtlander M to NEX and the fotodiox M39 to M. I know it's not ideal but I love the close focus of the Voigtlader adapter and I want to keep the M39 to M adapter on the Summitar all the time so I can quickly mount it to my R3M. I could've got the M39 to NEX adapter but that doesn't have close focus and I would've need another adapter for my R3M. Amazingly I can focus to infinity with the 2 adapters on the Sony a7m2. 🙂

 

[Dante_Stella]

The adapter has to be exactly 1mm thick, and it is surprising how poor the tolerances and machining are on these cheaper adapters. I use only Leica or Voigtlander adapters. Anything else is a risk.

Leica adapters are pretty and expensive, but I'm not convinced that they are better. The problem is that their variances in thickness are at least as big as what you see even in the cheapest no-names (btw, some of those brands seem to be within 0.004mm from example to example, which is much smaller than the 0.015mm spread I observed on Leitz adapters).

And the effect of thickness is not an absolute. Thickness makes no practical difference with a 50mm lens (since the lens unit and RF cam move 1:1). Its effect on wide-angle lenses is the sum of tolerances of the RF cam, optical focus, camera register, and rangefinder alignment.

Not locking on a camera is one thing, but aside from that, I would not surmise anything from the OP's post. Soviet lenses' RF cams don't assume the same reference focal length, you have all the usual tolerancing problems, and the OP is shooting on film, which itself introduces errors.

Dante

 

[jazzwave]

I got same experience with the cheapo adapter, stuck.

Voigtländer adapter is solution, problem free.